George, that’s extremely kind of you. And so quick!
Many thanks. I’ll report back on my progress. This is the Strasbourg tax office I’ll be contacting. They’ve been pleasant enough in the past so fingers crossed.
Not at all. Welcome. And Happy New Year.
Thank you very much.
A pleasure to have been of some use…
That’s what’s should happen. You’ve no doubt seen elsewhere on SF, or possibly already know, that HMRC usually then need a fair amount of chasing to action the refund in a timely manner.
I assume you’re also hoping to obtain the favourable French tax rate of 7,5% on lump sums from pension schemes?
Yes, hoping to be taxed at 7.5%.
I’m taking the entire pot in one go and have full private health insurance so should qualify.
My main concern is how the tax office will react to being asked to stamp & sign a form in English but there’s only one way to find out.
I thought initially that one way to avoid having to do this would be to use the money to buy an annuity in the UK. And just declare that in my annual French tax return.
But it seems the UK annuity provider also applies an emergency tax code so I’d still end up having to take the form to the Fisc.
I’m not registered for self assessment in the UK so I assume the refund of any emergency tax deducted is something I will have to actively chase using the DT Individual Form.
To be honest, I’d be quite happy to just let HMRC tax the pot and I would then reclaim some of it using form P53Z or whatever.
But I gather that under the dual tax treaty that’s not an option.
Bar one or two hitches documented previously on SF, most tax offices that have been approached by SF members appear to have happily signed the form in English. I prominently marked on the form exactly where the Impôts needed to sign and stamp without any issues. The form used to be bilingual but HMRC changed it to English only around 2020, you’d hope having actually agreed this with the authorities here…
Yes. The DT form is the appropriate mechanism for a refund. Although (somewhat surprisingly) the form doesn’t ask for them (they seem to presume that cheques sent to your address will suffice) I always add in my banking details manually so they can pay the refund directly to my account.
Unless your lump sum is less than your personal allowance (if available), you would normally need to make the formal tax treaty claim (in practice via the DT form) to exempt it from UK tax.
Thanks George.
Just waiting for a “retirement quote” from Aegon (they insist on this). Then I’ll ask them for the lump sum and do the security checks.
A friend had good experiences recently with Royal London and I’m hoping Aegon will be equally efficient.