That’s exactly how it works; spend more than 184 days in the UK - you’re ‘liable’ for any tax due dating from the ‘first’ day of your arrival. So complete a UK self-assessment form after the 6 months are up, and then receive tax demand from UK HMRC for those 6 months. But the french tax bods, once advised of your date of leaving, will tax you only for the period from 1 January to the date you have left France, and ‘joined’ the UK system. You will have french tax form to complete for the period from 1 January to the date you left France and became tax resident - easy to make clear on the form the date you were no longer french tax resident. As I understand it HMRC can/will either send you a form to send on to french tax office confirming that you are a UK tax resident from date you arrived in UK. Not sure if HMRC would automatically advise your french tax office of this change of tax residency.
You’ll find out sooner or later- and then let us know !!!
We are moving back permanently so will register immediately with the GP surgery that has looked after our daughter and family for 20 years. We will inform the four UK pension providers and HMRC straight away , though I am taxed in the UK anyway. We keep all the information for tax in France on a spreadsheet so it shouldn’t be difficult to pull off the information for 2025 tax form in May and for a couple of months of 2026 the year after.
I have a long list of people to inform and paper and digital images of key documents!
Absolutely. Although not completed on our new home, hopefully will do so in the next week, we are already using the new address. Most address updates can be done on line.
We pick up our new car on Friday and they need proof of identity by way of photo ID and utility bill or bank statement.
They may well be surprised with the bank starement as our new home funding is recorded!
We filled in an online application to our surgery of choice close to our new home which included questions around how long we had been out of the system, in my case 17 years, my wife has never worked in France and now has an S1 so presumably never really left NHS funded care?
We were both registered with our new surgery within 10 days, christmas got in the way as the process usuually takes 5 days.
Not quite right.
Certainly us, and I suspect many SFers, already have the right to vote following the removal of the 15 year rule.
We are currently registered via our daughters address which obviously has a council tax account linked to it.
She has our proxy vote.
If there was a snap election in the next 6 weeks, or the up and coming local elections in May, our vote will be cast to our choice, providing our daughter agrees 
FWIW I was not suggesting for one minute that the process of registering with a doctor had anything to do with HMRC. It just feels right to me to be paying UK tax on all 5 pensions as soon as we move, so sorting it will be a priority.
Fair enough.
But as stated earlier you are already paying uk tax on 4 pensions so no rush.
Is the 5th pension french?
If so I would be interested the process of getting it taxed in UK.
I have a small french pension from my work in France, not large but every euro/penny counts.
I very much doubt that this pension could be converted by the provider to sterling and paid to a UK bank?
If not then I will have to keep our french bank account open indefinitely and use it as a holiday fund.
One pension currently taxed at source in UK (my Local Government one ) with declaration / rebate on impôts form. Husband’s two UK occupational pensions and both our UK State pensions taxed in France. No pensions from any French source. Husband was wrongly taxed in UK last year when pension provider changed hands and it was pretty complicated until they managed to pass the parcel to the right tax office. I think informing the impôts should be fairly straightforward and the State pension looks OK, it is the other two where the process looks challenging.
EmilyA - unless your circumstances are exceptional you are not regarded as a UK tax resident until you have been physically present in the UK for more than 183 days. After that time - then yes, you complete HMRC self-assessment forms. So what’s the rush - you need to be in UK for 6 months before submitting tax form. And don’t worry - once HMRC has the forms you ‘will’ indeed be paying tax on all your pensions - no need to worry about that !! And remember, you ‘will’ be taxed - retrospectively - for the 6 months qualifying period before claiming tax residency.
Why would we submit self-assessment forms, when our pensions (all UK) would go back to being deducted at source? Nothing will change for my Local Government pension.
This is from AI.
“Yes, when you return to the UK and become a UK tax resident, your UK pension income will be subject to UK income tax and tax will be deducted at source (PAYE) by your pension provider in the normal way.
