I travelled via Belgium last week and decided to stay overnight at Dinant, where I have stayed previously and found to be marginally less bad than most towns in Belgium.To anyone contemplating a similar stop - don't.The whole of the town is being
At La Dolce Vita exhibition at Olympia this year I bought a jar of garlic cloves preserved in a pizzaiola type oil and vinegar mixture.It is just amazing for snacking, the whole cloves are really crunchy with a fairly mild flavour of the garlic an
I need to buy a tyre for my car. I googled all the usual words but came up with nothing. Back in UK I would simply go to Kwikfit, or ATS etc and it would be done on the spot.
Does anybody have a contact for a sun blind maker?Think of a conventional, rather old-fashioned roller blind with the roller fixed at the top of the window and the blind hanging vertically down.
I will try to answer donna de amusa's questions anyway. How do we apply for residency - go to the comune that you wish to reside in and ask them what they need you to do. They should be very helpful, mine were. Do we pay income tax on our pension - tricky one this. If you spend 91 days in UK you fail the 91 day rule which means that you remain tax-resident in UK. If you are unable to stay under the radar in Italy, they may want to tax you, but you would get credit for any tax paid in UK. It's a major grey area - handle with care anyone who claims to give definitive advice on this one. UK reg lhd car - yup, got one. PM me for details. 4% iva instead of 10% on purchase - yup, done it. PM me for details. Change to residents rate for utilities - just write to them and fill in the form they send you. Easy. Any more questions? Terry
The notaio is your solicitor. Even if he is the same one as is acting for the vendor, your notaio is working for YOU and is bound to represent your interests fully in the same way as any other solicitor would, according to the law. You would only need another solicitor if, like some, you believed: 1) No Italian professional could possibly be as good as a British one 2) You lacked confidence in your ability to understand what is going on in a foreign language (you are required to have an interpreter anyway). This reason is flawed because to a layman they all talk bo**ocks anyway, whatever language they are using at the time. You may guess that, like Alan, I didn't see the need for an additional solicitor and had no reason for any regrets. Quite the reverse in fact, as I had a minor situation where the notaio used his skill to save me an amount equal to his fee. Top man . Welcome to the forum Terry
I used to use that route and once stayed at the Hermes Motel at Fixin (www.hermes-hotel.fr/) on the wine route a couple of kilometres south of Dijon. It was fine, simple, but a reasonable price and is a proper hotel, rather than these soulless, virtually unstaffed places that abound. It has a popular restaurant with steaks from the wood-fired grill if you like that sort of thing, and Fixin wine is wonderful, though priced to suit, as is all good Burgundy. You will of course find all the motel chains at the motorway junction at Dijon so you can take your pick from Etap, Formule 1, Campanile etc etc. I don't go that way any longer as I prefer to go through Switzerland. You speak of the often mentioned "hours of hassle at swiss borders" - I go directly through Basel at least 6 times a year in each direction and have never, ever, seen any hassle at all. Avoid Switzerland if you are in a 32 tonner by all means, but otherwise its a great route. Terry
I imported a new lhd Panda from Belgium to UK last year, though the car is primarily for use outside of UK. There was no issue with the lights etc involved with the importation. The car did not enter UK at the time, though it subsequently has done. I think the only issue is with MoT when maybe the lights could be an issue, but my main UK car is tested with stickers on the lights to change to European use and the testers don't seem to mind that they point the wrong way!
"Does anyone know of an economical way or company that can provide this for us in Italian and what we should expect to pay". We used a company called ASSIFIN. It cost €903 for the year for two mature persons . No doubt I could have found something cheaper but it was so much less than our UK cover that I couldn't be bothered looking. Terry
Agreed Bob - I already cancelled mine as soon as I found out the SP. In fact my insurance agent wrote the cancellation letter for me and gave it to himself.
sprostoni said "We have also been hit with 'failing to cancel' a contract on House Insurance within two months of expiry of contract, meaning by default we have to retain the contract for another year !! Sounds like a scam, watch the small print is the order of the day here in Italy". I think this is typical as I had the same happen to me. It's not a scam, just a different way of doing things. I was waiting for a renewal notice quoting the new premium for the year, at which point I intended to cancel and go with a cheaper (UK based) provider. It turned out that they had sent me a reminder just over 2 months before the due date - which I of course ignored because it didn't quote any new premium - so that when the due date arrived it was too late to cancel. But it turned out that, once you have signed up, that's it for as long as you need the contract. The premium stays the same as at outset, unlike UK where it increases every year.
