Imagine there’s no countries
It isn’t hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion, too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace
You, you may say I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one
I hope someday you will join us
And the world will be as one
Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man

There was a time when it seemed as if everyone knew this song. Many knew the lyrics by heart and would sing them anytime, anywhere. It was an anthem for a generation. It felt like the only discussion was about how realistic this vision was, separating the dreamers from more realistic people. What was and is interesting to me is that such a vision was considered to be the proper goal for humanity.

Wikipedia
“Imagine” is a song by English rock musician John Lennon from his 1971 album of the same name. The best-selling single of his solo career, its lyrics encourage listeners to imagine a world at peace without the barriers of borders or the divisions of religion and nationality and to consider the possibility that the whole of humanity would live unattached to material possessions. Shortly before his death, Lennon said that much of the song’s lyrics and content came from his wife, Yoko Ono, and in 2017 she received co-writing credit.

Lennon and Ono co-produced the song with Phil Spector. Recording began at Lennon’s home studio at Tittenhurst Park, England, in May 1971, with final overdubs taking place at the Record Plant, in New York City, during July. In October, Lennon released “Imagine” as a single in the United States, where it peaked at number three on the Billboard Hot 100. The song was first issued as a single in Britain in 1975, to promote the compilation Shaved Fish, and reached number six on the UK Singles Chart that year. It later topped the chart following Lennon’s murder in 1980.

BMI named “Imagine” one of the 100 most-performed songs of the 20th century. In 1999, it was ranked number 30 on the RIAA’s list of the 365 “Songs of the Century”, earned a Grammy Hall of Fame Award, and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s “500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll”. A 2002 UK survey conducted by the Guinness World Records British Hit Singles book named it the second-best single of all time, while Rolling Stone ranked it number three in the 2004 list of “The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time”. Since 2005, event organizers have played the song just before the New Year’s Times Square Ball drops in New York City.

By 2013, “Imagine” had sold over 1.6 million copies in the UK. More than 200 artists have performed or covered the song, including Madonna, Stevie Wonder, Joan Baez, Lady Gaga, Elton John, and Diana Ross. After “Imagine” was featured at the 2012 Summer Olympics, the song re-entered the UK Top 40, reaching number 18. In March 2020, in response to the unfolding coronavirus pandemic, the actress Gal Gadot posted an informal but star-studded cover version of “Imagine” on Instagram. The song remains controversial, as it has been since its release, over its request to imagine “no religion too”.

MY COMMENT
This once iconic song seems to have faded away and it seems that only a few baby boomers dare to mention it and dare to believe that, against what the world is today, its ideals are a goal to strive for. I dare to believe, however, that there are many people fighting for this goal. It has just shifted some – to the fight against climate change and to the struggle to save the planet and the people living here.

In several issues I have addressed how divided the American population is. As someone who likes to look at modern events through the lenses of 100 years of history (or more if needed), the claims that the USA has not been this divided since the Civil War ignore the New Deal policies of Franklin D. Roosevelt and the presidential campaign of John F. Kennedy. FDR was portrayed as a pawn in the hands of the USSR, taking orders from Moscow. The viciousness of much of the American media against him can sadly be compared to the worst on today’s social media. Similar hysteria existed when JFK ran for and won the 1960 election. Because he was Catholic, he was declared unfit to be president, as he would be obeying the pope. He was also depicted as a traitor for his supposed allegiance to a higher authority. Reading about those periods opened my eyes and increased my interest in learning more about American history. The civil rights movement, the opposition to the Vietnam war and the riots that occurred mainly in the 1960s are better known to the American public. Comparison is often misleading, especially when dealing with historical events. Lately, I am seeing statements like “It feels like the ’60s demonstrations again” from a lot of my readers. Interestingly to me, they talk about the Monterrey festival as a turning point, more than Woodstock.

This trend must be quite strong, as Netflix has just dug up another iconic moment of that era, the 1968 Chicago Democratic convention. Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young endlessly sang their song “Chicago” detailing the events of that week. Today there is The Trial of the Chicago 7.

Wikipedia
The Trial of the Chicago 7 is a 2020 American historical legal drama film written and directed by Aaron Sorkin. The film follows the Chicago Seven, a group of anti–Vietnam War protesters charged with conspiracy and crossing state lines to incite riots at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. It features an ensemble cast that includes Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Sacha Baron Cohen, Daniel Flaherty, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Michael Keaton, Frank Langella, John Carroll Lynch, Eddie Redmayne, Noah Robbins, Mark Rylance, Alex Sharp, and Jeremy Strong.

MY COMMENT
At one point I got very interested in how the Yippie movement went into the political debate and became a structured political force. Jerry Rubin, the leader of this political force, had faded into anonymity until Netflix aired this program. People interested in these matters could learn a lot comparing Jerry Rubin’s actions and his political goals to what the USA is living through today. Again, who remembers him?

