You have retired to France with your British passport, your French address and your UK State Pension paid every four weeks into your bank account. Then two letters arrive in the same month: HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC, the British tax authority) keeps taking tax off your pension in the United Kingdom, and the French tax office (the service des impôts des particuliers) asks you to declare that same pension in France. You wonder whether you are being taxed twice on the same money, whether your pension will still rise each year now that Britain has left the European Union, and what will happen to your healthcare. This guide answers those questions in order, with the exact treaty rule, the exact French tax calculation, the exact social-charge position and the exact remedies when something goes wrong.
A few words first for readers who are new to French legal vocabulary. The convention fiscale is the double tax treaty between France and the United Kingdom. The revenu global is your total worldwide income assessed for French income tax (impôt sur le revenu). The foyer fiscal is your tax household. The prélèvements sociaux are the French social charges collected on top of income tax. The caisse primaire d’assurance maladie (CPAM) is your local French health fund. The S1 is a British certificate that moves your healthcare cover to France while the United Kingdom keeps paying. Keep these definitions in mind; everything below uses them.
I. Where Your UK State Pension Is Taxed and What France Takes
The starting point is simple and it surprises many new arrivals: once you live in France, your British State Pension is normally taxed in France, not in the United Kingdom. The rest of this first part explains why, then shows precisely how France taxes it.
A. Is my UK State Pension taxed in France or in the UK after Brexit?
Since the end of the Brexit transition period, British citizens who move to France are third-country nationals for residence purposes, but the tax rule for their State Pension has not changed. It sits in Article 18 of the double tax convention signed in London on 19 June 2008 between the United Kingdom and France, which remains fully in force. The official English text published by the British government allocates pensions paid for past employment to the State where the recipient lives, subject only to the government-service rule in paragraph 2 of Article 19. You can read Article 18 in full on the official treaty page at 2008 UK and France Double Taxation Convention — in force. In plain terms, a pension paid for past work to someone who lives in France is taxable only in France.
Three consequences follow. First, your UK State Pension — the basic and new State Pension built up through National Insurance contributions — falls squarely under Article 18. It is not a government-service pension. Government-service pensions, such as most Civil Service, Armed Forces, National Health Service, teacher and police pensions paid for work for the British State, fall instead under paragraph 2 of Article 19 and stay taxable only in the United Kingdom. If you receive both a State Pension and a former public-sector occupational pension, the two pensions can therefore be taxed in two different countries. Our separate guide on UK Civil Service pensions in France and Article 19 of the treaty explains that second situation in detail.
Second, the French side taxes you because you are a French tax resident. Article 4 B of the Code général des impôts (the French Tax Code) provides: “Sont considérées comme ayant leur domicile fiscal en France au sens de l’article 4 A : a. Les personnes qui ont en France leur foyer ou le lieu de leur séjour principal ;” Read the full text on Article 4 B of the Code général des impôts on Légifrance. If your home, your spouse and your daily life are in the Dordogne, Brittany or Paris, you have your foyer — your permanent home — in France and you are a French tax resident even though you remain a British citizen. French tax residence makes your worldwide income, including the British State Pension, declarable in France.
Third, the French courts apply treaty allocation rules literally, in both directions. A useful mirror comes from the Administrative Court of Appeal of Bordeaux, which dealt with a French resident receiving a pension paid by the Norwegian State. The claimant argued the pension should escape French tax; the court examined the Franco-Norwegian treaty and rejected the claim, holding in its operative part: “Article 1er : La requête présentée par M. B… est rejetée.” Read the full ruling: CAA Bordeaux, 5th chamber, 3 October 2023, No. 21BX02149 on Légifrance. The lesson for British readers is symmetrical: where a treaty says a pension is taxable only in one State, the judge enforces that allocation strictly. For your UK State Pension under Article 18 of the Franco-British treaty, that State is France.
