Social charge exemption and S1s in France
I read two articles recently saying holding an S1 can only exempt you from social charges on UK pension incomes and another saying it reduces your charges on investment incomes. Is this not contradictory? A.R.
No, these are referring to two different issues.
The S1 healthcare form is mostly for those who are drawing the British (or another EU) state old age pension.
It is the fact that someone has the state old age pension (and is therefore not considered attached to the French social security system) that exempts them from the social charges on that pension and on other pension income from the UK (otherwise the CSG and CRDS social charges apply to pension income).
The French tax service needs to know if the healthcare rights are acquired through an S1 certificate because the exemption to the social charges is lost if the taxpayer does not have the S1 and as a result is dependent on the French social security system for healthcare.
The above relates to pensions from the UK.
As a separate issue, there is a general reduction available on social charges on property and investment incomes for people who are non-residents in another EU/EEA country (or Switzerland) or who live in France but are attached to such a country’s social security system (not the French one). They are exempt from CSG and CRDS but not from a third charge called Prélèvement de Solidarité at 7.5%.
