Reader wins €1,600 refund over French social charges and UK pension
Couple do not know reason for what they describe as a 'u-turn'
David Asplin has an RAF pension and his wife a police pension
David Asplin
A reader says he is delighted to be refunded €1,600 for social charges incorrectly levied by France on his and his wife’s UK government pensions after he used information The Connexion published to make a claim.
David Asplin, from Charente, said: “I wrote to question why I had been charged so much and thanks to your coverage I got a full refund.”
Mr Asplin, who has an RAF pension and whose wife has a police pension, sent a private message to the tax office via his account at government site Impots after reading our articles about unexpected, high social charges on government pensions (ie. pensions of former public-sector employees).
His message was based on the confirmation of the usual tax treaty rules on government pensions provided to us by France’s central tax authority, DGFiP.
However, he also told the tax office the couple have UK S1 forms – meaning the UK pays for their French healthcare, as he is also a UK state pensioner. It was not clarified if the subsequent refund was based on this or on the tax treaty. He attached copies of the forms.
“I don’t know why they did a u-turn,” he said. “The refund just appeared in my account, and I got a new avis d’imposition [tax statement].
“But I think anyone who has had an elevated bill this year should have a go.”
Mr Asplin said he has been claiming his RAF pension for ten years, and only had a state pension (and S1) for the last two.
The couple have not paid social charges on the pensions before so this year’s bill “came as a shock”.
Several other readers still face unexpected high levies by their local offices that they have not been able to overturn so far.
Avenues include a réclamation (complaint), using a conciliateur fiscal (tax mediator) service and going to court (usually with help from an avocat fiscal).
In some cases ‘MAP’ procedures, whereby those concerned have asked the UK’s HMRC tax service to investigate, are underway.
Andy Pickwick from Tarn-et-Garonne has set up a ‘Government Pension Double Taxation’ Facebook group, after facing high charges on his police pension and his wife’s pension from her work in the UK as a teaching assistant.
He said: “I have now received an email from HMRC saying ‘I can confirm I have now fully reviewed your case and sent my position to the French tax authorities. I am unable to provide a timescale of when they will respond but will be in touch in due course once I have any further update’.
“I have asked them what their ‘position’ is but have not received a response.”
UK government pensions have to date usually been free of French social charges, based on rules in the UK/France Double Tax Convention, as long as the income was correctly declared.
The latter includes placing the income in the foreign income form section 6, so as to attract a tax credit cancelling French tax.
In this case, ‘social charges’ refers to French taxes levied alongside income tax on many kinds of income, that go towards funding the social security system (notably CSG and CRDS), not the cotisations sociales paid on work income towards pensions, family allowance, etc.
Some French tax offices have levied the charges this year in some cases stating the justification to be that recipients did not also have an S1, despite the fact the DGFiP did not confirm to us any official change. However, this appears to be a confusion of two rules.
One French tax rule states that foreign pension income – of any kind – is not subject to the social charges if the recipient is not a burden on the French health service, notably through S1 cover.
Another rule relates to certain double tax treaties. The UK/France treaty says the social charges are treated as a French tax; it also states that UK government pensions (with the exception of those paid to French residents who are French, and only French) are only assessable for tax in the UK.
The treaty with the US has a similar effect, but with regard to all US pensions. It does not explicitly include the social charges because it is an older treaty, but the US and France have agreed to treat them as equivalent to income tax.