None of this means the United Kingdom automatically stops taxing you. In practice HMRC often continues to operate PAYE withholding on the pension until it is told to stop. The remedy is administrative and well trodden: complete His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs form DT-Individual for relief under the United Kingdom–France treaty and ask for a nil-tax (NT) code so the pension is paid gross, then reclaim any British tax already withheld for the years concerned. Our guide on declaring a UK private pension in France and recovering British tax withheld walks through that DT-Individual mechanism, which works the same way for the State Pension. Do not simply stop declaring in one country while the other still withholds: run both procedures in parallel so that France taxes and the United Kingdom exempts, exactly as Article 18 requires.
One common misunderstanding should be cleared up at once. Some new arrivals assume that because the State Pension is paid by the British State, it must be a government-service pension taxable in Britain. It is not. The State Pension is a social-security benefit linked to your National Insurance record, and the treaty treats it as an ordinary pension under Article 18. Only pensions paid in respect of services rendered to the British State, a British local authority or a statutory body fall under Article 19. If HMRC or a pension provider tells you otherwise, ask them to put the treaty article they rely on in writing; in almost every State Pension case the correct answer is Article 18 and taxation in France.
B. How do I declare my State Pension in France and how much does France take?
French income tax starts from a simple principle stated in Article 79 of the Tax Code: “Les traitements, indemnités, émoluments, salaires, pensions et rentes viagères concourent à la formation du revenu global servant de base à l’impôt sur le revenu. Il en est de même des prestations de retraite servies sous forme de capital.” Full text on Article 79 of the Code général des impôts on Légifrance. Your British State Pension therefore joins your revenu global like a French pension would. The fact that the money comes from London changes the declaration paperwork, not the principle.
In practice, declare the gross annual amount of the State Pension, converted into euros, on form 2047 for income received abroad (déclaration des revenus encaissés à l’étranger), then carry the total onto your main return, form 2042. The official form and its notice are published each year by the French tax administration; see the form 2047 for income received abroad on impots.gouv.fr and the general guidance on how income received from abroad is taxed on impots.gouv.fr. Tick the correct boxes for pensions, keep your Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) annual statements and your bank statements showing each payment, and keep proof of the exchange rate you used. If you file online, which is compulsory for most French tax residents with internet access, the 2047 section appears as a supplement to the main return. A frequent and expensive mistake is declaring only the net pension after British withholding: declare the gross British amount, because the British tax is a separate matter to be reclaimed from HMRC, and the French calculation starts from the gross.
France then softens the bill with a standard allowance. Article 158, 5, a of the Tax Code provides: “Les pensions et retraites font l’objet d’un abattement de 10 % qui ne peut excéder 4 439 €.” The same paragraph adds the safety net for small pensions: “L’abattement indiqué au deuxième alinéa ne peut être inférieur à 454 €, sans pouvoir excéder le montant brut des pensions et retraites.” Read the applicable version on Article 158 of the Code général des impôts on Légifrance. The 10 per cent allowance applies to the total pensions of the whole foyer fiscal, it is capped, and it cannot be lower than the minimum per pensioner. Your British State Pension qualifies for this allowance exactly like a French pension de retraite. After the allowance, the net amount joins the progressive scale of income tax, and the quotient familial — the system of parts that divides the household income according to its composition — applies normally.
On top of income tax come the prélèvements sociaux, and here your healthcare paperwork decides everything, as explained in part II. If you are affiliated to the French health system without an S1, your pension bears the contribution sociale généralisée (CSG, the general social contribution). The charge is created by Article L. 136-1 of the Code de la sécurité sociale (the Social Security Code): “Il est institué une contribution sociale sur les revenus d’activité et sur les revenus de remplacement à laquelle sont assujettis : 1° Les personnes physiques qui sont à la fois considérées comme domiciliées en France pour l’établissement de l’impôt sur le revenu et à la charge, à quelque titre que ce soit, d’un régime obligatoire français d’assurance maladie ;” See Article L. 136-1 of the Code de la sécurité sociale on Légifrance. Note the two cumulative conditions: French tax residence and coverage by a compulsory French health scheme. Holders of a British S1 are covered by the British scheme, not the French one, so they fall outside this charge — the precise point developed below.