As far as UK taxpayers are concerned, domicile is only concerned with Inheritance Tax. It has nothing to do with income tax, which is governed by residence and ordinary residence. The guy in the Seychelles is most definitely of UK domicile. The issue is whether or not he is resident and ordinarily resident so they can tax his worldwide income and gains.
Comments posted
I will try to answer donna de amusa's questions anyway. How do we apply for residency - go to the comune that you wish to reside in and ask them what they need you to do. They should be very helpful, mine were. Do we pay income tax on our pension - tricky one this. If you spend 91 days in UK you fail the 91 day rule which means that you remain tax-resident in UK. If you are unable to stay under the radar in Italy, they may want to tax you, but you would get credit for any tax paid in UK. It's a major grey area - handle with care anyone who claims to give definitive advice on this one. UK reg lhd car - yup, got one. PM me for details. 4% iva instead of 10% on purchase - yup, done it. PM me for details. Change to residents rate for utilities - just write to them and fill in the form they send you. Easy. Any more questions?
Terry
Maybe sterling isn't rallying at all, just weakening at a slower rate than the euro at the moment. Or am I being cynical
The notaio is your solicitor. Even if he is the same one as is acting for the vendor, your notaio is working for YOU and is bound to represent your interests fully in the same way as any other solicitor would, according to the law. You would only need another solicitor if, like some, you believed: 1) No Italian professional could possibly be as good as a British one
2) You lacked confidence in your ability to understand what is going on in a foreign language (you are required to have an interpreter anyway). This reason is flawed because to a layman they all talk bo**ocks anyway, whatever language they are using at the time. You may guess that, like Alan, I didn't see the need for an additional solicitor and had no reason for any regrets. Quite the reverse in fact, as I had a minor situation where the notaio used his skill to save me an amount equal to his fee. Top man 
. Welcome to the forum Terry
I used to use that route and once stayed at the Hermes Motel at Fixin (www.hermes-hotel.fr/) on the wine route a couple of kilometres south of Dijon. It was fine, simple, but a reasonable price and is a proper hotel, rather than these soulless, virtually unstaffed places that abound. It has a popular restaurant with steaks from the wood-fired grill if you like that sort of thing, and Fixin wine is wonderful, though priced to suit, as is all good Burgundy. You will of course find all the motel chains at the motorway junction at Dijon so you can take your pick from Etap, Formule 1, Campanile etc etc. I don't go that way any longer as I prefer to go through Switzerland. You speak of the often mentioned "hours of hassle at swiss borders" - I go directly through Basel at least 6 times a year in each direction and have never, ever, seen any hassle at all. Avoid Switzerland if you are in a 32 tonner by all means, but otherwise its a great route. Terry
I imported a new lhd Panda from Belgium to UK last year, though the car is primarily for use outside of UK. There was no issue with the lights etc involved with the importation. The car did not enter UK at the time, though it subsequently has done. I think the only issue is with MoT when maybe the lights could be an issue, but my main UK car is tested with stickers on the lights to change to European use and the testers don't seem to mind that they point the wrong way!
They must think we're bonkers.
"Does anyone know of an economical way or company that can provide this for us in Italian and what we should expect to pay". We used a company called ASSIFIN. It cost €903 for the year for two mature persons
. No doubt I could have found something cheaper but it was so much less than our UK cover that I couldn't be bothered looking. Terry
Agreed Bob - I already cancelled mine as soon as I found out the SP. In fact my insurance agent wrote the cancellation letter for me and gave it to himself.
sprostoni said "We have also been hit with 'failing to cancel' a contract on House Insurance within two months of expiry of contract, meaning by default we have to retain the contract for another year !! Sounds like a scam, watch the small print is the order of the day here in Italy". I think this is typical as I had the same happen to me. It's not a scam, just a different way of doing things. I was waiting for a renewal notice quoting the new premium for the year, at which point I intended to cancel and go with a cheaper (UK based) provider. It turned out that they had sent me a reminder just over 2 months before the due date - which I of course ignored because it didn't quote any new premium
- so that when the due date arrived it was too late to cancel. But it turned out that, once you have signed up, that's it for as long as you need the contract. The premium stays the same as at outset, unlike UK where it increases every year.
As far as UK taxpayers are concerned, domicile is only concerned with Inheritance Tax. It has nothing to do with income tax, which is governed by residence and ordinary residence. The guy in the Seychelles is most definitely of UK domicile. The issue is whether or not he is resident and ordinarily resident so they can tax his worldwide income and gains.