Hello All,
My wife took out an assurance vie with monthly instalments in 2015. We had assumed that provided she did not withdraw any part of the funds that it was not necessary to declare it on our tax return.
Having just read through this years tax declaration form I am now not sure that this is the case. Can anyone enlighten me please?
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I expect @fabien our SF guru should be able to give us pointers on this matter? I also have Assurance Vie which I arranged through Credit Agricole Normandie largely because our local conseiller is English and will help my wife face to face with such affairs as involve the Assurers when I die. The Assurers offer a pretty comprehensive and sympathetic "wrap-around’ service involving the local Pompe Funèbres too.
They are not taxable unless you take funds out. The provider of the assurance vie should deal with annual requirements and social charges.
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Hi Malcolm, first I’d like to disclose that I am not a financial advisor so my advise is not to be taken legally although I’ve been around financial advisor and I’ve lived in France for quite a bunch of years so here’s my stance on your situation:
- When money is nicely tucked in on an assurance vie contract there is nothing to be declared IF you never withdrawn any money
- When you withdraw money, the insurance company will send you a tax statement which they will also send to the “impôts” and almost all the time the profits to be declared are already on your tax sheet. If it’s not that’s why the insurance company also send the benefits to be declared so that you can double check.
- All this means that no money taken out = no tax
- As a side note, the older the contract the lower the taxes when you withraw it (lowest being reached when the contract is more than 8 years old).
Hope it answers your question(s)?
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Thank you very much for your responses. As my wife has never withdrawn anything from her AV we shouldn’t be liable for tax then.
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Only declaration you may have to do is if your are eligible for the wealth tax, in that case all assets should be reported. Below 800k€ of assets it’s a no brainer, you can’t be taxed on your wealth so only dig deeper if you’re assets are worth more than that… otherwise I’m pretty certain you’re good to go
I think the wealth tax only applies to property now Fabien.
You’re right John BUT (and that’s a huge but) if the assurance vie contains SCPI, or OPCI then it’s part of the “wealth” potentially taxed so in case the wealth is above that threshold I would advise to seek advice… better safe than I sorry I guess 
You are, of course, correct Fabian. 
I’ve made sure to declare my office block in La Défense, 
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Just a simple add on - if the Assurance Vie is held with a company outside France then its existence has to be declared - like foreign bank accounts. So if its held in Ireland/Luxembourg etc you should simply include its details the same as you do for foreign bank accounts.
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As I understand the Asurances Vie, you are liable for tax on any amounts paid to the holder, where that amount reoresents a profit that the AV has made…
If the AV fund has earned interest or gained im value, then any amount you take out will contain some if that value. e.g. Kets aay that the AV grew by 10%, if the homder receives a payment of €100, then 10% of that €100 is liable for tax.
This example obviiusly is oversimplified, accrued interest, compounded interest, dividendcreceipts etc all count. The AV issuer should be issuing a document that contains all the information required.
My own AV pays us a quarterly sum, each time a sum is paid to us I receive a document that shows the action on the AV, the amounts and the amount tbat is liabke fir taxation. All handily presented with the field codes from the tax declaration form. I copy the information in and scan the actions as supporting documents. Fir the first year the tax liability portion was 0.00. Given the state of the world’s economies tbis will.orobably continue.