We have been tax resident in France for almost 20 years and after filling in the dual taxation forms way back then, everything has gone smoothly up until now. My husband has just received a notice about his tax code April 2025 to 2026 from HMRC. The letter is actually quite unclear but it does suggest that they think that he is paying tax in the UK. On the letter one of his pensions has NT as the tax code and the other one has three digits and then a T. The letter also seems to suggest that he might have to pay tax on his state pension. He called the number from overseas for HMRC and waited 25 minutes. He spoke to somebody who said that they thought this was about dual taxation and transferred him to a number where the response was thank you for calling, followed by being cut off.
We’re not quite sure what to do now but wondered if anyone else had had a letter out of the blue after so many years?
I’m guessing, obviously (!) not having seen the letter…
One possibility is that,for some reason, HMRC believe your husband has not submitted a Form France Individual for either the state pension and/or the pension with a 3 digit tax code and letter T? This could cause HMRC to issue an actual PAYE code (ie other than NT). HMRC would then try and tax those pensions (even though they know he is overseas having issued the NT code on the remaining pension). If he has submitted them all in the past, it would be worth pointing this out to them, via a call or letter.
Thanks George. I don’t remember filling in dual taxation forms for each separate pension, I thought it was a one-off form sent to the French tax office and HMRC. It did take a while to go through the systems and we have a letter from HMRC in 2007 sending a rebate and recognising our taxation in France status. The one that arrived today is the only letter we have received from them since then. We will use the email to send the facts to them, can’t stand any more jingly music. 
It is definitely one FFI per pension scheme - the absence of these forms for 2(?) of your husband’s pensions might well be the issue.
You mentioned email - did they give you an email address - that would be revolutionary by HMRC standards!
The one with the three digits and the T is the only one that was in place when we did the dual taxation form in 2005! The others were notified directly to HMRC when they started, but different tax offices were involved. We have correspondance from all of them,
If I remember correctly the original dual taxation form was taken to the local French tax office and forwarded by them to the UK.
All sorted! We got through quickly today to a real person who looked at the letter we had received and said that it didn’t look right. It turned out to be because one of the pension providers had changed its name after being taken over and the HMRC system had assumed it was a new pension.
They do that a lot and it’s infuriating! The pension savings account I started when I was in my 20s began as Laurentian Life, then went to Sun Life of Canada, then somebody else whose name I forget, then Scottish Widows and finally I moved it (on the advice of my IFA) to True Potential.
My other (SERPS opt-out) pension fund went from Legal & General to Barclays then to Reassure.
Whether the Inland Revenge know about all this is anybody’s guess! I shall find out when I do my FFI no doubt!
I also got a strange letter. One of my pension providers had changed name so probably the same scenario. Thanks
Glad it helped. Probably still worth contacting them, they only had to look at it to know it was wrong!
As I have learnt with my own experience, each individual income received in the UK requires an individual form signed off by the French Impôt, in order to achieve a NT tax code. One form doesn’t cover everything. I believe the UK state pension is the only one where an automatic double-taxation treaty applies, meaning that it is not subject to UK tax, because it may be taxed in France.
I wonder if this is because things have changed in the last twenty years? We sent off one form to register as permanent tax residents in France when we arrived and have never had to register individual UK pensions apart from in the UK. My Local Government pension is taxed at source in the UK so that is offset in a separate box, but apart from that all pension income goes in as a total in relevant boxes and gets taxed in France.
We don’t have any income apart from pensions so I don’t know what is required for other sources.
High Emily
Yes, I think you are right that in fact the rules and requirements have changed over the years. We arrived 15 years ago and sent off one form from our local tax office against my husband pensions, and for ever more he was on NT. Now, more recently, I have extra little odd small pensions, which are getting taxed immediately at the basic rate, and it was explained to me that I require a signed off form for each separate amount, no matter how small! Maybe because your local government pension is taxed at source, meaning that it is using your UK “allowance” so anything else, now is taxable. Perhaps, you could fill out the Form France Individual with details of your state pension income and get it stamped by your local Impôt. With our local offices, it is fairly easy to book an appointment through your online tax portal. Fiona
Yes, we too have only ever sent in one form many years ago.
Yesterday my wife received a letter from DWP confirming that her OAP was included as part of her tax free allowance which is incorrect.
We sent a France Individual form for each of us to tge DWP when we first received our OAP in 2019 and 2021.
A single form including everyrhing.
Rang them this morning and a very pleasant and helpful lady checked my wife’s record and agreed the letter was incorrect. I asked why the system had got it wrong and she explained that they were acting on auto info recieved from DWP as OAP had risen.
I wonder how many other non residents will receive such a letter instigated by the auto system?
She corrected the error there and then and all is well with the world.
She also checked my details which were correct even though my OAP Will rise this month.
Strange how the system targeted my wife but not me.
Sadly, as you probably know, even the UK state pension now needs its own Form France Individual. Unlike private sector(or non UK government) pensions you don’t have to state amounts, you simply tick the box that you receive the pension and indicate the start date.
Given that the state pension will probably exceed personal allowances in 2027, to avoid people being troubled with tiresome demands/notices of coding etc, going forward the advice should be to complete an FFI - even for the state pension.
I don’t think I need to do anything Fiona. As I explained up thread the letter from HMRC was sent because one of my husband’s pension providers had been taken over by another company and the system had assumed it was a new pension, generating a UK tax code. The HMRC technician sorted it immediately and all his pensions remain NT in the UK. There has been no other change or information from either country regarding our UK state pensions, which are taxed in France.
Just out of interest, when was the FFI introduced?
I wonder, was the fix done by the first (lady) person who answered the call or did you request to get put through to a DTT technician and they fixed it?
First (lady) person, quick and very efficient.
The person who answered husband’s call said it didn’t look right, then put him through to a technician who fixed it.