Kevalps

We bought a house in France in 2003, over the years we have renovated and used as a holiday home, always with the intention of a permanent move at some point. Last year, having retired early and with a private pension we decided to make the move.
I am unsure as to the process we should have followed to legitimise this move in France, any advice appreciated.
I don’t think we have spent enough days here in the last tax year due to extended visits elsewhere and back in Uk but am keen to stay on the right side of things, we have always paid our taxe fociere and taxe d’habitation.
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EuroTrash

There are strict rules on residency. Either you're resident in a country or not and if you are resident, you have obligations and you also have entitlements. If you're not resident you have neither the obligations nor the entitlements.

The French rules on residency are here
https://www.service-public.fr/partic.../vosdroits/F62

Basically, if as you say you have moved to France and this is now your main home, then you need to apply to join the French healthcare/social security system (unless you have opted to take out full private health insurance) and you need to declare your income for tax here. You also need to inform the UK you have left. As a non-UK resident you are no longer eligible for NHS care, and your UK-issued EHIC card is no longer valid. Depending on the source of your pension, it might be taxable in France or it might still be taxable in the UK. Either way it has to be declared in France, and if it's taxable in the UK then the dual tax treaty will apply to ensure that you don't pay tax on the same income twice.

There are various other things to consider, eg your car needs to be registered here, if you have any ISAs the interest on these will no longer be tax-free and also your bank interest will be taxable in France not the UK; etc etc etc. But healthcare and tax are the first things to sort out. If you moved to France during 2017 you'll need to submit your first French tax form next month (the French tax year runs 1 Jan to 31 Dec and the annual tax exercise takes place in April/May for the previous tax year, so this May you will declare all worldwide income between the date you moved to France and 31 Dec 2017).

Hope this helps.

Novocastrian

Welcome a-board Kev. We're in much the same position as you, (bought house 2007, used as summer holiday home until 2015 when I retired, now used for extended stays of 2x~2.5 months per year). The main difference in our cases is that we've yet to commit to tax residency in France and we have a pleasant lock-up-and-leave apartment in the UK too, where we're careful to reside for 183+days per year so I can't help much on the tax side

Another difference is the we're both in receipt of EU state pensions as well as private ones which means that if and when we do commit we'd get the same health care access as everybody else in France. One of my state pensions is from Germany.

You retired early last year but how early? Will you get your state pension before or after Dec 31st 2020 (the probable end of the transition period)? If not and a hard break occurs you might be stuck with full-on private health coverage for up to 5 years as inactives from a third (world) country. Just something to think about.