Wikipedia
Jerry Clyde Rubin (July 14, 1938 – November 28, 1994) was an American social activist, anti-war leader, and counterculture icon during the 1960s and 1970s. During the 1980s, he became a successful businessman. He is known for being one of the co-founders of the Youth International Party (YIP), whose members were referred to as Yippies.

MY COMMENT
After all this, I doubt any reader will be surprised that I read Rubin’s book DO IT!: Scenarios of the Revolution (1970) when I was in my early 20s.

You may think that I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one drawing such parallels. It can be scary to look at how many people died, how many were sentenced to life in prison or otherwise had their lives destroyed in the fight back then. It can also be equally reassuring to see how close to the breaking point the USA was in the late ’60s and how quickly it recovered, all things considered.

Voting will end in a few days. Two very different visions of the future of the USA are riding on the ballots.

VALUABLE DISCUSSIONS CAN BE HAD ON FACEBOOK!
It is common to criticize Facebook these days, as it displays so much negativity and hatred. I use it for two things:
• Staying in contact with friends and acquaintances, mainly those in the USA whom I cannot see frequently,
• Being active in groups dedicated to immigration and helping foreigners in France.

I recently had the following exchange in a group dealing with Americans in France.

THE QUESTION
“Hi Jean. I believe you’re French, right? What do you think about how generous the French healthcare system is for foreigners?”

MY ANSWER
“I understand why you qualify the French healthcare system as generous as it covers foreigners and citizens alike. It also covers undocumented aliens (sans-papiers) for free. It follows one basic logic, if 99.99% of the population in France at any given time is covered by the public system, national policies will affect everybody which is critical especially during a pandemic.

“I like the sense of security that comes from not worrying about being covered as well as knowing that the people sitting around me in the metro, the bus, the train are also covered and therefore there is just about a zero risk that they can transmit a dangerous virus.

“This is why I find the COVID 19 pandemic so disturbing in so many ways, starting with the fact that this sense of security is gone. I can no longer trust the people next to me.

“SO it is not generous, it is a national security issue. This issue shows probably the most vividly how Europe and the USA view political issues so differently.”

I expected some strong opposition, but what I got was a few positive and supportive comments and a few likes. On a topic that I thought to be quite divisive, the exchanges were quite civil. So it can happen.

WHAT IS THE STATUS OF THE SECOND WAVE OF COVID 19 IN FRANCE?
At the time I was writing this (before the latest lockdown), all major French cities had a 9 PM curfew and it seemed that after a few weeks it was being well observed. As usual, there have been countless debates about how effective it is, about whether the situation is so awful that such a measure is needed, about how bad the number of deaths and ICU admissions will be in the coming weeks and about whether French hospitals will be able to cope.

I do not know and I find all the conflicting positions very confusing. The new policy had an immediate and rather radical effect on my professional life. I am now home by 8:30, just to be on the safe side. Once I am home, I have a hard time resuming work, and I admit I have been quite slow in answering emails and following up on client requests. The change in my schedule is one of the main reasons.

I am not complaining, as I had thought I would gradually spend less time in the office this fall. The problem is that the decision was made almost overnight. I am trying to adapt as quickly as I can. With the lockdown in effect now, I plan on meeting with my clients remotely through the usual software.

The situation of the pandemic in France has worsened enough that this kind of decision was needed. The government has extended the state of emergency until February 16th, 2021, and 46 million people are now under curfew.

Here are the numbers that matter: As of October 29th there were more than 200 deaths and 47,000 new cases recorded per day. The unknown here is the true number of cases. The topic has been discussed a great deal in the USA; testing is being done on a wide scale and so many people are finding out they are infected, often with no symptoms. The concern is the uncertainty over the ratio of those infected who will get seriously sick. Because the scale differs considerably from that of the first wave, the French government is trying to plan for the worst.

A critical piece of information, the Paris prefecture as well as those in the rest of France are staying open. Having an appointment at the prefecture is a very valid reason to be out of your home. Make sure you fill out the attestation, which is the statement explaining the reason why you are out. The convocation alone is not enough.

TERRORISM IN FRANCE
My opinion on terrorism in France may be disputed, and I am ready for that. I believe that since the beginning of the 20th century, France has had to handle terrorist attacks perpetrated by foreign forces or by French people pushing various ideologies. I find it interesting that the extreme right has been far more prevalent and therefore much more dangerous for France than the extreme left, which only existed in its terrorist form for about 10 years at most:

Wikipedia
Action directe (AD) was a French far-left terrorist group that committed a series of assassinations and violent attacks in France between 1979 and 1987. Members of Action Directe considered themselves libertarian communists who had formed an “urban guerrilla organization”. The French government banned the group. During its existence, AD’s members murdered 12 people and wounded a further 26.

