There’s something happening here
But what it is ain’t exactly clear
There’s a man with a gun over there
Telling me I got to beware
I think it’s time we stop
Children, what’s that sound? 
Everybody look, what’s going down?
There’s battle lines being drawn
Nobody’s right if everybody’s wrong
Young people speaking their minds
Getting so much resistance from behind
It’s time we stop
Hey, what’s that sound? 
Everybody look, what’s going down? 
What a field day for the heat (Ooh ooh ooh) 
A thousand people in the street (Ooh ooh ooh) 
Singing songs and they carrying signs (Ooh ooh ooh) 
Mostly say, “Hooray for our side” (Ooh ooh ooh) 
It’s time we stop
Hey, what’s that sound? 
Everybody look, what’s going down? 
Paranoia strikes deep
Into your life it will creep
It starts when you’re always afraid
Step out of line, the men come and take you away
We better stop
Hey, what’s that sound? 
Everybody look, what’s going down? 
You better stop
Hey, what’s that sound? 
Everybody look, what’s going down? 
You better stop
Now, what’s that sound? 
Everybody look, what’s going down? 
You better stop
Children, what’s that sound? 
Everybody look, what’s going down? 

Wikipedia
“For What It’s Worth (Stop, Hey What’s That Sound)” (often referred to as simply “For What It’s Worth”) is a song written by Stephen Stills. Performed by Buffalo Springfield, it was recorded on December 5th, 1966.

I believe that I heard this song for the first time played by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, and discovered Buffalo Springfield much later.

Clearly, I really liked the reference to the noise heard. It is obvious to me that there are a lot of things in common between the Civil Rights era and what is happening today in the USA when it comes to demonstrating, political gatherings, divisiveness and so on.

More generally, immigrants frequently experience frustration and discouragement for all kinds of reasons. Lack of security, including just the feeling that bad things could happen, is widespread. To be able to help them, I usually need to debunk their fears about a lot of things, such as being deported.

For what it is worth! At one point, one has to say that it was worth it. It meant going after dreams, personal goals. In the eyes of many it might not look like much. For them, it was not worth the effort. “For what it is worth, it was worth it for me.” This is what I like to hear. Immigrants often never regain the social status or comforts that they had in their home country, but many tell me nevertheless that it was worth it. Let’s leave it at that.

DEMONSTRATING WITH COOKWARE AGAINST PRESIDENT MACRON

Wikipedia
A cacerolazo, cacerolada or casserole is a form of popular protest which consists of a group of people making noise by banging pots, pans, and other utensils to call for attention.

The first documented protests of this style occurred in France in the 1830s, at the beginning of the July Monarchy, by opponents of the regime of Louis Philippe I of France. According to the historian Emmanuel Fureix, the protesters took from the tradition of the charivari the use of noise to express disapproval and beat saucepans to make noise against government politicians. This way of showing discontent became popular in 1832, taking place mainly at night and sometimes with the participation of thousands of people.

…One of the largest and most recent cacerolazos occurred in Argentina during 2001, consisting largely of protests and demonstrations by middle-class people who had seen their savings trapped in the so-called corralito (a set of restrictive economic measures that effectively froze all bank accounts, initially as a short-term fix for the massive draining of bank deposits).

Since President Emmanuel Macron’s speech on Monday, April 17th, official outings by government members have been greeted by “casserole concerts.” These demonstrations have been peaceful, with the police keeping demonstrators far away from the visit sites. But the protesters make so much noise that it affects the visit anyway. It is also audible when news outlets cover the events, drawing even more attention to such protests. President Macron’s reactions indicate that this is an effective way to protest, as it diminishes his efforts to get close to people and seem attentive to them by making such visits. It will be interesting how the French government handles this form of demonstration.

Earlier, during more traditional demonstrations on the streets of Paris and other major cities, the police arrested people possessing anything that could be used as a weapon, including scissors, rulers and so on. So far, pots and pans have not been considered potential weapons, thus limiting the actions of the police, as these are considered peaceful demonstrations.

The casserolades are an old tradition in French political life and a type of protest used almost exclusively in Latin countries.

