Ladies, please don’t tell my wife. I can just see a delighted smile spreading across her face at the thought that someone might take me off her hands -“he’s all yours” I can hear her saying…
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I think that might work in some cases. Very briefly I wanted to maximise the amount of the 25% UK tax free lump sum withdrawal when UK resident, as I needed to have funds to ‘bridge’ the income gap from 57 when I left work, to 65 when I get my company pension. The pension pot therefore needed to be as large as possible to generate a sum not taxable in either the UK or France. Splitting up the pot would reduce the UK tax free payout. Then having got to France, I wondered if the Impôts would accept the argument that since the previous UK lump sum was not within the scope of French tax, would they let me take the balance as a lump sum now that I was within the scope of French tax, and benefit from the 6.75% rate. They replied that since the previous lump sum wasn’t a ‘hardship-type’ withdrawal, the answer was no. I never really thought they’d accept but given the amounts involved, I thought it worthwhile checking.
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thanks for both posts here… valuable stuff. I have completed a rescrit for a number of clients now through the impot login. One of the clients has agreed for me to be able to use it as a case study with future clients but not to make it public. I can probably post the text from the response and what we asked though if I make the specifics generic.
Ive always taken the belt and braces approach here and get client to ask the question first even though its clear they would qualify. We also submit the pension statements and the client prints and hand signs the document before we upload it.
Regarding the NT most clients have instructed a UK tax adviser to reclaim the money through HMRC and like you say its taken about 2-3 months to get it back.
I have been trying to save them the money for the UK adviser as the costs for the work have been a lot. For the clients with smaller pots of money it would be nice to be able to give them the option to do it themselves. For my French clients they will always need the UK tax adviser…
Despite being a former tax adviser, I’m disappointed to hear this (no criticism of you at all). The professional costs incurred by engaging tax advisers must be disproportionately high, compared with the relative lack of complexity of the FFI. Admittedly it is a fairly badly drafted form (it doesn’t even mention NT codes or having the refund paid to a bank account!).
If I was still client facing, I must admit I would be awfully tempted to do a bilingual guidance version of the form, with suitable explanatory boxes, and the suggested text/responses in English for French speakers. No criticism of any clients or advisers, but you’d hope that it would be entirely possible to draft something that avoided the need to use a UK tax adviser. I reluctantly accept that if you want the claim dealt with before the standard 6+ month HMRC turnaround, you would generally need to call HMRC to chase them to extract the FFI from the backlog pile.That prospect might put off non English speakers, and persuade them to engage a UK adviser, though the HMRC staff are very helpful in my experience.
I think for some they need to hear an adviser say … yes you’ll get the 40% of your pension back. Then the client can do the due diligence on the person giving the advice to ensure it’s credible. I know it’s very straight forward and obvious you’d get the money back based on reading it… but the French are very cautious by nature and often need these things handled by a professional despite the relative ease of actually doing it yourself. I think for me it’s important to be able to offer the source information and my understanding but make it clear I am not licensed to carry out that work. If you need advice you need to pay a professional… etc
I’ve seen fees including the advice and forms etc run up towards £1000 for the work and if you have a pension of £100k it’s too large a proportion for something you can do yourself.
Although you have to respect someone’s fees, experience and value added in other areas.
I think there would be room in my process to refer clients to a hand holder to help with the UK side of things and the French declaration of the funds and rescrit… that service would be something you could charge for. From what I’ve seen on posts @George1 if you decided to offer that service id certainly have business to come your way!
It’s not exactly an everyday experience for me to receive offers of marriage…
…or offers to refer work
Whilst I’m deeply flattered, on the latter, I really have left the world of work for good, living in quiet retirement with my wife and dogs near a Normandy forest, learning to draw, play the piano, cycling, volunteering and walking. Thank you for the kind suggestion though, Dave, I do appreciate the thoughts.
On marriage, my (current) wife is fine with palming me off on someone else,but suggested I remind them that I come complete with a elderly staffie/shepherd cross with an expensive vet habit!
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It’s not all about the money @George1 and you can’t buy time!
Sounds like a dreadful life swap… tax for tranquility 
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Quick question (I hope!) @george1
I’ve been trying to use PDF24 to edit the FFI using their “Edit PDF” tool but it looks like I’m missing something. Do you use the “Add text” tool?
Exactly that!
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Just reporting in that Avranches Impots have signed and stamped the form! (At last!)
It is now on its way to HMRC.
Given that my partner has now officially retired as far as DWP are concerned and should receive his state pension sometime shortly, I imagine we’ll be going through the same palaver again soon 
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Well done Angela.
Did you go to see them in person or did you just write to them?
I went to see them as I was desperate I actually managed to get an appointment, which staggered me as the last time I’d tried (about something completely different) they refused.
Well, congratulations in any case.
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Must say I’m relieved. Next step is to hope that HMRC actually do the right things with it 
Good luck with HMRC let us know how it progresses.
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Thank you - I’m tracking the post at the moment! (And looking forward to having aother shot at all this stuff at least once more for my partner )
Just for info - and amusement - according to Royal Mail, my FFI was received by HMRC on Monday. Below is the “proof of delvery”
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I think I can just see it… second crate from the bottom, on the left. 
(and someone will have to do quite a lot of “delvery” to find it in there).
Many large UK organisations do not sign for mail delivered in bulk which may include ‘registered’ items… Sending mail from a post office and obtaining a ‘Certificate of Posting’ satifies legal requirements in the UK and costs nothing other than the postage.
Yes indeed! A bit different when you are posting from another country though.