MY COMMENT
In those days the French domestic intelligence service (equivalent to the FBI), then called Les Renseignements Généraux, carefully and slowly investigated all terrorist groups on both sides of the political spectrum, as the attacks were meticulously prepared and needed a lot of time to set up. The danger France faces today is different, and requires a very different operating mode. The danger comes mostly from individual fanatics who do not belong to a political party or terrorist organization, though they may be more or less loosely connected with radical terrorist groups located both within and outside France. They do not always appear on the intelligence services’ radar, and they act very quickly.

Thus, the current analysis is that because the former type of French terrorism no longer exists, French police should radically change their methods and move very fast, putting under surveillance not only identified terrorist groups but also people who regularly visit their websites. Owing to the nature of the current threat, this also means having a significant share of police officers who are native speakers of Arabic. That opens a completely different topic, but one that is just as complex as this one.

OFFICE CLOSED FOR CHRISTMAS
The office will close for three weeks over the Christmas holidays, starting on Friday December 18th in the evening and reopening on the morning of Monday January 4th. 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

WHEN A NON-PAYING TENANT IS LIVING IN YOUR HOME

I regularly rent a room in my apartment. Currently, a young man is there and now refuses to pay or to leave. I believe he is hoping to maintain residency in the room until November 1st, at which time French law would prevent me from getting rid of him until March 31st.
The rental agreement was from June to the end of August. When he refused to leave by the end of August, I hand-delivered and sent by registered mail a préavis to leave the room by September 28th.
He has a job and his mother has a home in the French countryside where he could stay. I am told that this kind of squatting has become very tendance among young people.
My question is: what kind of legal risk am I taking if I simply fix the lock to the apartment so that he can no longer enter, and place his things in a storage depot at his disposition?
My thought is to do this around September 28th, the date given in the one month’s préavis, and simply present it to him as a fait accompli. The apartment door has an extra locking mechanism that can prevent anyone from using the usual key to open the door.
I am retired, living on a limited pension. Without the rental income from the room, I will no longer be able to afford to stay in my apartment and, given my limited resources, may not be able to find any suitable lodgings if I lose these. So, this man could cause me to lose my own home.

QUESTION

HOW TO DEAL WITH A NOSY FRENCH BANKER

I’m writing to you for some advice about a request from my bank. … I have been away from France since November 2019, nearly a year, because of the pandemic. During this time, just before the pandemic, I obtained a long-stay visa. I also was successful in purchasing a pied à terre and have the notary papers with me. While anticipating my move to France in March 2020, I sent a couple of virements bancaires for my living expenses, when the dollar was relatively strong – I took advantage. The virements totaled about 9,000€.
A short time thereafter, I received an email from my bank asking me why I was transferring money to my account. I didn’t understand the sense of the question, asked a friend who lives in France about it since things like that don’t happen in the US (at least at my level of finances), and, finally, with the onset of the pandemic and the chaos in my work that ensued, I lost track of the email and did not answer it.
I have finally returned to France. I found in my mail here a letter from my bank asking for a rendezvous at the bank and various justifications – notably bulletins de salaire or avis d’imposition. I work for myself and do not earn a salary. My most recent avis d’imposition shows a negative revenue total. The bank has me on file as not being employed, which alerted the system which functions as anti-blanchiment.
I am not, of course, laundering money. However, since I have no income to show on my tax return, I’m concerned that the authorities could start to meddle in my affairs. A few years ago I escorted groups of tourists in France, and this is something I haven’t registered with the French government.
Can you advise me? The banker was somewhat vague about what would suffice for a justificatif de revenus. He is not insisting on a tax return. Do you think just a bank statement would suffice? Do you know what is at stake for me in this kind of scenario? Being in the dark about this worries me and I’m hoping to find some clarity.

Face to face with…
Indeed face to face with what?
The answer to this question makes all the difference in the world.
It can be good but most of the time it is bad.
Foreigners are faced with all kinds of difficult situations, with doubts, misunderstandings, and this list can go on for a very long time.
“In the face of death”: for most of us, it is just an expression, which, thankfully we just about always misuse.

In this column, I describe my encounter with one of the victims of a recent terrorist attack that occurred in France. This person came to my office and I was face to face with a reality that shook me to the bone.

Life is rarely a bed of roses; being an immigrant too often feels like being comfortable will never happen again. Reminding people that it is back-to-school time on September 1st for French students in Paris, and that taxes are due in two weeks looks very small in comparison.

SOMETIMES AMERICANS ARE NOW HELD OR FINED FOR OVERSTAYING IN FRANCE
For as long as I can remember, I have assured American citizens that the French police, including those working in airports, will not give them trouble when they leave France or reenter it even if they are not staying legally in France. But that now seems to be changing, though I have not received enough accounts from people to be able to map exactly what is happening or what the pattern is. Of course, this is not really something one can go to the authorities and ask about.

