{"id":134163,"date":"2025-09-13T08:37:27","date_gmt":"2025-09-13T08:37:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/134163\/"},"modified":"2025-09-13T08:37:27","modified_gmt":"2025-09-13T08:37:27","slug":"state-pensioners-stung-with-3000-tax-bills-because-they-dont-own-key-document","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/134163\/","title":{"rendered":"State pensioners stung with \u00a33,000 tax bills because they don’t own key document"},"content":{"rendered":"

Expats living in France claim to have been hit with five- figure tax bills on their public sector pensions despite a legal exemption.\"ExpatsExpats living in France claim to have been hit with five- figure tax bills on their public sector pensions despite a legal exemption.<\/p>\n

State pensioners have been suddenly hit with a \u00a33,000 tax bill – despite a Treaty making them exempt<\/a>. Expats living in France claim to have been hit with five- figure tax bills on their public sector pensions despite a legal exemption.<\/p>\n

State pensioners living in the European Union holiday hotspot and expat haven claim they have been hit with five-figure tax bills on their public sector pensions despite longstanding laws which should shield them from French taxes.<\/p>\n

Those who say they are affected<\/a> are retired public servants in receipt of UK Government pensions, including teachers and police officers.<\/p>\n

READ MORE UK prescription rule change means households face \u00a3247 charge<\/a><\/p>\n

These pensions should only be taxable in Britain and shouldn’t be subject to French income tax and social charges under the UK-France Double Taxation Convention (DTC), which came into effect in 2010. A tax credit cancels out any liability in France, where they still have to be declared, according to the news outlet, The Connexion<\/a>.<\/p>\n

British retirees who receive a state pension can apply to the NHS<\/a> for an S1 form. This entitles them to state healthcare in France, which is paid for by the UK Government.<\/p>\n

Those who retire early, who have yet to reach the UK state pension age, don’t qualify for an S1. However, under the DTC public sector pensions have historically been exempt from French taxes.<\/p>\n

Retired police officer, Andy Pickwick, 60, moved to France with his wife in 2020. He told the same publication that he was told to pay for healthcare because he didn’t have an S1 form.<\/p>\n

Mr Pickwick said: “The tax office said you have to pay because you do not have form S1… I said we don\u2019t need it because they are government pensions, under the DTC\u2019s article 19. They think we\u2019re not paying for health cover anywhere.”<\/p>\n

The former police officer, who retired aged 55, added: “My accountant\u2019s only advice was to take out private health cover. I\u2019m seriously considering selling our house and going back.”<\/p>\n

French tax officials reportedly told Mr Pickwick his government pension was classed as a pre-retirement benefit, thus putting it beyond the scope of the double taxation rules.<\/p>\n

Mark Taylor said he suffered quite a hit when he was billed \u20ac3,500 (\u00a33,020) in 2023. The retired police officer’s appeal succeeded, but he said it appeared people in other parts of France haven’t had their appeals upheld.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Expats living in France claim to have been hit with five- figure tax bills on their public sector…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":134164,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[84,2215,4176,4174,4175,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-134163","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-personal-finance","tag-business","tag-dwp","tag-finance","tag-personal-finance","tag-personalfinance","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134163","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=134163"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134163\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/134164"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134163"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}