How do they know ?

[Victor Meldrew]

The French tax man can and will freeze your bank account if you do not pay any of your tax bills.

 i.e.  If you do not pay your bills by their due date then a 10% charge is automatically added, if the bill then still remains unpaid your bank accounts will be frozen until you pay, if no funds are available in your account, then the account will remain frozen until it becomes in credit and then the tax will take what he is owed before unfreezing the account.

Victor   

[tegwini]

PS   Husband says Tony F is right-  UK tax authorities have the power to freeze UK bank a/cs - they have more power than we realise- lots of our civil liberties taken away since 1997.

Tegwini

[Tony F Dordogne]

The power was there long before the Labout government came to power, been like that for 30 years that I know of.

[gpnoel]

Not really a reply to TFD: more a response to the 16 November posting by SPG concerning the Blevins Franks Newsletter (what ErniY felt should be an unimpeachable source) - not so sure myself!

Reference is made in the Newsletter to pensions being subject to 7.1% Social Charges (unless the recipient has either an E106 or E121). Is this meant to refer to the CSG contribution, which is, in fact, 8.2%; is there a 7.1% level of social contribution?  In addition, when did CSG start being levied on pension income derived from the UK?  The element of Contributions Sociales which IS levied on UK pensions is the 0.5% CRDS (unless E106 or E121 applies) - and results from such pension income being entered in box TL of the Declaration des Revenues form 2042.

Perhaps worth querying the accuracy with Blevins Franks, SPG.

One other type of pension which is not mentioned in the Newsletter is the UK Purchased Life Annuity, which I presume still exists as a contract.  With this type of annuity, the payments comprise part capital and part interest and are taxed on the interest element only - in the UK; would the payments be taxed in France in the same manner or on the total payment received?

The UK tax treatment results from such annuities being purchased from one's own resources (rather than from maturity proceeds from a pension scheme, on which tax relief has already been granted for contributions paid in).  I believe also that should a UK `tax free` lump sum be passed directly from the pension scheme to an insurance company (and not through the hands of the beneficiary) to buy a Purchased Life Annuity, then this should avoid any tax liability in France now or in the future.

gpnoel

[AnOther]

Just as well I said "from what one would like to think is an unimpeachable source" then. 

If you can't rely on information from a source like BF what chance does the poor Joe in the street stand of getting it right.......[:-))]

[Ron Avery]

[quote user="gpnoel"]  Snipped.......
Reference is made in the Newsletter to pensions being subject to 7.1% Social Charges (unless the recipient has either an E106 or E121). Is this meant to refer to the CSG contribution, which is, in fact, 8.2%; is there a 7.1% level of social contribution?  In addition, when did CSG start being levied on pension income derived from the UK?  The element of Contributions Sociales which IS levied on UK pensions is the 0.5% CRDS (unless E106 or E121 applies) - and results from such pension income being entered in box TL of the Declaration des Revenues form 2042.
gpnoel
[/quote]

GP, There is a whole thread about this topic and what you are saying is what a lot of people agree is what really happens in respect to CRDS.  This was also confirmed as current practice by the SW French tax office. However, there is documentary evidence from French tax documents to suggest as described by BF that other sociale charges could and should be applied to UK private pension incomes and that is where the confusion lies.

[chessfou]

[quote] Is there a 7.1% level of social contribution? [gpnoel] [/quote]

There are several different rates of Social charge totalling between 7.1% and 11%. I think you will probably find that the BF rate of 7.1% refers to the 7.5% CSG rate (x95% of income = 7.1%) that may apply to certain UK pensions (even though exempt the 0.5% CRDS), hence a total of 7.1% real (v. 7.5% theoretical).

But see the other thread:

http://www.completefrance.com/cs/forums/1/1065219/ShowPost.aspx#1065219

It would be a bit hard to find otherwise, since the thread started out as a cost comparison for health care of CMU-PHI-self-employment and so is on the Health board. The thread soon morphed into a detailed consideration of CSG etc.

[AnOther]

All makes your brain hurt and the concept of a "flat tax" appealing doesn't it [blink]