Since early this year, I have been aware of increased scrutiny. It is now common for people to be asked to show their French ID card when they leave or enter France; in such cases, presenting only an American passport is not enough. More and more frequently, in the case of a foreigner who is unable to prove full compliance, the police check the prefecture database, see the person’s actual status and give a little lecture about keeping one’s status legal at all times. The most common case so far is that of traveling on an expired card, which usually involves having secured an appointment for renewal but not carrying the récépissé, the temporary ID card that covers the time up to the appointment. To my knowledge, here has been no real punishment to date, just a stern lecture on what the law is.

The reason I mention all this is that one of my clients actually got fined leaving France on an expired carte de résident. It had expired over six months before, and the person had nothing in the making, no appointment upcoming, no file submitted. I was told that the person had to pay a fine of about 100 euros, which is not much compared to what the other EU countries inflict in the same situation.

The conclusion I have reached is that the fight against terrorism has changed a lot of things, including the leniency that used to benefit North Americans. The case of the fine is the worst story I have heard so far, but I expect to get more and more feedback, as there is a staggering number of North Americans who have lived in France for years or even decades without legal immigration status. I expect these people to have an increasingly difficult time at French airports.

Also, I have seen the Paris Prefecture getting a tad stricter on the requirements to obtain or renew a carte de séjour. My concern is that a passport stamp from the airport showing that the holder has left France without holding either a récépissé or a convocation, which I define as having no valid documentation, could tick off the prefecture. I would remind everybody that traveling outside France without a récépissé, which means that one is traveling on an expired French ID card, should be legally interpreted as having moved definitively out of France. Therefore the traveler is considered to be a tourist entering France under the 90-day visa waiver program. I wrote about such a case in the March 2016 issue, in which the person had never had a French ID and requested one a few days after their most recent arrival in France..

My advice is very simple: this situation is here to stay and likely to worsen. As much as possible, everybody should have legal status in France and keep it that way all the time. Traveling under dubious immigration status, in my view, means a risk at the airport and then another one at the prefecture. How much of a risk, I do not yet know.

PARIS – CITY OF LIGHT AND MODERN TECHNOLOGY
The Ritz palace hotel has just finished a complete renovation, which lasted nearly four years. It is the latest Parisian palace to undergo extreme renovation. In the last 15 years or so, pretty much one palace has reopened every year after having been closed for several years. This trend basically started in 2000, when the Royal Monceau and the Meurice closed for several years.

Most articles mention that the competition has increased with a new generation of fine hotels. Not all the new hotels get the “palace” classification, but the quality of comfort provided by those newcomers is challenging the Parisian palaces, who are being forced to undergo renovation.

There was a time not too long ago when the clients of palaces were looking for the traditional premium service; WiFi in the suite or state-of-the-art plumbing and so on was not on their agenda. As did the British aristocracy portrayed in Downtown Abbey, clients expected quality service of a different kind. It is almost as if they were looking for a kind of idealized old-world luxury in their accommodation. While this is more an image than reality, the longing for a certain style of living, staying away from modernity, was what certain clients used to look for.

As things have evolved, probably due to globalization and a change of culture, clients have begun to expect palace hotels to offer exquisite and modern service, and the industry had to quickly adapt.

Even though it is not at all the same quality of service, I can compare this to the success of very short-term rentals against the hotel industry in Paris. Clearly more and more people prefer this type of service, having the feeling of staying in a home but also generally having the latest technology available, especially in very old buildings (there are still 17th century buildings in some parts of Paris). These guests want to experience WiFi and cable TV while enjoying the idea that these walls have seen centuries of history.

There was a time when traveling in Europe meant learning to enjoy living history with a different type of comfort and service. Today access to the latest technology has become the most important factor, even for palace hotels. Yes, there is more to it than that, but this trend cannot be denied.

WHEN THE REALITY OF TERRORISM KNOCKS ON MY DOOR
Since the early days of 2015, terrorism has been in the news, and continues to hit targets all over the world. It hit once again in France this past July. We all read about it. The news coverage depends on where the attacks happen, how many people died or were injured, and so on. It is very sad to say, but in France it is starting to become a fact of life; it is clear that the Bastille Day attack is unlikely to be the last one. Getting information, or maybe an excess of information, through the media for such events still does not make these attacks real or personal unless you know someone who is a victim. Then you are faced with the evidence of what a mauled life is.

No one in my close circle of friends or my family has been a direct victim of one of these attacks. But this summer, one of the victims, a survivor who was badly hurt, came to my office and sat in front of me. Then I was faced with what terrorism does. Adding insult to injury, the couple has been sent back to the prefecture again and again for close to a year. Yes, they are also victims of the too-familiar runaround: being told that a document is always missing, that “this is insufficient information.” To add to the problem, the French spouse is dealing with a severe medical condition, does not have perfect documentation and never mentions that the physical handicap came from being the victim of terrorism.

