Hi everyone. We have been resident in France for some years but as our income is earned in the UK, while we complete a French tax return each year, we pay our taxes in the UK . Due to a reciprocal agreement, as we pay UK taxes, we are not due to pay French taxes.
My query is whether or not we can benefit from any of the taxable allowances such as help with the garden etc.
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Interesting… how does that work?
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Curious…only my specific gov’t pension and rental income is taxed in UK (and declared here). Everything else is taxed here. Did you just do this yourself or was it on the advice of a french accountant or your tax office?
In theory if you are talking about the support for aide à domicile then yes if this is with proper invoices then yiu can put that on yiur tax return. For people for example on low income who don’t pay enough tax they then get reimbursed. However morally I would be uncomfortable with this if I make no continuation to income tax here.
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Hi Jane,
Yes - this was on the advice of our local tax office who went through all the forms with us when we first took up residency. It’s also been confirmed by our UK tax office when we were told it is a reciprocal arrangement not relevant to our EU membership.
With reference to a moral compass, around here in the Hérault, migrants and natives alike prefer to pay cash whenever possible rather than do things above board. For myself, I am happy to sort things out ‘sur la table’ instead of ‘sous la table’ when possible.
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Hi Graham
Basically, when we first moved here permanently, we made an appointment with the local tax office who went through our first tax return with us. They were super helpful and I’ve gone back on occasion with any further queries.
I’m sure they were but that doesn’t explain the mechanics of why you pay no French tax on your UK income…
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Perhaps if it is all gov’t pension and property income? No bank interest, dividend interest from shares, state pension, and all the other things that are taxed here?
Might be worth checking out as I pay less tax here than I did in UK…
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I was in the same position Judith for many years - employed by my UK company, paying tax and NI in the UK - declaring everything here but not paying any tax here. I’m now in fact in the process of winding up my UK company and ‘retiring’ from that work (going on to do other stuff).
I know some SurviveFrancers don’t think this is permissible, but it is - like you I went through it all with both a specialist accountancy firm and the local tax office here, and have been doing UK and French tax returns for a decade. I don’t think it made any difference that my work, and most of my company’s work, wasn’t in either France or the UK - we worked all over Europe, Asia and Africa.
Unfortunately I can’t definitively answer your real question, because although we accessed aides, and received the standard French family allowance throughout, my wife was employed and paying social charges and tax in France from the day we moved here, so our household position was different.
Thanks Jane but I’m pretty sure we’re doing things correctly although when we draw our UK state pension, a return trip to the local tax office will be booked.
We had solar panels and extensive work done to our home here a couple of years back and know that if we had been tax payers, we would have received a lot of financial help. Rest assured, we are not trying to evade paying tax here instead of the UK.
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Thanks for backing me up Goef. This is the first time I’ve posted anything here and until your response, was starting to feel it was a mistake. We’re not yet old enough to draw our pensions but when we do, our tax situation and NI situation may well change.
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Crikey, I wish I could have done that. I’m currently working for a UK-based company and the French tax specialist in Paris, the local tax office here in the Gironde and URSSAF all confirmed I couldn’t be resident in France and paying tax/NI in the UK. I’ve only been here since 2020, so maybe it’s related to Brexit.
My employer’s tax bill shot up massively when they started paying French social security instead of the UK NI. As a result, I agreed to take a pay cut so their tax liability would be the same as if I was a UK resident (as it was entirely my choice to relocate to France).
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I think the difference is that we don’t work in France at all. We’re effectively early retirees and our income is completely generated in the UK.
We earn nothing in France and have been told that until we do or draw a pension, we don’t have a choice. All of our income is generated in the UK and so we pay both tax and national insurance contributions on that income there.
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Yes, sorry I was replying in relation to Geof. I understood it that he was residing in France whilst working for a UK company.
PS - welcome to the site 
Surely not but as JJ said, it raised a curious point in her mind - and mine tbh so worthy of posting…
For what it’s worth, I think we have to go with whatever the local tax office says as they are the people who check it. Some of you may remember that I sold my house in the UK last year and the French government tax website was extremely clear about what the process was for taxing it (tax if held less than 22 year, cotisation sociale if less than 30 years etc) so I contacted the tax office and told them I’d sold it and needed to declare it. The chap concerned was exceedingly snotty and told me that I’d paid tax in the UK so that was the end of it. Legally, he is clearly wrong but I have kept his emails in case it’s queried later. Right or wrong we have to abide by was is told us locally 
I think that could have been the difference? It is often where you are physically located for the majority of time when you are working that makes the different.
It is very confusing, and I wouldn’t want Judith to feel unwelcome or hounded. Usually the devil is the detail, and perhaps her precise income details or where she is when she earns it, or the company structure put it into a different category.
But the general guidance is that if you are a salaried worker for a UK employer and you are based in France then tax and NI are paid here
https://www.urssaf.fr/portail/files/live/sites/urssaf/files/documents/5015-GuideCNFE-UK-2017.pdf
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just to be clear Judith, do you actually fill in a French annual tax return currently ?
I understand you expect to have to do one when you start taking your pensions - but currently are you just not having to pay French tax but still having to do a French tax return?
Intrigued now as to how your healthcare is covered and how the cotisations are worked out if you have no declarable income in France. Only just done my first French tax return (less than 2000 euro income and 7 euro tax but 2021 will be different) and not fully integrated into the system yet.
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That sounds just like my first one, Martyn! What shook me later was that, although mine was based on just the last 2 months of the year rather like yours, it obviously was below some sort of threshold and the tax system decided that it must be forthe whole year so I was desperately poor and the next thing I knew was an energy cheque arriving in the post to be offset against my next electricity bill! (I didn’t use it as I didn’t think it was fair but it was kind of them to send it 
)