THE PARIS APPEALS COURT UPHOLDS FORMER PRESIDENT SARKOZY’S JAIL SENTENCE
On Wednesday, May 17th, the Paris Court of Appeals upheld the sentence of former president Nicolas Sarkozy in the so-called Bismuth case, involving corruption and influence peddling. The new ruling was more severe than that sought by the prosecutor, who had asked for only a suspended sentence. The former president’s sentence is now three years, of which two are suspended and one will be spent under house arrest with an electronic monitor. He was also banned from politics for three years.

If one were to compare the US and French judicial systems, it might appear that the French system took too long to reach this ruling, especially knowing that the former president will appeal it to the French Supreme Court. The legal proceedings in the case started in 2014.

Mr. Sarkozy is linked to eight other cases that are still pending, and is expected to be charged in some of them. The common sense opinion that I often hear and like quite a lot is that the Bismuth case shows that French democracy worked reasonably well in the past ten years to reach this result. Another comment I have heard is that even though the French judicial system is less independent than the American one, through the years it has shown that it can function fairly independently. I remind my readers that the government nominates all judges, that their careers depend on government decisions and that the prosecution strictly obeys the Garde des Sceaux, the French equivalent of attorney general or justice minister, who in turn obeys the prime minister and president.

CELEBRATING FRENCH LABOR DAY ON MAY 1st
The history of Labor Day
On May 1st, 1886, hundreds of thousands of American workers went on strike to demand an eight-hour workday. The unions had begun working toward this demand on May 1st, 1884. The date of May 1st was chosen because it was the first day of the accounting year for many companies.

A bitter victory
After the 1886 strike began, violent clashes broke out. In Chicago, a worker was killed on May 3rd and on the following day in Haymarket Square a bomb killed seven policemen. Eight workers were convicted of murder, of whom four were hanged and another committed suicide in jail. The three survivors were later pardoned due to uncertain evidence.

On May 1st, 1890, French unions commemorated these events by demonstrating in the streets to ask for an eight-hour workday. May 1st became a national holiday in 1948. The day is so protected by French law that any employee who is required to work that day gets three times the normal wage. Over the years, the holiday has been celebrated in various ways but it always ends with people marching down one of the large avenues or boulevards in Paris and most other cities in France.

Wikipedia
International Workers’ Day, also known as Labor Day in some countries and often referred to as May Day, is a celebration of laborers and the working classes that is promoted by the international labor movement and occurs every year on 1st May, or the first Monday in May.

Traditionally, 1st May is the date of the European spring festival of May Day. … The 1st May date was chosen by the American Federation of Labor to commemorate a general strike in the United States, which had begun on 1st May 1886 and culminated in the Haymarket affair four days later. The demonstration subsequently became a yearly event.

This year
The French people have a well-deserved reputation for demonstrating often and for what may seem to be futile reasons. The French media, police and unions scrutinize the number of people attending demonstrations to evaluate the unions’ popular support in their efforts to twist the arms of the government and sometimes employers. Therefore, weekly demonstrations, large crowds in the streets and substantial damage by thugs do not shake the government. The current crisis regarding the French presidency has deeper roots, illustrated by the fact that President Macron, not the government as such, is attacked and slandered personally during the demonstrations.

The French title of the American movie Airplane! (known in some countries as Flying High!) has become a common French expression: “Y a-t-il un pilote dans l’avion?” conveys the impression that there is no leadership, that an organization is going astray. I increasingly hear this kind of comment regarding Mr. Macron. Even before May 1st, he was a hated president. His approval rating was just 32% in late May, although that was a slight improvement from earlier in the month.

I hear a lot of people questioning whether he is capable of leading the country when a majority of the French deny him the authority to lead. During his first term, there were also violent demonstrations, notably during the gilets jaunes movement. But few people then felt that there was a vacuum in the French presidency. The president was implementing a policy and had sufficient support, possibly because the policy had some merit.

Many have predicted that if the French government cannot get the legislative job done through negotiation, it will end up in gridlock. I believe we have reached that point.