A beautiful soul in a broken body, this is my visualization of what terrorism does to people. In many ways, I feel honored that they came to me on the immigration issue. It made me feel humble, at a time when I was impatient over everything that was needed to make a move and change in my professional life possible. When I compare our situations, my struggles become minuscule and should be put in perspective.

I never know who will walk through my door when a first-time client arrives. Sometimes my work takes on a different dimension. Fixing the lives of these victims is impossible; most of the time, they are left with a permanent handicap. But I can do my utmost to make sure that this couple’s administrative situation is swiftly fixed. In many ways, I feel like I owe this to them, and not just because I am paid. It feels like too little, too late.

The victims of terrorism now have a face.

MY FEES WILL GO UP ON OCTOBER 1st 2016
It has been about six years since my fees last increased. On October 1st, I will raise my initial retainer from 250 € to 270 € and the hourly rate from 100 € to 110 €.

MY OFFICE WILL NOT CLOSE IN SEPTEMBER BUT I WILL NOT BE VERY AVAILABLE
I need to get the new office ready and clear and clean the old office. On top of that there will be a transfer of the internet line and account. So I am hoping that I can have everything taken care of by Friday September 23rd. So more than ever, the best way to contact me is through my cell number cell :

(33) (0)6.16.81.48.07. and by E-Mail: qa@jeantaquet.com. 

Thank you for your understanding.

THE NEW OFFICE
Since early June, I had been worried about finding the right place for my new office. To sum up the challenge: really professional office spaces start at 50 square meters, or about 540 square feet. I need about half of that, and I found exactly that, 29 square meters. In early July, I found a place that met nearly all my requirements: ground floor, courtyard, quiet, with excellent public transportation. So we all hope the deal can go through now that France is waking up from its August nap!

It is located in the 11th arrondissement between the following stations:

1. Rue des Boulets (line 9)
2. Nation (RER A and lines 1, 2, 6 and 9)
3. Faidherbe-Chaligny (line 8)
4. Reuilly-Diderot (lines 1 and 8)

I am a little bit superstitious about all this and so will not give any more details until I have the keys in my hands. I have already written down directions on how to get there from each of these stations.

ALLIAGE SARL IS GONE, REPLACED BY A SURVIVAL KIT FOR PARIS SARL
Alliage and I shared our business and most of the time had offices together. Legally speaking, this partnership started in September 2000 and stopped at the end of July. So I was faced with not just finding a new place, which was already a serious challenge, but also had to re-create my business set-up with a family-owned limited liability corporation. Since I have used the name A Survival Kit for Paris for 20 years now, I decided to name the new company that. It has been up and running as a legal entity for a couple of months, and I put it into full use in July to take over my billing.

I admit that I have spent some time looking back on these 16 years of business partnership and what it made me achieve. I am not a nostalgic guy, as I always have ideas and projects for the future. At the same time, the partnership was good for me and my business, so I want to thank Isabelle Russo, the senior manager of the now defunct Alliage, for her significant contributions to my success.

TAX OWED ON 2015 INCOME IS DUE SEPTEMBER 15th
The income tax payment schedule in France has three notable dates each year: February 15th, May 15th and September 15th. The system is set up so that on each of these dates, people pay part of the total tax due, usually in three approximately equal installments. The first two payments are each equal to one-third of the taxes owed the previous year, since the tax collection agency, the Trésor Public, does not know the amount for the current payment year until it is notified by the Centre des Impôts, which receives the income declaration of the previous calendar year in the spring. There is a special office in the Parisian suburb of Créteil for residents of Paris. It used to be that these two divisions of the French fiscal administration had different locations. Today they share the same buildings, but still function as separate entities.

“RETENUE À LA SOURCE ” INCOME TAX WITHHELD BY THE EMPLOYER
France is one of the last Western countries where income tax is paid by the individual directly and not withheld by the employer. There are many cultural and historical reasons why the French people are reluctant to change this set-up, but all of them combined are not enough to explain why it has not yet been done.

There is only one technical reason that withholding tax would be very difficult to arrange, and that is the concept of the quotient familial. I believe France is the only country that taxes the family as a group rather than individuals. This means the amount of tax you owe changes if:

• You get married,
• You get divorced,
• You have a child,
• The child leaves the home,
• A family member dies,
• A family member becomes disabled.

These occur frequently enough in the course of a lifetime that if France had withholding taxes, such events could significantly change the amount withheld. A withholding system works well only if there is just a small discrepancy at the end of the year. This is why the French system has taxes paid in three installments.

Now, however, the government is determined to have a withholding system go into effect on January 1st 2017. Employees will be required to inform employers right away of any of the abovementioned changes in their life. The employers will then have to inform the tax office so it can calculate the new amount owed. I do not have much further detail. I have no problem seeing how it will work for employees. For professionals I see only the possibility of continuing the old system of declaring and then catching up if there is a discrepancy.

