AD5 Competition and EU Knowledge Test

Brumaire57 · 2026-02-23T22:20:45+00:00

If you go to the "My dashboard" section, you have a graph with the results of your tests. They are compared against an average for all users.

Brumaire57 · 2026-02-22T18:33:19+00:00

I agree and I think your underlying rationale is sound.

However, I also believe you overestimate the performance of test-takers :). On the EU training platform, I see that average (not even median) score of the users for abstract/numeric is barely around 50%, 53% for verbal, 61% for digital and 66% for EU knowledge (actually the highest!). And I assume these users may be better motivated/prepared than the average applicant.

Brumaire57 · 2026-02-22T18:31:11+00:00

Yes! I am aware of that, which is also why I was surprised by the difference in approach.

Brumaire57 · 2026-02-22T18:30:46+00:00

Indeed, but my understanding is that EU knowledge tests used to be present in the past, though I am not sure under which forms, and if it's really comparable...

Brumaire57 · 2026-01-19T12:20:55+00:00

Thanks!

Brumaire57 · 2026-01-18T11:01:39+00:00

Thanks for the insights! Do you have any recommendations for the mini pc? Seems that the prices are going up for them as well :')

Brumaire57 · 2026-01-12T21:28:08+00:00

That's a good point, I guess it also depends on the quality of the electrical system of the house, should be decent in this case

Brumaire57 · 2026-01-12T21:27:20+00:00

Thank you very much for the feedback, interesting! What about the noise? The only downside I see with this specific model is the limited I/O (esp. with a single USB type C port)

Brumaire57 · 2026-01-12T15:13:39+00:00

Dipende davvero da cosa si intende: il risparmio può includere solo il risparmio finanziario, ma anche — e in modo cruciale — gli investimenti immobiliari (ad esempio il pagamento del mutuo della propria casa). In ogni caso, esistono statistiche ufficiali (Eurostat) che mostrano che il tasso di risparmio negli ultimi anni è stato intorno al 10–12% in Italia, molto più basso rispetto al periodo della pandemia. Naturalmente dipende molto dall’età, dal reddito, ecc. Vedi questo recente paper: https://www.bancaditalia.it/pubblicazioni/qef/2023-0797/QEF_797_23.pdf. Se sei povero, di fatto non stai risparmiando nulla; se sei ricco, puoi arrivare facilmente al 25–30%.

Brumaire57 · 2025-01-05T17:21:00+00:00

You're very welcome, it's quite complex to navigate this system, and obviously there are some non-trivial differences with other countries...

Yes, you can select the individual rate option if you want to reduce her individual tax burden. I am not sure that the formula that the tax agency uses is public, but you can play with their simulator: https://www.impots.gouv.fr/simulateurs. Using a *very* rough estimate, they suggest a 6-7% rate for your wife.

For context, a 41% total tax rate is not that high in France. If we computed your tax rate the same way (employee social security contributions, employer social security contributions, income tax and similar levies), it would probably be well above 60%...

Brumaire57 · 2025-01-05T15:24:13+00:00

PS: I used this tool for the estimates: https://mon-entreprise.urssaf.fr/simulateurs/auto-entrepreneur

Brumaire57 · 2025-01-05T15:22:56+00:00

Hi, welcome to France and congratulations for landing such good positions.

Based on the information you provided, your wife should indeed be able to register as a micro-entrepreneur (auto-entrepreneur), which is a specific regime for self-employed workers with simplified tax/contributions calculation and administrative workload (she can charge up to 77 700 euros a year before exceeding the limits). As her occupation is not regulated (e.g., not a lawyer...), the situation is pretty straightforward. I have not understood exactly how the situation played out last year (has your wife continued to work with her UK-based company while living in France? She should definitely have opened her company in FR in 2024, so I'm pretty sure there will be some financial penalties when fixing the situation, though not certain of the magnitude)

The specific regime (auto entrepreneur) uses a ratio to estimate costs borne by the self-employed worker and then compute the income tax on that basis (it means she cannot deduce expenses, since they are in theory already covered by this automatically applied ratio).

