Quote:
Originally Posted by SoeurEnFrance
The only way i can think to compare it is to have an example that mirrors the US.
So take an average wage, say $4000 per month gross income, for a single mom, renting in a smaller town, not paris or anything...i am very fond of chartres, but only for gothic and romantic reasons 
Lets say i rented a small house but on an acre or so...enough to grow veg and have a horse or something. Lets assume i have a car...one child...what would my take home pay be after taxes? What might my rent be? What might the water, gas, and elec be? Just average it...what am i looking at having leftover after the main bills are paid? And also, can anyone speak to how self-employment operates in france? How is that taxed?
Thanks! I work best off of seeing figures.
Steph |
Actually, I live not far from Chartres, but I'm probably not the best person to ask about comparative cost of living figures. One thing is for certain - just as the banks limit the payments on a mortgage to about 30% of your pay, you'd be hard pressed to find a landlord who will rent to you if the rent is more than about 30% of your pay, so use that as a rough guesstimate of your rental boundaries.
As far as take home pay is concerned, figure 22-24% is taken out of your gross salary for cotisations (social insurances, basically). There is no income tax withheld from your salary - you settle up on that the following year. Most cotisations are deducted from your gross salary in arriving at your "taxable income" figure - which is where you start for calculating income taxes. (And just for argument sake, use 90% of "taxable income" as the figure to calculate taxes because there is a sort of standard deduction of 10% of taxable income.)
It's tough working with the scenario you suggest, as it's kind of doubtful you could find a small house on an acre of land to rent. Best you might do is a house of about 100 m2 (considered a largish house) on 1000 - 2000 m2, which would give you lots of room for a garden. People who own horses generally board them on local farms if they don't have a piece of farm property of their own. Take a look at Particulier à particulier to get some feeling for rents -
IMMOBILIER DE PARTICULIER A PARTICULIER. PAP.fr Annonces immobilières d'appartements et de maisons de particuliers. Location, achat et vente en immobilier.
Self-employment raises a whole different bunch of questions. Depending on your statut (i.e. how you have yourself set up), your cotisations might be a flat percentage of your gross take (i.e. revenue) or around 40% of your net business income. It depends on the type of business you're running, the level at which your business operates (over a certain level of revenue, you are no longer eligible for the flat rate system) and a few other factors.
Not quite what you wanted, but these financial things are kind of complicated in France. The good news is that something like half the residents of France wind up paying no income tax (though they still have to file each year). The government's main source of revenue is the VAT - which adds close to 20% to the cost of most goods and services in France when compared with the US.
Cheers,
Bev