Best regards,

QUESTION

A MISTAKE ON A FRENCH BIRTH CERTIFICATE

My wife and I recently were recently naturalized and received our French passports and national ID cards. During this procedure, I discovered that there is an error on my daughter’s French birth certificate, acte de naissance from 2013. Her birth certificate indicates I was born in “West Chester” instead of “Chester.” I possibly made this error when I registered her birth and the civil servant did not verify my birthplace on my carte de séjour. Because of this, the mairie in the arrondissement will not add my daughter to our livret de famille. The civil servant said I needed to go to a tribunal to get a rectification. I went there and the information was wrong. There they told me to contact the procureur as if it was a criminal case. Does this make me a criminal? As I just became French, this makes me feel awful and outraged.

QUESTION

THE JUNKMAIL RECEIVED AFTER REGISTERING A BUSINESS IN FRANCE

I am American and was a French university student for two years before I decided to be a consultant in my field. So I managed to get the self-employed status from the prefecture and I registered right away after that with URSSAF. Until then everything went fine. For two months now, I have been receiving mail I did not expect. It all looks very official, some are requests for money, some are forms for registering, some are both. I am very confused as I do not see the documents I was expecting. My reflex would be to answer all of them but the people at URSSAF warned me that there are crooks sending out requests for payment. I cannot see the difference between the good and the bad mail. Can you tell me how to find out who are the bad guys?

I would like to wish you all
A MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR
I am looking forward to the year to come, 2016.

“I Will Survive,” first recorded by American singer Gloria Gaynor in October 1978, describes the narrator’s discovery of her own personal strength following a bad breakup – but may also sum up what too many people have on their mind in the face of terrorism, whether they live in Paris, elsewhere in France or anywhere else in the world. Right it now feels like terrorist acts are possible all over the world. The feeling that we are all in survival mode, rather than happily living our own lives, does exist for many of us. But no one can function well this way in the long term, so we go back to life as usual, and push away the threat. It is one thing to militantly go out and be entertained when the mood is blue and fear is prevalent. It is another thing to do so without having to overcome fear anymore. This is the challenge France has faced since Friday November 13th, and we all hope that the country will continue to handle the situation well in these difficult times.

IS TERRORISM WAR?
The question of whether terrorism, and the struggle against terrorism, constitutes war is complex and the answer necessarily diverse. I do not have the expertise to give a definitive answer to this question, but it is one that we all must confront – most of us against our will – after a large-scale terrorist attack such as the one in Paris that killed 130 people.

One might be tempted to draw a comparison, for example, with what happened on 9/11 in the USA. Many experts have detailed where such a comparison is pertinent and where it is totally invalid. The idea that arming the French population would be a solution is pure insanity: this has never been a French tradition. Hunting weapons are the only firearms commonly owned by French people, and the number of gun owners is decreasing as more and more people move to cities.

There is an aspect of the November 13th tragedy and the way it has been handled that has not really been discussed, but that I believe should be addressed. With very few, short-lived exceptions, the USA never faced terrorism on its soil until 9/11, which was very traumatic and rightfully so. No similar terrorist attack, except at a much lower scale, has happened there before or after. By contrast, France and other European countries have had to deal with serious terrorist attacks over a period of years, or even decades. Keep in mind that WWI started because of a terrorist attack by an anarchist in the Balkans. In recent years, France experienced severe terrorism between 1955 and 1965, with several attempts to kill President Charles de Gaulle over the independence war of Algeria, especially because of the virulent reaction of Europeans living there. In the 1970s the French anarchist group Action Directe launched several attacks, twice killing prominent French leaders, while Germany and Italy had to deal with much larger anarchist groups. Shortly after that came terrorist attacks launched by Palestinians, and later by radical Muslims. The most recent major attacks, until last month, were bombings in the RER B at the Port Royal and Saint Michel stations in 1995 and 1996, part of a wave of terrorist attacks that started with the bombing of the FNAC store on the Rue de Rennes near the Montparnasse train station in 1986. Thus it had been nearly 20 years since the last French experience with a full-blown terrorist campaign, and the November attacks clearly took the population by surprise.

When 9/11 occurred, the closest thing Americans had to compare it to was Pearl Harbor, which was clearly an act of war against the American Navy. France has had a completely different experience of terrorism, and we can already see that the political and security measures taken in response to the latest attacks are very different. We all need to fight terrorism, and yes, it requires the use of the police, the army and the intelligence services. One thing is certain: in France we see terrorism and war fought on a battlefield as two totally different things, which must be addressed quite differently.

ADVERTISING AND BILLBOARDS
Until very recently, authorities at all levels in France have been passive regarding billboards, leaving cities and the advertisement industry to work together – one offering space for the billboads and the other managing them and syndicating their content. Nobody would have thought that billboard advertising could be seen as pollution.

