I just want to thank Anna Robert for such good information-you are stars******
I think you have just been proved right today!!!
Yes Anna, under CMU there was indeed only one set of cotisations to pay. Interestingly, further on in the document you quoted it goes on to say that where a coupleās income cannot easily be allocated between them, then the assumption will be made that they received it on the basis of half the total each. Therefore we have a situation where if the couple have relevant income subject to cotisations of say ā¬19,000 and it is split between them 50/50 (ā¬9,500 each), then each person has the allowance of ā¬9,654 to offset against their part, and so nothing is payable at all.
If however all of that income belongs to just one of the couple, then there would only be one allowance to offset against it, so the annual bill payable would be 8% of the product of 19,000 minus 9,654 which works out to ā¬747.68.
I didnāt notice any provision about unused allowances being transferable between the individual members of a couple, so I suspect that these new rules will be keeping some accountants busy transferring ownership of certain assets between spouses or pacseed people.
On the Income Tax front it took absolutely ages to get them to accept our tax return. Although it was initially submitted before the deadline, the tax office refused to accept it, and kept demanding that certain elements should be entered into boxes that were plainly not correct. After several exchanges of e-mails (each exchange takes 3 or 4 weeks of course), they eventually accepted that they were mistaken as to certain things, but by then we were well into October ! So all in all Iām not really expecting to receive the Avis dāImposition until the middle of this month, even though I know darn well that they have calculated it as I can see the RFR figure on the end of year statement for the Taxe dāHabitation. Itās the price one pays for being right in a discussion with a French tax official. Ces sont les choses qui arrive ! 
I take your point about Macronās desire to reduce taxation, but on the other hand someone does need to pay for public services. The health service here has probably spent at least ā¬100,000 on me in the past year, and I donāt have an S1 to allow them to recover the money from the UK, so as I could pay a bit towards it I really do feel as though I should.
Also, I rather like having the streets cleaned, lit at night, and well maintained (as well as all the other services that local government provides here), and although itās nice to be progressively relieved of having to pay Taxe dāHabitation, perhaps those of us who can actually afford to pay a bit towards it should indeed do so.
Dear Roger,
Itās been very good to read the discussion between you and Anna.
I just wondered why you do not have a S1 at the moment ?
I would guess Mr Hodge is still too young and beautiful, is that the case?
For retirees to qualify for an S1, they need to already be in receipt of an old age pension.
Iām not quite wrinkly enough for an S1 as yet as Iām only 64yrs young.
Robert.
Ah yes-he must be young !!!
OK- I do hope you are a lot better after the treatments you had in the last year.
Thank you and Anne SO much.
Jacqueline
Got this from french-property.comāss newsletter
Who is Liable?
Those who are liable for the Cotisation subsidiaire Maladie (CSM) are those who fulfill both of the two following conditions:
ā¢ That you have no professional activity (business or salaried), or that you have have a professional activity, but your income from this activity is no greater than ā¬3,862pa (2016).
AND
ā¢ That you are not in receipt of any kind of pension or unemployment benefit.
In relation to pension income, the circular makes no distinction between State retired pensions and early retirement pensions/annuities. It merely reiterates the clause set out in Article L380-2 of the Code de la sƩcuritƩ sociale, which states individuals are only liable if:
Elles nāont perƧu ni pension de retraite, ni rente, ni aucun montant dāallocation de chĆ“mage au cours de lāannĆ©e considĆ©rĆ©e. Il en est de mĆŖme, lorsquāelles sont mariĆ©es ou liĆ©es Ć un partenaire par un pacte civil de solidaritĆ©, pour lāautre membre du couple.
This clause would seem to imply that a couple would be exempt if only one of them was in receipt of a pension.
Thank you for this extra piece of information.
Hello,
Is James or Stella or someone from admin there? I accidently blocked my
account when trying to solve a huge browser issue (unresolved 'tho Iām
getting some mail).
Can I be logged back in again?
Many thanks,
Anna
*Anna *
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Just to resurrect this very informative threadā¦
I doubt that it is fake news but heard on the radio this morning that UK hospitals have made a fortune out of charging hospital patients and their relatives up to Ā£4/hour for car parking!
I think thatās an outrageous way to exploit ill people and their concerned relatives.
Having just spent a considerable amount of time in a French hospital recently, I doubt I would have had a good outcome if it was not for the support of my wife who visited me every day - sometimes for over 8 hours in a day and I dread to think of the cost would have been if. There is no direct public transport link from where we live to the hospital, so we would have had to face considerable costs if this were rip-off Britain.
Am I thinking of going back to the UK? Hell no!!
