At least HMRC are easier to deal with compared to the Belgiums. The Belgium beat French fonctionnaires hands down.
They can’t cope with 2 questions in the same communication. I tend to communicate with them in French as I lived in a francophone commune but I sometimes get replies in Dutch, which stretches the old grey matter. I got so frustrated over one aspect of my state pension I started communicating in German and that worked, the German speaking Belgiums are more like the neighbours.
Correct. It is only the specific pensions you declare. You can declare more than one at once but they have to be in payment not in advance.
There was an interesting article in This is Money this morning commenting on the wider issue here of hmrc taking too much tax then people having to fight to get it back. They said the amount was only £50 million…my gut feel is its rather bigger.
I was informally advised by Big 4 international pension specialists (before moving to France) that they routinely advise their actual clients:-
A) to assume it will be up to a full year before HMRC refunds any emergency tax withheld on UK pensions; and
B) ensure their clients know they will probably need access to alternative funds to meet any in-country tax liability arising from taking the UK pension, on the basis of predictable delays from A) above.
The refund process may also be further delayed if your local Impots office decides they’re not going to sign off your FFI until the tax year in which tax will be due - as ours tried to insist upon until my pathetic whining and crying in the lobby of the tax office changed their minds.
We had deliberately taken a drawdown early in the year to maximise the time to get the refund before French tax was due. Horror stories told of 18 month waits. That could have been squeaky bum time. As it happens, I needn’t have worried and we received the refund within 3 months.
I too have found impots helpful…however it depends on the person involved. Have seen a couple of horror stories where the impots person takes the law into their own hands and dispenses complete rubbish and scares people. So best to be prepared even if 90% are approachable…
It’s a lot bigger. I saw a figure of £200billion for a 9 month period ISTR, of tax overgrab for this bandied about in the financial adviser press a few years ago.
l still don’t understand why someone doesn’t take HMRC to court over this, perhaos it would need a class action, and demand that HMRC pay interest st their own charged rates for withholding people’s money The problem would vanish in a flash.
I’m with standard life and will be in the same boat in 10 years time… I’d like to take annuity, but reading this thread it seems it’s not possible. It got me wondering; in 10 years time, maybe the UK be back in the EU, or at least aligned with it in some fashion. Maybe AI will take over the process and make it easier, or maybe the bureaucracy will have increased three fold.