More and more cities, however, are now banning billboards, either in the city center or within the entire city limits, as in Bordeaux and Grenoble. And a law was passed this past summer proscribing billboards at the entrance of cities of fewer than 10,000 inhabitants.

It is clear that this is the start of a trend that will soon affect all major French cities. It is also part of a much larger trend in which advertising in all its forms is something the public does not like and wants to be protected from. A recent poll showed 32% of respondents objecting to having ads put in mailboxes, for example. Advertising professionals must increasingly take this type of rejection into consideration.

A related trend concerns the way many people now watch TV through cables managed by Internet providers. On the Internet itself, people increasingly use software to block ads: 27% of French Internet users have installed such software. That percentage is one of the highest in the world, indicating that the French advertising industry needs to address this issue sooner rather than later if it wants to stay on the same page  or webpage – as the public. It has reached the point that some sites paid for by advertising are looking into giving up this financing and charging users instead, promising in return not to inflict any ads on them.

They could look to Mediapart as an example. This French online investigative and opinion journal has never carried advertising, relying on subscriptions. Created in 2008 by Edwy Plenel, the former editor-in-chief of Le Monde, and three other former print journalists, Mediapart is published in English, French and Spanish. It has become a major player in the news media, coming up with scoops in a way the competition cannot match. It reached break-even point in 2010, and in 2011 made its first profit: 500,000 from around 60,000 subscribers. Mediapart played a key role in revealing and investigating two major French political scandals: the Bettencourt affair in 2010 and the Cahuzac case in 2012.

A related development is the growth of digital marketing, using social media and other outlets to carry on a sort of dialogue with individual consumers. This raises a lot of issues. The amount of data that corporations gather on individuals scares both the individuals themselves and the authorities, notably the Commission Nationale de l’Informatique et des Libertés (National Commission on Informatics and Liberties, CNIL), the independent French administrative regulatory body whose mission is to ensure that data privacy law is applied to the collection, storage and use of personal data. Established by the law on Information Technology, Data Files and Civil Liberty of January 6th 1978, it is the national data protection authority.

The trend, in France as elsewhere, is to trust customer reviews more than anything, which creates a great temptation to tamper with the system by, for example, paying people to write fake flattering reviews. Companies are learning  some of them the hard way  that it is better to open a dialogue with customers and address their criticisms than to swamp review sites with favorable opinons. Nowadays a surfeit of excellent reviews just makes people suspicious about their authenticity.

Probably the most powerful response of the advertising industry to new media trends is the sharing of links between major players. For example, when you make an inquiry on Amazon, you will soon see ads about similar products on your Facebook wall, not to mention the products Amazon proposes to you when reaching the payment page based on data analysis of previous purchases.

In France, the CNIL monitors the use and sharing of private information, and individuals have the right to verify the accuracy of the information. In addition, some types of information are illegal to collect and use, even for research. But I am not sure the CNIL will maintain this tight position, considering the wave that is coming over the Internet.

For more on this issue (in French), see http://www.lemonde.fr/economie/article/2015/10/27/un-nouveau-contrat-social-autour-de-la-publicite_4797780_3234.html#b2qRpqlpeBr357Iu.99

CONTROLS AT FRANCE’S BORDERS IN DECEMBER
France is hosting the world climate change conference, COP21, from November 30th to December 11th. Since November 20th, 600 border control stations have been set up for a month to keep track of who enters France. It is expected that a lot of people will want to take advantage of this event to demonstrate, creating chaos, violence, traffic jams and so on in and around the conference site at Le Bourget. There is also serious concern about the potential for more terrorist attacks from a variety of groups.

I have often mentioned that for travel within the Schengen area no one is checked at the French borders, but there are police squads in trains, at rest places on highways and in airports, who ask to check ID. My experience is that until recently those controls were mostly done near the Spanish and Italian borders, where a lot of undocumented aliens enter France, and at the Belgium border to look for drug smugglers coming from the Netherlands.

Now, however, undocumented aliens living in France should avoid traveling for the rest of this year, other than taking commuter trains to go to work and even there the scrutiny is increased. The chances of getting caught are currently quite high. If you are an undocumented alien working for a family and are expected to accompany your employers on their Christmas vacation even when traveling in the same car think again, and inform your employers. They also run a serious risk as employers of an undocumented alien.

The recent events have seen an unprecedented number of police and army forces being deployed, first in the Paris region and then all over France. The message that was sent before these events was already enough to alert people to this; now surveillance measures are much more invasive. Spread the news.

For more on this issue (in French), see http://www.lemonde.fr/cop21/article/2015/11/11/cop21-beauvau-affiche-son-dispositif-anti-manifestations_4807020_4527432.html#P3882FxqT5yJ9yZQ.99

NEW FRENCH LAW LIMITS WHICH DOCUMENTS TENANTS GIVE TO LANDLORDS 
When I talk about living in Paris as a tenant, I often start by reminding readers that it still takes about three years to expel a non-paying tenant, which is totally excessive for a private landlord who has a couple of properties rented and relies on this income to pay his or her bills. I believe the system will never work properly until this issue is truly addressed. Not all landlords are so wealthy that they can go several years without rent and not have a cash flow problem.