Jāaime la France! and now just detest everything that the UK stands for. I think under Mrs Mayās vision of the UK, Britannia wonāt be ruling the waves but fast sinking under them (just like the Queen Elizabeth aircraft carrier lol).
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Itās not fake news. Around this time last year I visited a dying relative in hospital in the UK and had to find an extraordinary large amount of cash for the car park. I didnāt begrudge paying as such, after all hospitals arenāt exactly lavished with NHS funding and Joe Public doesnāt generally pay anything else out of his pocket for healthcare, but what I did begrudge was having to spend time figuring out how to pay upfront, when I was panicking too much to think straight and read instructions properly and what I desperately wanted was to be in there as fast as possible. If you could take a ticket and pay when you go out like you do at car parks sometimes, that would be so much kinder to anxious hospital visitors, but as usual they seem not to have taken peopleās feelings into account.
EDIT On second thoughts, if Iād had to pay that amount on a regular basis I certainly would have begrudged it. As it happened I knew I was unlikely to visit that person againā¦
Iāve just checked the hospital local to where we were in UKā¦ It used to be freeā¦ then when the hospital expanded they started charging, which gave all sorts of problems/distress.
But I see from their website that they have put in pay-on-exitā¦ which is much betterā¦ and also, they have introduced a āseason ticketā type of thing for visiting someone more than a few times. Better than it was but still expensive at an emotional/difficult timeā¦ and they urge people to think seriously of using alternative methods of getting to the hospitalā¦ 
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Equally bad Anna is the fact that hospital staff also have to pay these
parking fees given that they have not had a significant pay rise since
the Conservatives introduced their public sector pay cap which has not
kept up with inflation, meaning that they effectively have suffered a
decrease in disposable income in spite of the uplift to tax free pay
allowances.
I remember many years ago at Southend Hospital, before ill people became
regarded as a cash cow, people with a genuine need for parking (such as
staff, patients and visiting relatives) could obtain a certificate from
hospital admin (or the ward sister) to exonerate them from fees leaving
others (such as, in the case of Southend being near to a rail station)
parking their cars in the hospital grounds for unrelated reasons to pay
a justifiable fee.
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Iāve been in France a while and am still waiting for my carte vitale. As I understand it from staff in the cpam, I would have had my card ages ago if not for being in the eu. So many checks to go through as an eu citizen. Anyone who lives in France can have a carte vitale
Well, they can if theyāre entitled to one. But there are conditions attached so as with any benefit, the authorities have to carry out checks to be sure they only issue them to people who are entitled. Thereās always paperwork to be provided and boxes to be ticked. France and its taxpayers simply canāt afford to promise healthcare to everyone who fancies coming to live here. No country can.
Not quite sure why being an EU citizen would make the process take longer - all I can think of is that if you were a non EU citizen you would need a carte de sĆ©jour, and youād show this to CPAM and they wouldnāt need to do any further checks. But the same checks (and more) would have been done by the prĆ©fecture when you applied for your carte de sĆ©jour, so if there were any issues youād simply have been held up at the cds stage, before you even got to the CPAM stage.
In fact you could probably still try that route if you think it might speed things up. Have you applied for a carte de sƩjour?
All the hospitals in Kent charge for parking.
We lived in France worked near to Albi as Estate Agents.
After one Completion Sale, the clients called us late that night-the wife had started to miscarry.
We called out the emergency services, and drove to the house[ very remote] in time to meet the distraught husband, and see the wife loaded into an Ambulance. We followed the vehicle to Albi Hospital, and stayed with them all night. It was evident that the babyās life was very much in danger, but the Doctors were amazing, and she was there for 3 weeks. The Doctor called his friend in the Traffic Section of the Gendarmes, and arranged that the clients car could park anywhere near to the hospital night or day for free. Really such a human touch to a dreadful situation.
I love France!!!
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Our old Hospital has exemptions for cancer/oncology patients and relatives but for everyone else its Ā£4.50 for 2-3 hrs and Ā£8.80 for 5-6 hrs. Extortion.
BBC news has just posted that NHS took Ā£174m last year and Ā£950.000 in fines.
Mum once spent 8 weeks at the hospital Jean Rebeyrol for rĆ©adaptation, in the grounds of the CHU at Limoges. I had a pass to stay at the hopitel ( a reduced price hotel for relatives ) and was with her 18 hours a day at the doctorās request. I was given a pass for free private parking (this let me leave my car in a secure area 24 hours a day) I was even given some meals there because I was helping the staff. I recently had to visit there as an outpatient and with my appointment letter was again allowed into private parking. There is a public car park but it gets full very quickly so spaces are very sought after but are still free. 
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