FRENCH BANKING AND AMERICAN CITIZENSHIP
Ever since the FATCA regulations went into full effect, American citizens have had a hard time opening bank accounts in France and most other countries.

Recently one of my American clients, who is a partner in a French corporation, asked a French expert-comptable (the equivalent of a CPA) which bank that firm worked with. I had explained that French banks’ secrecy rules prevent anybody who is not the client or another signatory on the account, or an authorized member of the French administration, from obtaining account information. But accountants work with their clients’ bank statements, so the French accountant in question mentioned a couple of banks specializing in the small business market.

That advice was exactly right – for a French client. But this client is an American citizen, and the banks mentioned, like all others, evaluate the issues they face, and having American clients is a major one. Being able to tailor services to the needs of small businesses does not really enter their evaluation. The partners in this client’s French corporation are having serious problems opening an account. France’s favorable banking legislation applies exclusively to private individuals residing in France. This means the partners could each open an account following the Banque de France procedure, but the business might not be able to do so.

I see a growing number of Americans organizing their life in France without even opening a French SEPA bank account. Many are so discouraged by what they hear that they do not even try. In the old days, when one went to renew any immigration status at the prefecture, the civil servant asked to see monthly statements from a French bank account. If there were only American ones, the file was not even reviewed until, ideally, the applicant explained their lack of compliance with the law, sometimes writing a letter describing their situation. If such cases were properly handled, with sufficient contrition, the prefecture would give a three-monthrécépissé and a new appointment to submit an updated file, preferably with a couple of French bank statements.

Now that many immigration procedures are completely online, the review is apparently more lenient regarding this matter. It would appear that one can submit three months of American credit card and bank statements showing spending done in France to have the visiteur status renewed. I would take this statement with a grain of salt; it is what is being said in the expat community, but I do not yet have proof. Still, I believe it is possible that several Americans have been able to renew their immigration status this way. The Paris prefecture shows significant leniency toward Americans in such matters. Nevertheless, exercising leniency is not the same as applying a new regulation issued and signed by the proper authority.

I understand why so many are choosing this option. But I still advise everyone to do whatever it takes to get a SEPA bank account, especially now that banks like the Belgium-based Wise Europe and some German online banks are more readily accepting American clients.

A MESSAGE I RECEIVED FROM AMERICAN EXPRESS FRANCE 
I have no intention of advertising for this company. I just hold their debit card and thus, as one of their clients, received the message below. Of course, they are communicating in their own best interest. At the same time, I find it interesting that the message primarily details the obligations French businesses have regardless of size. So here is my translation of it.

We remind you that:
– The use of your American Express Business Card is for business expenses only.
– Your American Express Business Card must be linked to your Business Bank Account.

With your American Express Business Card, your administrative management is simplified:
– Your detailed monthly statement of expenses can be accessed on your computer or tablet, or from your smartphone.
– You can export this data to Excel® in just a few clicks, to facilitate accounting reconciliation.
– Access your expense history for 10 years at no additional cost.

In addition, to simplify the management of your employees’ expense reports, equip them with additional American Express Professional Cards to centralize all their expenses in a single card account. These expenses will then be debited to the company’s bank account.

Depending on the status of your company, you may be required by law to record all your business transactions in a business bank account and thus keep independent accounts.

USE OF FRENCH REAL ESTATE MUST BE DECLARED BY JUNE 30th 
Reminder, the French tax office requires owners of property located in France to file about the use of each property by the end of June.

Even for non-French residents, the procedure is quite simple, since the tax office has created accounts usingtaxe foncière and taxe d’habitation information. Problems can arise when these taxes are issued to a corporation, such as an SCI or an LLC, which means the private individual who uses the place and owns the corporation is not registered as the owner. There is a 150€ fine per property for defaulting on this obligation.

www.impots.gouv.fr/particulier/questions/quelles-informations-sont-declarer-le-nouveau-service-en-ligne-gerer-mes 
www.impots.gouv.fr/formulaire-de-creation-dacces-lespace-particulier-non-residents

SHIP WELCOMED ITS FIRST TENANT IN MAY
The first tenant of the Survival Home in Paris moved in on May 5th. This renter exactly fits the profile I had in mind. Their VLS-TS visa request was processed with the rental contract. The initial procedures are done using the rent receipts. So far we have the studio rented through August 2023 with confirmed tenants and I have candidates for a rental after that. It may even be rented until the end of 2023.