While I totally agree that most of the landlords’ demands are outrageous and unacceptable, and it should be possible to limit these demands, it is also true that the natural desire to limit and even decrease the size and the nature of the risk a landlord takes when signing a lease should not be overlooked.

The recently Décret n°2015-1437, passed on November 5th sets forth the documents that a landlord can legally require you to provide:

ID AND ADDRESS
Identification can be a passport, carte nationale d’identité, driver’s license or titre de séjour. Proof of current address may also be demanded; this can be the last three rent receipts (quittances de loyer), the last local tax statement (taxe foncière or taxe d’habitation) , or an affidavit of lodging.

PROOF OF SOLVENCY
Depending on the situation, this can be a work contract, a business registration such as the K-bis document, INSEE registration for self-employed professionals or a student card for students, along with the latest income tax statement (avis d’imposition sur les revenus). In some situations the landlord may also demand other documents, such as the last three pay slips, last two year-end accounting reports, title of real estate rented or CAF statements showing the amount of money received.

Note that it is now forbidden to demand that prospective tenants provide a RIB in order to set up an automatic rent payment, or a livret de famille attesting to such events as a couple’s marriage and birth of children.

As usual, French law also defines the penalties for those not complying with the law, in this case up to 3,000 € for an individual and 15,000 € for a corporation.

In short, the government is sending a strong message, yet it comes at a time when there are so many candidates for every available Parisian apartment that no one will report non-compliance for fear of being blacklisted or having one’s file being put at the bottom of the pile.

For more on this issue (in French), see http://www.lemonde.fr/immobilier/article/2015/11/12/location-la-loi-limite-les-documents-exigibles-par-le-proprietaire_4808289_1306281.html#TLxlhY191IFKMsIR.99

FRENCH BANK CHECKS ON THEIR WAY OUT

The French government wants to speed up the phasing out of bank checks and increases even more the use of debit cards. In 2016, the validity of a French bank check will decrease from one year to six months. The use of checks declines every year by 5%; in 2014 checks were used for about 13% of all transactions, one of the highest ratios in Europe. The authorities want debit cards to be accepted for any amount, regardless of how small it may be, which is reasonable only if bank fees per transaction go down. The goal is bank commissions of 0.2% to 0.3%. France has quite high commissions, between 0.5% and 0.8%, so there is room for improvement.

Using a check allows immediate payment without mechanical means, which is why so many professionals outside the medical professions push for this method of payment. An alternative is to enable more people to use automatic payments (prélévements), with the beneficiary of the payment initiating the transfer, making this method as safe as a check. Very few companies — mainly utility companies and Internet/phone providers — are currenty allowed to set up such payments. In the public sector, making all payments should be possible in this way, including those made to hospitals, school cafeterias and day-care centers. Small businesses, however, will never have access to this method because of the logistics of getting clearance from all banks operating in France. So small businesses like mine will continue to rely on checks for the type of payment that occurs at the end of an appointment with the doctor, plumber, lawyer, etc. France still has a lot of these one-person businesses, and finding an alternative to paying by check is going to be complicated.

I expect the banks to resist this change, but at the same time, the Internet allows more modern means of payment, such as PayPal. Eventually French banks may prefer to lower their commissions rather lose the transactions altogether.

For more on this issue (in French), see http://www.lemonde.fr/economie/article/2015/10/16/bercy-precipite-la-mort-du-cheque_4790960_3234.html#HoiCHTFpFcR1XqJ1.99

I NOW HAVE A PAYPAL ACCOUNT qa@jeantaquet.com
I would like to remind my readers and clients that I have a PayPal account. My business is too small to accept credit cards or handle prélévements. But I already have some clients pay my fees through PayPal at the end of the meeting. I see this becoming the best substitute for paying by check, especially foreign checks.

OFFICE CLOSED FOR CHRISTMAS
The office will close for two weeks for Christmas, starting on Friday December 18th, and reopen on Monday January 4th. 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.

I would like to remind everyone that there is no January issue.

Best regards,

QUESTION

BUYING REAL ESTATE IN FRANCE WITH A RELATIVE

I am American and now have French nationality as well thanks to my husband. Several years ago, we were able to buy the Parisian apartment we were renting. Now my upstairs neighbor wants to sell his apartment. My mother would like to visit us more often and have her own place but she cannot pay the purchase price and maintenance, and would like to buy it with me as well as rent it out when she is not there. I am not interested in managing a short-term rental usage of this apartment right above my head! It is a small three-room apartment. What would be the right solution for all of us?