Once you resume UK residency, you are generally taxed on your worldwide income, including your UK pension. Your UK pension provider will automatically apply a tax code (initially likely an emergency one) to deduct the correct amount of tax at source.
Actions to Ensure Correct Tax Deduction
To ensure your tax deduction at source is correct from the start and you are not over or under-taxed:
- Inform HMRC and your pension providers: You need to inform HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) that you are returning to the UK and will be a tax resident again. You should also update your UK pension providers with your new UK address and inform them of your change in residency status.
John, I’m not certain of this but I’m pretty sure our French pensions are taxed in France. I know when I finally received my French pension, backdated, they had taken a large chunk in tax.
We kept our French bank open until happy we owned nothing to anyone in France and then we got our pensions paid into our Wise a/c’s, maybe your pension provider will be happy to do the same.
AI makes no mention of any urgency to inform HMRC!
@Concorde has set out very clearly my understanding of tge transition.
True. More like the FR system. As I recall a property is listed and a figure posted. Potential buyers then submit their bid, in writing. The highest bidder wins and they are commited to complete.
10% deposits have always been the case in Eng/Wales
They are - once contracts have been exchanged and a deposit has been paid. As for ‘dicking about’ I agree it’s a stressful m.o.
Yes, you are livid and disappointed but that’s not fair. She may have had a pressing reason to back out. She’s not obliged to tell you.
In my own case I should have backed out during the long, drawn out process of trying to raise funds in a crashing recession and dealing with a freehold and two leasehold contracts simutaneously, during which my father died. As my parents’ home was going to be part of the loan finance I now now - 20:20 hindsight - that pulling out would have been the sensible thing to do.
There were a number of reasons I didn’t. A long way down the list - last, in fact - was the seller’s agent shouting down the phone at me “You will be responsible for a suicide! ..”
Not necessarily. This is one of the tests used to determine tax residency, but there are others. And having both a family and a home in the UK count to reduce the time. As they will be in the UK over 91 days by the end of the tax year they will be tax resident.
Legal residency eg for registering with a doctor is different.
EmilyA - Missing the point - the phrase ‘…once you resume UK residency…’ - the word ‘once’ surely means that only after 184 days that HMRC would regard one as having ‘become’ tax resident - and at ‘that’ point the word ‘once’ means, as I read it, that after 184 days it is clear that one has become resident in the UK, and therefore liable for UK tax - for the preceding six months before being able to claim residency.
I do not read the word ‘once’ to mean that immediately upon arrival in the UK that one must declare oneself to HMRC - the period of 184 days has the effect of making one a tax resident - after 184 days. Don’t understand why all your 4 pensions are already taxed in UK - so presumably none are UK state pensions but all 4 pensions in the ‘excepted’ categories ?
Whatever - one can’t claim residency the minute one sets foot on UK soil - it’s the 184 days that is deciding factor.
As my reply above, no it is not.
What the devil are you on about? My perception of your comment was a critism of the use of the phrase ‘rat runs’ by @ChrisMann. No lack of intelligent usage …
‘Rat runs’ is a perfectly legitimate description of routes taken to avoid other routes. Very prevelant in London where vehicles, esp commercial vehicles, use routes that are not suitable/anti-social to avoid main roads.
Here’s an anti-rat-run of infamous memory. To prevent commercial vehicles using Drayton Gardens a a short cut between Fulham Rd and King’s Rd.
A location services company sub-contracted my location truck. A passenger told me that the driver - the rat! - made several unsuccessful attempts to pass thru the posts. Repairs cost the a lot more than the gig paid.
I thought I had made it clear from the beginning that only my Local Government pension is taxed in the UK. State pensions and husband’s pensions taxed in France.
I will inform the pension providers and HMRC and report back. I would hate to have to go to self-assessment if we can establish PAYG from the start.
Obviously the best, but compared to the French return UK self assessment is a walk in the park on a sunny day.
My daughter calls it “the annual tax row”. 
Show her the French forms and see what she says! Annual tax hurricane in comparison to me.