OFFICE CLOSED FOR SUMMER VACATION 

The office will be closed for six weeks over the summer holidays, starting on Friday, July 7th, in the evening and reopening on the morning of Monday, August 21st. As always, I will be reachable by email for emergencies and important matters. The service I offer of receiving mail for clients will continue while the office is closed. Of course, Sarah or I will honor prefecture meetings already scheduled, as well as a couple of other engagements.

Best regards,

QUESTION

SELLING REAL ESTATE WITH A FLAW IN THE TITLE

I am contacting you with a rather urgent question. I bought an apartment in 2005 with the landing toilet annexed and integrated into the apartment by a former owner. The right to use it was approved in 2001 and she recently told me that the work had been done several years before that. Thanks to the current syndic, I now have the minutes of this 2001 General Meeting granting her the usage of the WC.
Now I wish to sell it and the notaire in charge of the transaction is blocking it for two reasons:
(i) The right of usage mentioned in the minutes is nominative. Therefore it was not transferred to me when I purchased the apartment.
(ii) There is no trace of any purchase of this common area, which is now part of my apartment.
His position is that I cannot sell something that I do not own!
So my only choice is to either get the co-ownership to grant or sell me the right to use my WC or to purchase this portion of the common area that is located inside my apartment. I have been living there for almost 20 years and this feels like insanity.
I cannot wait for the 2024 general meeting, and if I ask to convene an exceptional general meeting to approve one of these two solutions it might cost up to 3,000€. Indeed I must pay in full all the costs related to holding this meeting and it might occur in a couple of months at best. I am sure I will have lost my buyer by then. Help me get out of this insanity.

QUESTION

PROCEDURE FOR THE SPOUSE OF A PASSEPORT TALENT HOLDER

I am contacting you with a rather urgent question. I bought an apartment in 2005 with the landing toilet annexed and integrated into the apartment by a former owner. The right to use it was approved in 2001 and she recently told me that the work had been done several years before that. Thanks to the current syndic, I now have the minutes of this 2001 General Meeting granting her the usage of the WC.
Now I wish to sell it and the notaire in charge of the transaction is blocking it for two reasons:
(i) The right of usage mentioned in the minutes is nominative. Therefore it was not transferred to me when I purchased the apartment.
(ii) There is no trace of any purchase of this common area, which is now part of my apartment.
His position is that I cannot sell something that I do not own!
So my only choice is to either get the co-ownership to grant or sell me the right to use my WC or to purchase this portion of the common area that is located inside my apartment. I have been living there for almost 20 years and this feels like insanity.
I cannot wait for the 2024 general meeting, and if I ask to convene an exceptional general meeting to approve one of these two solutions it might cost up to 3,000€. Indeed I must pay in full all the costs related to holding this meeting and it might occur in a couple of months at best. I am sure I will have lost my buyer by then. Help me get out of this insanity.

From Wikipedia
“We Are the Champions” is a song by the British rock band Queen, first released on their 1977 album World. Written by lead singer Freddie Mercury.

The World Cup, Trevor Noah and French nationality
If something could not be missed this summer in France, it was the French men’s soccer team winning the world championship in Russia. I am not much of a sports fan, but there are some events that are worth following, as their impact is much bigger than just winning a game.

Twenty years ago, the French national team won the same championship. Even in 1998, almost everybody spoke positively of the racial diversity of the national team, which in those days looked much the same as it does now.In 1998, hardly anyone dared to criticize this diversity. They were French, and they had won. The celebrations were peaceful, with very isolated exceptions.This summer it was a very different atmosphere. There was looting in the streets of Paris and fighting with police.Interestingly, a controversy arose in the USA when late-night comedian Trevor Noah expressed joy that “Africa” had won the tournament. Noah is from South Africa, where for decades soccer was the favorite sport of black people while whites preferred rugby, especially during apartheid. Not only is soccer South Africa’s most popular sport, but most members of the national team, nicknamed Bafana Bafana, have been black since the early 20th century. Black South Africans would attend rugby games just to support the opposing team as a way of showing their opposition to apartheid. By the way, “Bafana Bafana,” from the plural of the Zulu word for “boy,” means “Go, boys! Go, boys!”