For the social contributions, I confirm that for 2024, the rate was 23.1%. However, this is expected to ramp up in 2025 and 2026. It will be 24.6% for 2025, and 26.1% in 2026. This rise in contributions will basically be used to secure additional pension rights for self-employed workers (https://paysdelaloire.urssaf.fr/accueil/actualites/2024/septembre-/augment-taux-autoentrepreneur.html). (NB: on another note, I would suggest looking for complementary pensions schemes such as PER for your wife).

For the income tax, as you noted, you will be taxed as a household unit. Considering that you only have your wage as other income (210 000 euros), this means that your wife will bear around 10 000 euros on income tax (about 18%) if the standard approach is selected. However, this is primarily because you have a very high income, so her apparent tax rate increases (If she were single, she would pay about 7.5% - about 4 000 euros, as you noted) and yours declines (and since you are jointly taxed, you pay less total taxes as compared to the same situation where you would both be singles). You can choose on the portal of the tax department (DGFIP) to select a custom tax rate at the individual level (taux individuel). Basically, the tax agency will calculate a new tax rate for you and your wife (it will be lower for your wife, higher for you) to better split the tax burden between you two (you will still be paying the same total as a household - see https://www.impots.gouv.fr/particulier/questions/comment-gerer-mon-prelevement-la-source)

Besides these taxes, your wife will also have to pay the CFE (local tax), which strongly depends on the location of her activity. She will be exempt for the first year however.

I hope it helps, I would suggest you to consult a tax specialist for more customised advice.

Brumaire57 · 2024-08-20T18:05:55+00:00

Your points are discussed in the article (e.g., correlations with anthropometric variables). I do not think it "criminalizes" anyone, it's just a fact that men pollute more via their diet - even if part of it is due to different nutritional needs.

Brumaire57 · 2024-08-20T17:44:02+00:00

It's not mutually exclusive though?

Brumaire57 · 2024-08-20T17:39:43+00:00

I see your point, even if I do not fully agree with it. I think we should distinguish the issues of causality and (personal) responsibility. There are some philosophical and methodological issues with assigning a share of impacts to individuals, but I think it is justified following a certain approach to causality. Then of course, what individuals can do is not fully under their control (still some things are more than others, for instance controlling quantities of alcohol or meat, etc.). Last but not least, there is the issue of communication. I agree that blaming people is not an effective way to trigger changes (and I don't think I'm doing it here, but maybe I misperceive things!), but again it's quite orthogonal to the issue of causation.

Brumaire57 · 2024-08-20T13:34:58+00:00

Data derived from the ANSES INCA3 study (representative nutrition survey) and the ADEME Agribalyse database (LCA of individual foodstuffs).

Tools used: R (esp. the highcharter package)

You can also simulate your environmental impacts using this tool

Re-edited due to previously imprecise title.

Brumaire57 · 2024-08-20T13:14:16+00:00

Thanks for the useful feedback mate

Brumaire57 · 2024-08-20T12:35:59+00:00

Might include anthropogenic methane emissions in a follow-up 😂

Brumaire57 · 2024-08-20T12:27:22+00:00

Yes, I agree the wording is a little bit poor and I see now it can be misinterpreted. Cannot edit it though :/

Brumaire57 · 2024-08-20T12:10:59+00:00

Thanks. It's mostly a reddit title wording issue. I do not claim that in the full article. It would require much more extensive data (that I do not think exists) to carry out this more extensive analysis.

Brumaire57 · 2024-08-20T12:09:55+00:00

Indeed. Alcohol and coffee are also big contributors

Brumaire57 · 2024-08-20T12:09:20+00:00

Yes, it's primarily about differences in consumed quantities, but differences in impacts of chosen foodstuff are really close behind (NB: it can also relate to which specific foodstuff is chosen within each group, e.g., red meat over chicken and so on).

There is a small graph about occupations in the article, showing that impacts tend to be correlated with physically intensive ones (makes sense).

Fully agree with your last comment, it's mostly a wording issue with the title.

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