The Good Life France Magazine




The Good Life France Magazine brings you the best of France - inspirational and exclusive features, fabulous photos, mouth-watering recipes, tips, guides, ideas and much more...


Published by the award winning team at The Good Life France

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2 years ago

Issue No. 15

Discover the Drome, Nyons - the last Provencal frontier, Charente-Maritime, Burgundy, Paris gastronomy, Nice, secret Provence, recipes, a whole lot more. It's the next best thing to being in France...

ask the experts If you

ask the experts If you have a question about finance, law, currency, banking, property, satellite services or any other aspect of living in France, you can email it to us here and we'll put it to our panel of experts and try to help you. Question: I've been told that there have been changes to Pension legislation that might affect British expats in France - can you explain what it's all about? Answer: from Jennie Poate at Beacon Global Wealth In 2017 there have been a raft of changes to the international pension scene, forcing financial advisers to dramatically rethink the way they plan for their clients. One hugely significant change affecting the Qualifying Recognised Overseas Pension Schemes (QROPS)* market came in April. HM Revenue & Customs updated its list of these international pension products after a temporary suspension. The result was that nine countries fell off of HMRC’s list completely when it was republished. The suspension followed a shock announcement by UK chancellor Philip Hammond to impose a 25% charge on pension transfers outside of the EAA** if the ‘QROPS’ destination is not the same country in which the retiree is living. This list is due to be suspended and republished in June 2017. To be clear, this does not affect (currently) those who live and have their pensions in the EAA. So for those living and paying tax in France who have a pension in the UK, you will remain unaffected. For those planning to live and pay tax in France going forward there is currently no change. One would assume that the UK will be part of the EAA in some shape or form going forward but of course we can only deal with the here and now. This makes uncertain times for those looking to move their UK pensions into something more international and flexible. Beacon Global Wealth Management are treating these concerns seriously, and as with all of our advice we obtain full information from the client and the pension scheme before providing any advice which as a minimum comes in two stages. See over for more info and * **