Noah later got a letter from the French ambassador to the USA, scolding him for his statement on the grounds that the players were born in France. It would have been more accurate to identify the only clear error Noah made in his presentation.

Stating that the players do not look as though they have some Gallic ancestry is wrong, as the French population is not in fact descended from the Gauls, the Celtic peoples who fought Caesar.

This error has been made for centuries in French textbooks so it is difficult to criticize Noah for perpetuating it. Every French person has heard at least once,“Nos ancêtres les gaulois”!

After Julius Caesar defeated a confederation of Gallic tribes in the Battle of Alesia, Roman influence grew in Gaul. The Romans ended up having a tiny role in Brittany – which may be the only (loosely) historical fact in the Asterix comic books! Then Germanic tribes conquered all Western Europe, defeating the Roman Empire in 476, and each tribe settled where it chose. In France, two Germanic groups grew and battled for superiority: the Francs and the Burgundians (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burgundians ) under whom the remainder of the Gallic nation was destroyed. Not until 1477 did King Louis XI, called “Louis the Prudent,” defeat the Duke of Burgundy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_the_Bold.

The kingdom of Brittany, whose capital was Nantes, existed from 849 to 1532, when Queen Anne de Bretagne married the king of France. Brittany was independent for so long that today it is the only place in France where one still finds Gallic people, descended from the Celts. There the road signs are written in two languages: French and Breton, a Celtic language.

But Noah is right in saying that when members of the far-right wing made similar statements, they were using the players’ origins against them. So I understand and agree with the content of the ambassador’s letter, from a French point of view. Made in France, such statements are racist. But given what I know of Trevor Noah, South Africa and soccer there, I cannot find an ounce of racism in his statement.

I have always known that the French soccer team is made up of first and second-generation immigrants, as far back as one can go, and I got interested in digging up some historical facts.

For example, during the 1958 World Cup competition in Sweden, one of the French players was Just Fontaine. Born in Marrakech to a French father and a Spanish mother, he was the best player of that tournament, surpassing the number of goals made by Pelé, the Brazilian icon. The captain of the team was Raymond Kopa, born in Poland. In those days, if someone were to have made the same kind of remark as Noah, they would say the French team was mostly East European.

Then, for many years, the French soccer team no longer made it to the soccer finals until the 1976 European Cup, when the Saint-Étienne team lost to Munich. Saint-Étienne, led by brothers Hervé and Patrick Revelli, second-generation Italian immigrants, was made up of French players with origins mainly from Italy and Eastern Europe, as well as from Spain, to a lesser degree.

Michel François Platini is regarded as one of the greatest footballers of all time. He won the Ballon d’Or three times, in 1983, 1984 and 1985. He is also a second-generation Italian. Then there was the 1998 team, which won the World Cup – led by Zinedine Zidane, born in Marseille to Algerian Kabyle parents.

As I continue to look at French history, I realize that the first wave of immigrants in modern times came from Poland, starting in the late 19th century. By the time it flattened out in 1931, some 500,000 people had immigrated to France. About 30 years later, French players of Polish origin were represented on the French soccer team.

Another wave occurred right after WWII: between 1945 and 1970, 1.8 million Italians came to France. It was the third wave of Italian immigration and the biggest up to then. About 30 years after the beginning of this wave, they were represented in French soccer.

Another massive wave started when Algerian independence was declared in 1962. By the time it ended in 1982, the Algerian population of France had grown from 350,000 to 800,000. About 30 years after this wave began, players of Algerian origin were represented in French soccer, as they still are today.

