Quacks

I know this may well seem like 'How long is a piece of string?" but if any readers living in France could please supply me with ball park figures it would be so very helpful.

We are a couple hoping to live soon in Languedoc Rousillon, and need to do preliminary calculations for our finances to ensure we can afford to do so.

I have researched income/personal tax and social insurance contributions together with the 'mutuelle/top up', but some of the information is unclear.

My pension is about 31,000 euro pa. (depending on the exchange rate); it supports both of us. I believe my income/personal tax will amount to 3700 euro pa, and less if we marry.

I am not of official UK retirement age until Sept. 2015-another 19 months, so would have to pay the social insurance plus top up until then. I think the two would amount to about 2000-4000 euro pa just for me, but find this very hard to understand/calculate.

I believe that if we marry, and once I reach official UK retirement age, my partner who is 7 years younger than me can come under the umbrella of the reciprocal retirement age UK health cover too, and thus neither of us would then have to pay the social insurance-is this correct?

PLEASE can anyone enlighten me? Correct my figures/assumptions based on their experiences?

THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH!

cyrian

Hello Quacks
Welcome to the Forum.
If you have been working in the UK then you will be covered by the NHS on reciprocal health cover for around 2 years. Once you receive the UK State Pension then you have reciprocal health cover paid for by the UK.
In addition to marriage, you could consider being PACS'd as an alternative.
There are advantages to having one or other of these in place.
Succession laws and Inheritance Tax are VERY different in France.
The rights of the spouse are also different especially if there are children from previous marriages.
If you buy property then you can defer French inheritance laws until the 2nd death if you use a Clause Tontine or Communaute de Biens.
The "status" of your marriage or PACS is recorded in the sale deeds of the property.
You should make sure that you take any tax-free lump sum on your pension before you become tax-resident in France as there has been some debate as to whether France will tax it.
Check out the "Notaires de France" site in English for lots of information.
I can't help you with the taxation figures but unlike the UK, pensioners still have to pay social charges as well as having a Mutuelle top-up insurance.
Good luck

InVinoVeritas

The succession laws will change for non-French nationals on 17th August 2015. The following article (in French) details the changes:-
http://avocatcazals.com/index.php/dr...nternationales

EuroTrash

Except that the UK has announced that this will no longer be the case from March 2014 onwards. Watch that space.

InVinoVeritas

The string seems to be getting longer!

It seems impossible to finish a question before the reply is out of date.

EuroTrash

You declare your worldwide income jointly as a household, and you have a joint tax allowance depending on the number of adults and children in the household. If you are a couple you have a couple's tax allowance and are presented with a joint tax bill. Your état civile - whether you are married or pacsed or concubines - does not make any difference to the income tax you pay.

Not too sure on this but I believe that IF you are accepted into the French state sécu system, the contributions rate is 8% of income above a certain threshold. Once you are accepted into the system you also gain the dubious of paying CSG on your worldwide income.
How much you pay for topup depends on how comprehensive you want your cover to be, it can be anywhere from well less than 100€ a month for basic hospital cover to several hundred. You aren't legally obliged to have any topup at all, though most people do.
You could find out how much private health insurance would cost, and work out how that compares to the cost of sécu contributions + CSG + topup.
When you reach your UK state pension the situation will change as you'll get an S1 so you won't have to pay contributions, nor will you pay CSG since you won't be directly 'in' the French system any more, but the situation as regards topup doesn't change, with an S1 you are still only covered for approx 70 per cent of medical expenses.


As said, you really need to be married or pacsed if you are going to jointly own property, otherwise no matter what fancy footwork you do to protect the remaining partner, there is no avoiding paying 60 per cent inheritance tax on anything they eventually inherit from a non-relative. Whereas if the partnership is made legal, inheritance tax is 0 per cent.

bigglesworth

I think they stopped the S1 this year for early retirees this year, so new early retirees have to pay their own way. Or am I wrong?

Charentebound

I spoke to the DWP today about the feared changes to the S1 rules and the call centre lady said they'd had no official notification yet of the new regime. The advice was to apply for and submit an S1 application ASAP. Apparently you can't do this more than 28 days in advance of the date you plan to become non-resident in the UK. It looks like the end of March could well be the cut-off when they get their act together. My planning has taken on a new sense of urgency.