French CGT Avoidance for Pensioner

[Jon 1]

Can anyone please advise, or direct me to information on the avoidance of French CGT on a maison secondaire, in respect of a spouse who has joint ownership of a property and is about to reach the UK pensionable age of 60?

My take on it, is that it may be possible to split the gain and attribute one half to my wife who may not have any tax to pay on that half due to the French Government excusing CGT for those of pensionable age.

She has not reached this age yet, but may do so in the time it could take to sell our property.

Thus far I have not found anything definitive on the above, other than some vague references.

[BJSLIV]

Are you resident (main residence)  in France or the UK?

 

[Bernice]

"due to the French Government excusing CGT for those of pensionable age"

I don't believe this is the case - where did you get the information?

Bernice

[Sunday Driver]

See tax office note [url=http://www.impots.gouv.fr/portal/deploiement/p1/fichedescriptive_1825/fichedescriptive_1825.pdf]Information relative a la reform des plus-values immobiliers[/url]:

Les plus-values réalisées lors de la cession d’immeubles, de meubles ou de parts sont soumises au régime d’imposition des plus-values des particuliers lorsqu’elles sont réalisées à titre occasionnel par des personnes physiques ou par des sociétés qui relèvent des articles 8 à 8 ter du CGI (ainsi que celles qui relèvent de l’article 8 quinquies du CGI pour les biens meubles).

N’entrent pas, sous certaines conditions, dans le champ de l’impôt, les plusvalues réalisées lors de la cession d’un immeuble par des titulaires de pensions de vieillesse ou de la carte d’invalidité correspondant au classement dans la deuxième ou la troisième des catégories prévues à l’article L. 341-4 du code de la sécurité sociale. Cette exonération ne s’applique pas en cas de cessions de biens meubles ou de parts de sociétés à prépondérance immobilière. Elle s’applique en revanche aux contribuables non-résidents qui cèdent un immeuble.

CGT is now calculated and collected by the notaire at the time of sale and is no longer declared by the individual taxpayer on their annual tax return, so I'd advise consulting the notaire regarding any age related relief.

 

[gosub]

Some info HERE

[ams]

French residents of retired age are exempt from CGT provided their annual income is such that they would be entitled to exemption from the payment of local property tax.

 

I feel you may have a problem about splitting, of course depending on the gain and the amount to be saved everthing is possible.

 

ams

[Jon 1]

Many thanks to all contributors.

For Bernice, please cut and paste the following url  http://www.frenchentree.com/fe-legal/DisplayArticle.asp?ID=851

However, this is the salient paragraph:

Q. Any other exemptions?

A. Yes. You are exempt from French CGT if you are in receipt of an old

age pension or are an invalid. This applies even if you are a

non-resident. This is subject to some fairly detailed conditions set

out in the tax code. There are a number of other more detailed

exemptions. The main residence exemption which is similar to the UK one

and which can only apply if you are French resident appears below.

What I really wanted to know was what is involved in respect of the above ie "This is subject to some fairly detailed conditions set

out in the tax code".  I would really like to identify what these conditions are.  I don't really want to have to rely on a notaire as they are sometimes not very clued in, or worse can be indifferent or careless.  The experiences of others on this site, and my own, attest to this.  I really prefer to approach a notaire armed with all the facts.

[BJSLIV]

I think the details are that  a pensioner would be exempt if they qualified for exemption from paying property tax because of their very low level of income.(SD's point above)

If you are non resident I assume that you would have to present your wife's income French style (IE Half total household) income to show that she would be exempt.

Having gained that exemption the effect would then be to potentially increase the tax payable in the UK  having reduced the offset from France.