Does it really matter? Yes and no. Clearly, from its creation by the German tribes called the Franks, France has been a country made by continuous waves of immigration, unlike most other European countries, which historically saw their population emigrating, mostly to the USA.

Soccer in France is played mostly by low-income people, and is especially popular in cities dependent on heavy industry. Thus it makes sense that it takes about 30 years to bring these populations to the top of the game.

The chanting heard the night of France’s World Cup win, continuing very late into the night, just reminded me that France stands by its tradition of welcoming immigrants, as it was created by immigrants themselves. For any country, welcoming immigrants is never an easy thing. Immigration brings out the best as well as the worst in people.

THE IRS AND HOLDING AN AMERICAN PASSPORT
A new policy authorizes the US Internal Revenue Service to block the issuance or renewal of an American passport to American citizens who are in arrears or have pending tax issues. If you owe the IRS more than $51,000 in taxes, it may not be possible to get a new passport or renew an existing one. Your passport might even be taken away.

The media has mainly reported that the IRS says some 362,000 Americans could fall into this category by the end of this calendar year. This situation could represent a significant limitation on travel freedom.

The regulation is very likely to be extended to American citizens living outside the USA who have not met their IRS obligations. Many Americans citizens living in France have never filed annual declarations, or stopped doing so. A plausible scenario is that, if such people visit the USA, they will not allowed to leave if they appeared on the authorities’ radar when they entered the country and this information was passed on to the IRS to see if they have met their fiscal obligations.

A RECENT NATURALIZATION PROCEDURE 
The following account (lightly edited for clarity) was sent by one of my clients who recently obtained French citizenship. We are regularly told now that this procedure takes less than a year. I am sure the prefecture is working on it, but clearly it is not happening yet. This one took two years, almost to the day:

“I sent my file on July 11, 2016. My appointment occurred at the prefecture on December 7, 2017. The file then was sent to Rezé, where the registrar of l’état civil des non residents is located, during the month of February. My name was published in the Journal Officiel on July 8, 2018. So, the whole process was almost two years. I have requested my birth certificate and am waiting for that now.

“According to other cases and statistics I have seen, this timeline is currently average for Paris for naturalization by decree (other departments are quicker; it seems Paris is the slowest). Most people are having to wait at least a year to get an appointment in Paris, and sometimes closer to 18 months.

“My understanding was that the ‘official’ one-year (max. 18-month) timeline for a decision starts only from the time of the interview. In fact, the agent told me that day to expect to wait up to a year for a decision (in the end it was only seven months). Perhaps the discrepancy is in how the time is calculated.”

I confirm what this client says. I will keep you posted if I see a significant increase or decrease in how long it takes to complete the process. The truth of the matter is that everybody knows the concept of the procedure taking one year refers to the time between the file reaching the prefecture and the official decision being published in the Journal Officiel.

FREEDOM OF SPEECH ON SOCIAL NETWORKS
At first social media was seen as fun. The idea was to share pictures and emotions, keeping people informed. Social media, especially Facebook, is now criticized by some for allowing unacceptable messages, while others find this criticism to constitute censorship. I am staying away from this debate, as France has rather strict laws limiting what people can say regarding specific topics, especially for publication. France and the USA have very different views on the definition of freedom of speech.

Recent French Supreme Court decisions shed some light regarding its consequence on social media and hence the limits of the individual right of freedom of speech on Facebook. The cases involved an employer who fired an employee for negative posts that damaged the employer’s reputation. In most cases, this is considered a valid reason to fire an employee, as there is a loyalty obligation as well as an obligation to work for the interest of the employer. The key question is whether the message can be considered slander or objective criticism.

https://abonnes.lemonde.fr/emploi/article/2018/07/25/critiquer-son-employeur-sur-internet-mieux-vaut-y-reflechir-a-deux-fois_5335564_1698637.html

RETENUE À LA SOURCE – INCOME TAX WITHHOLDING STARTS ON JANUARY 1st 2019
I first mentioned that this would happen in my July-August 2015 column. The tax office has been communicating by email and post about this enormous reform, and now people are receiving information about exactly how it will be done. The bottom line is that the employee will have the money withheld by the employer; for the self-employed, the tax office will take a set amount from the bank account linked to the income declaration.

