— Summary —
Here’s a summary of what I’ve gained from the forum … …
Thanks a billion - lots of great info here!
- Visa – for Brits with French wives - there’s a link in thread.
- Healthcare – PHI vs Opting into State System + Mutuelle – decision based on whether Social charges exceed PHI. Playing with cover/excess alters how much PHI costs.
- Pension – 25% lump sum vs 6.75% on converting it all however need to split pension to keep under E250k
- Supplementing income as French resident and retaining S1 – can work in UK and pay tax there but must declare income in France when a French resident.
- Assurance vie – many choices of Euro fonds vs Stocks/Shares + Luxembourg/France/Eire + held in £/$/E + held in bank/Fintech (lower fees with Fintech) but there’s a protected limit so we’ll need many. Great for inheritance planning (not losing all of our money upon death to the tax man). Assurance vie like UK pensions ie choose a risk rating not actual investments.
- Bank accounts – credit card/debit card/account itself can be free with Fintechs and an Irish bank.
- Interest – if money is in £ then can get a higher interest rate eg Trading212 than in France (Euro equivalent accounts appear lower than UK accounts). Taxable in France.
- Passive income – doesn’t jeopardise S1.
- Medical/Dental treatment – if PHI then use cheap suppliers in Turkey, Spain, Hungary, Poland.
Spain is renowned for its dentistry. - Phone – landline + mobile – Bouygues offer incredible rates.
- Taxe d/habitation/fonciere – dependent on house characteristics (avoid pools + bathroom(s))
- TV – VPN allows access to sites requiring a UK IP for free
- Cars – France rapidly becoming the centre of the affordable e-car (Dacia + Citroen latest offerings).
— Next stop ––
[1] Have to study a French tax form and work out how Social charges meld with standard tax ie whether they’re reported in the same place and then displayed in the same place on some type of annual Tax statement. Still struggling a little with the relationship between Social charges and standard Tax in terms of knowing how much to pay, paying and correcting when the wrong amounts are paid.
[2] Work out whether my local tax office in France will sign the required forms to allow the pension transfer (as described by George) from UK.
[3] Practicalities re: assurance vie – to follow the upcoming podcast with Cat/Dave
Just 1 final question (about to read:
Tax ruling on taking 2 pension lump sums/7.5% tax rate)
– do you think slicing your private pension into eg 2 lots – one at Aviva, one at Scottish Widows and transferring 1 pot one year and then the next pot the next year would work to keep income low – such that the threshold you guys have just mentioned isn’t breached, would work.
That is (and this does sound a bit silly as I type it) – but can they insist that you can only perform this ‘basic’ transfer once.
I do struggle with the logic of tax and so that may be a really stupid question.