Hi
Not the usual questions about the marriage but:

I will get married to a French national currently working and living in France in 2014, I live and work in the UK and will do until 2015 (retirement) my question is will my French wife be able to take advantage of her married status for tax purposes even though I will be paying my tax in the UK. I somehow doubt it but before we go to see a tax expert I thought I would ask the question. I assume that when I retire and take my tax free pensions to France and pay my tax there then we will be treated as a couple for tax purposes but not until

Hi, AFAIK (from my experience several décades ago), you make separate déclarations for the period of the tax year when you were both single, and a common déclaration for after your marriage. As you pay less Income Tax as a married couple, it's advantageous to get married at the beginning of the year (Tax Year from 1st January to 31st December).
In any case, you declare your Income the year following, so you'll have plenty of time to sort out your situation, knowing that you must declare all world-wide income, and the French Impôts sort it all out.
Hope this helps!
P.S. After re-reading your post, some one will come along to advise about your Residency status if you are still living in the UK after your marriage. I was already living and working in France when I got married....

The tax situation will be "interesting " to say the least and it will need some expert advice. But you touch on another point which I was going to ask in a different thread and that is residency, it will take 4 to 5 years to become naturalised and hopefully obtain a carte d'identite and I don't want to carry my British passport about so was hoping to get a Carte de sejour are they still obtainable for EU nationals that wish to take up permanent residence.

Cartes de Séjour don't exist any more for EU citizens, you're stuck with your passport until you become naturalised.
I'm talking about Tax-Residency which may be a "interesting" as you say, as you'll be in the UK and your spouse in France. But some one in the know will come along to advise.

Although it's no longer compulsory, EEA and Swiss citizens may request a residence permit if they so wish. You would apply in your local prefecture or subprefecture. However, I suspect very few people do this; you soon get used to carrying your passport around everywhere.

I'm not sure exactly how this will work but I can give some pointers.

For the year in which you get married, the general rule is that you sumbit either one joint French tax return for the whole of that year, or two separate returns (you choose which). After that, you submit one joint French tax return per year. It seems that this applies even if one half of the couple lives abroad, unless your matrimonial regime provides for separation of property (régime de séparation de biens).

Note that you will also continue to be considered resident in the UK for tax purposes until the end of the tax year in which you leave, so you'll need to figure out how to claim the relevant French tax credits for your UK income. When you do leave, fill in HM Revenue & Customs form P85. If you're sent a self-assessment form for that year, start by filling in the residence pages.

Regarding the above comment on not wanting to carry a passport around.

Just for info, I used to carry my passport everywhere, did so for years which became a pain. OH advised me to leave the passport at home, as I always carried my French driving licence around.
To date this has never been a problem, even when I fairly regularly call into the gendarmerie to renew one or more firearm permits. Of course they always request some form of identity, and my driving licence - although it's falling apart - is always totally acceptable.

Foreign visitors and residents are supposed to carry proof of their right to be in the country. For EEA and Swiss citizens without a residence permit, this means a national identity card or passport. The service-public.fr page on this isn't completely clear regarding Europeans, but the referenced law seems unambiguous.

Of course, in practice, not having your passport with you is almost never a problem.

Being asked to present a form of identity is not the same as undergoing a police identity check (contrôle d'identité).

Not sure what you mean 'become naturalised' - I think you have to wait 5 years before you can even apply to start the process, and then you have to have the language/culture tests etc?

Re the tax, you will need to talk to the tax authorities in both countries and ask what they want you to do. There is fiscal residence and there is residence which are 2 separate notions; if you are one or the other in France you would fill in a joint tax return, but if you are neither fiscally resident nor resident in France, I suspect you will fill in separate tax returns. It all depends, really, on where they decide your 'home' is.

Yes it is certain that we will have to go to a tax specialist as I have residence in the UK but also in France with the greater time being spent in the UK until spring 2015. So it will cover two tax years, but neither completely.

I was wondering if anyone knows of a suitable tax consultant familiar with UK and French taxation preferably in Grenoble or perhaps Lyon or Valence.

We are aware of the 5 year period which is one of the reasons for marrying before I actually move permanently hoping to get that clock ticking as early as possible.

Are you sure being married to a French national will count towards taking citizenship? I thought you had to be resident.

Also wondering why you see it as such a problem not to have citizenship? Many people never bother.

Acquiring French citizenship by marriage has different residence conditions from the usual route.

It's a personal perhaps philosophical decision and there again I am not most people