Many in the French media continue to state that the system is not ready yet and could lead to some serious problems. The one segment of the population that will escape this new policy is people working for private individuals, who are the cleaning ladies, the nannies, and the tutors among many others.

The French administration has come with several sophisticated explanations for this exception, but they are not at all convincing. It is pretty obvious what happened. The French pay slip is so complex that it is nearly impossible for anyone but a French CPA to issue a valid one. Therefore, over 20 years ago, on December 1st 1994, le chèque emploi service universel was created so that URSSAF, a division of the French administration, would issue those pay slips. URSSAF is very qualified to calculate social charges, as it collects them from businesses. I am sure the people who planned the new policy totally forgot this type of situation. Only about 250,000 people nationwide fall into this category, which does not match either of the two situations mentioned above.

The people affected are employees, but the employer is not issuing the pay slips; the tax office could take the money from the employees’ bank account but they are not self-employed, even though some of them have a lot of employers. I have known some cleaning ladies who have ten employers at once.

But URSSAF has not had the time to add this new function to the service it already offers. It really requires redesigning the calculation of the bill sent to the employer.

Many of the employees affected have very low wages and therefore do not pay income tax. This may be another reason the French administration did not push as hard as for the other categories: there will be very little money to collect.

https://abonnes.lemonde.fr/politique/article/2018/07/05/le-prelevement-a-la-source-decale-d-un-an-pour-les-salaries-des-particuliers-annonce-darmanin_5326048_823448.html

TAX OWED ON 2017 INCOME IS DUE SEPTEMBER 15th 
This is the last year in French history that people pay their income tax in the traditional three installments on February 15th, May 15th and September 15th. The new system will be implemented on January 1st 2019, as mentioned above. There is a special office in the Parisian suburb of Créteil for residents of Paris. It used to be that the two divisions of the French tax administration involved in the reform had different locations. Today they share the same buildings, but still function as separate entities. Nevertheless, the September 15th deadline will be retained so as to wrap up any discrepancies between what was paid and what is owed.

Best regards,

QUESTION

BUYING AN APARTMENT WHILE RENTING IT

I have been renting a furnished apartment for over a decade. A few days ago, my landlord sent a real estate agent to my place to take pictures, and a surveyor for all kinds of testing. Later I learned that the landlord has signed an exclusive sale mandate and plans to have me move out.
I am really mad because for several years I have told him I would like to buy the place. I thought I had the right of first refusal before he could give me notice. Also, I thought he could not do this in the middle of the lease but needs to wait until the anniversary date. I reminded him that the lease states primary residence and as such he should have dealt with me first. He answered that his hands were tied and I should make my offer to the real estate agent.
I feel bullied and cheated. Do I have any recourse?

QUESTION

SPOUSES OF DIFFERENT NATIONALITIES IMMIGRATING TO 

I am American and my wife is Filipina. After a couple of years of marriage and just a few months living together in the USA, she has been denied residence status for technical reasons. We are continuing the legal battle to extend the time before deportation, without much hope of success. So, she will be forced to leave as early as February 2019. We might make it to May 2019 at best. We have been through so much, emotionally, being rejected by my home country, coming to terms with leaving my grown children and the beautiful financial situation I have worked my life to attain. I am proud to run a successful business. Our only choice appears to be to commit, financially and emotionally, to a new life in France. Having our visa requests rejected would be a catastrophe. In the hope of success, we have chosen either Dordogne or Occitanie to be our new home.
Most immediately, we need to know if she has the right to apply for her French long-term visa in our French consulate in the USA or if she will need to return to the Philippines to apply. What are our chances of success?

Let’s assume that she is successful in obtaining her long-term visa at either location. I would then need help in securing permanent residency for both of us. This means I need to work to sustain our stay in France. I believe that living in France is our best choice and maybe the only one, considering her status. I have nightmares thinking about what can happen if our visa requests are rejected. I hope and pray for a yes, against all odds, considering what we went through. Please help us.