I am doing French taxes for the first time, and wading through any advice that I can find. It’s pretty overwhelming. Luckily, our finances are very simple, just SS retirement from the US, and interest on savings. I think that I can figure out where most everything goes, but I received a couple of referral fees last year and don’t know where to report them. I was a Realtor in the US, and passed off a couple of clients to active brokers after we moved to France, so not actual work that I did, but income. Can anyone point me in the right direction, please?
Oh dear, it’s me being ignorant again. I sadly know what the SS was and I am sure you are not connected to them, but any chance of a translation please?
I realise I am fast becoming the forum’s ‘I hate and don’t understand acronyms’ specialist but I can’t help it. 
Sorry, US Social Security. I’m retired and living on Social Security, but I received two checks from my former brokerage that are, in the US, considered “non-employee compensation”. I didn’t do any work, just passed on a couple of names and phone numbers; my former colleagues sold the houses and I got a small percentage. So it wasn’t salary, but still income and I assume that I must report it. I have no clue where this goes. Thanks for responding!
No need for you to say sorry, stupid of me, of course we use the same term these days too, it was just seeing those two letters put together that caused the alarm.
If it helps, I have only one item of income in England that I didn’t know where to put, and that was the tiny amount of interest that my English bank started to pay a couple of years ago. So I simply added it to my other pensions from that country as just that ‘income’. Changed into Euros of course.
Thanks again. Yes, I changed it to euros, just need to find its little slot.
Mine went into 1AM I think, 1AS is for French income.
Thank you again! I appreciate it.
Apologies - I hope I am not too late to offer a tax suggestion…
One simple option - if the facts support it - may be to treat the referral income as compensation effectively from a former employment exercised solely in the US. (Technical reference: Article 15/1 of the French/US tax treaty).
You will presumably be taxed on this income in the US, but - regardless of the US treatment - France will in any event give you a (free of charge) tax credit equal to the amount of French tax due on it. This would ensure there is no double tax in France, though it would take that income into account in determining the rate of French tax applicable to your other taxable income in France.
Here is the official guidance on which boxes to fill in…
I hope this might be of some help…
You are not too late. This is super helpful and much appreciated. I will read and follow these instructions. I have indeed been taxed on this income by the US and have already paid what was due, but I knew that I needed to report it here in France as well.
Again, thank you very much for taking the time to help.
I have shares held in an ISA wrapper so do not pay UK tax on dividends, so do not qualify for any tax credit from France, I found the correct place to insert the amount. I think. 
Annexe 2047, lines 220, 221 and box 222 (although that box seems to be subject to another option concerning 40% bareme but I can’t leave the page without filling it).
It really isn’t easy.
I agree a) it’s not easy (!) and b) that line 220, for UK dividends that do not qualify for a tax credit, is probably the most appropriate place to declare an ISA dividend. Or indeed any UK dividends, on the basis that they are usually paid gross these days.
In the unlikely event that tax had been withheld, the tax treaty would permit UK tax credits up to 15% of the gross dividend.
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Thank you. My wife receives a newsletter from an insurance agent, which tells people to claim the tax credit on dividends. It sounded wrong to me, (especially with the ISA wrapper) but many folk will follow that advice and put themselves at risk of an audit and possible punishment.
I agree. Claiming a foreign tax credit that does not exist (as UK dividends are paid gross) to offset against the French liability would be fraud…
I have ‘researched’ this dividend issue a little further. Deep in the small print of the Impôts guidance on foreign income, is confirmation that where income such as dividends is received without tax being withheld by the overseas country (usually by countries that haven’t negotiated a tax treaty with France) the gross dividend is reported on line 220, ie exactly as we discussed yesterday
Final point - logically if there is no foreign tax deducted, there is no double tax to avoid. Therefore the UK/France tax treaty is no longer relevant to govern the treatment of UK dividends received by a French resident.
I wonder if I might impose on your patience @George1 and ask a question relating to my circumstances.
Sometime in the early 1990s I received a few Aviva shares when they bought a company involved in my company pension plan. I have absolutely no documentation for them but each year I have been receiving a small (less than €100) dividend paid directly into a UK account.
If I put this dividend in line 203 (2047) what do I put in line 204?
Similarly, I have put saving account interest in 233 but what do I put in 234 labelled “applicable rate (%)”
How can I refuse to help anyone that asks so nicely?!
I refer the Honourable Gentleman to the replies immediately above given to @survive15 . It’s exactly the same scenario. If you’re receiving UK dividends, there is no accompanying UK tax credit, so you ignore the various boxes that you’ve mentioned (which are for dividends where there is a tax credit). Instead you report the @ £100 dividend in box 220, which is where dividends with no tax credit end up.
Neither box! If this is UK bank interest, there is no UK tax available for credit under the treaty, and it’s fully taxable only in France. I would therefore report it in box 250, (ie for interest income where there’s no accompanying tax credit.)
Hope that helps…
PS I would then report the interest in box 2TR in the main declaration form 2042, and the dividends in 2TS
Many thanks for your helpful reply. George. The minute I fire up my impôts declaration, my brain fogs up and slips into an alternate reality where common sense has yet to be invented
Is there a downside to what I did then, that is lumping the very minor (10€) bank interest in with my pension income amount without even mentioning it?
It’s a pain in the bum such a piddling amount and only started when Virgin appeared to takeover from Yorkshire. We opened a savings account years ago under duress from Yorkshire with about 30 pence in it which, unsurprisingly, has never paid any interest. But I still have to declare its existance every year.
No practical issue if you lumped in a tiny amount of UK bank interest in with a UK private sector (ie non government service) pension in box 1AM - both are fully taxable in France with no tax credit. You should also (ideally!) have also reported both on 2047, the foreign income schedule/appendix…
Obviously it’s not best practice etc, and if the amount of interest was more than incidental, you’d be ‘helping yourself’ to the 10% deduction for overseas pensions, which would be naughty…
Erm. You can’t be French resident and keep the ISA wrapper. ISAs are only for UK residents.
It’s not the investments themselves just the tax wrapper
My understanding is that you can keep any ISAs that are in place but you can’t add to them, though they are fairly pointless if you live in France as any gains will be taxed.