The rate structure is set by Article L. 136-8 of the same code, which states: “Sont assujetties à la contribution au taux de 8,3 % les pensions de retraite, et les pensions d’invalidité.” Reduced rates of 6.6 per cent and 3.8 per cent, or full exemption, apply depending on the household’s revenu fiscal de référence — the reference tax income — for the year before last, measured against the thresholds of Article 1417 of the Tax Code. See Article L. 136-8 of the Code de la sécurité sociale on Légifrance and Article 1417 of the Code général des impôts on Légifrance. Concretely, a British retiree with a comfortable household income pays CSG at 8.3 per cent on the State Pension on top of income tax, a retiree on a modest income may pay 6.6 or 3.8 per cent, and the lowest incomes pay nothing. Check the rate printed on your avis d’impôt — the annual tax assessment — every year, because crossing a threshold by a few euros can change the rate, and errors in the rate applied are among the easiest to get corrected.
Two reassuring points close this calculation. First, because you receive a retirement pension, you are not liable for the cotisation subsidiaire maladie (CSM, the annual health contribution charged to some inactive residents with capital income). Article L. 380-2 of the Social Security Code charges that contribution only to persons covered by Article L. 160-1 who meet two conditions, and it states them plainly: “Les personnes mentionnées à l’article L. 160-1 sont redevables d’une cotisation annuelle lorsqu’elles remplissent les conditions suivantes : 1° Leurs revenus tirés, au cours de l’année considérée, d’activités professionnelles exercées en France sont inférieurs à un seuil fixé par décret.” The second condition excludes anyone who received a retirement or invalidity pension during the year: “2° Elles n’ont perçu ni pension de retraite ou d’invalidité, ni rente, ni aucun montant d’allocation de chômage au cours de l’année considérée.” See Article L. 380-2 of the Code de la sécurité sociale on Légifrance. Your UK State Pension therefore shields you from the CSM by definition — a real saving, since the courts validate very large CSM bills against people who do not meet the exemption. The Paris Court of Appeal, for example, upheld a 2017 CSM call of 37,429 euros against an insured person who could not show she escaped the charge. Pensioners should read that case as good news: the exemption for pension recipients is exactly what keeps them out of such bills.
Second, keep every document. The French administration can question the amounts, the exchange rate and the treaty position, and the burden of showing the gross pension, the British tax withheld and the S1 cover lies on you. DWP annual letters, P60-style summaries where issued, bank statements and the S1 itself form the file that wins both the French declaration and the British reclaim.
II. Protecting Your Pension, Your Healthcare and Your Refunds
Taxation is only half the story. A British State Pension in France also means annual increases, healthcare rights and, when the two administrations disagree, formal remedies. This second part covers each in turn.
A. Will my State Pension still increase each year and what healthcare do I get?
Yes, your State Pension continues to rise while you live in France. The British government publishes the list of countries where the annual increase — the triple-lock uprating — is paid, and France appears on it. See the official list at Countries where the United Kingdom pays an annual increase in the State Pension on GOV.UK. This is a Brexit dividend of the Trade and Cooperation Agreement’s social-security protocol: unlike British pensioners in some far-flung countries whose pensions are frozen, British pensioners resident in France receive the yearly increase. If your pension has not moved for a year, contact the International Pension Centre of the Department for Work and Pensions before assuming the worst; frozen-pension cases in France are almost always administrative errors, changes of bank details or unanswered life certificates, not a change in the law.
Healthcare follows a parallel logic: France covers you, and Britain pays behind the scenes if you hold the right paper. Anyone who works in France, or who lives there in a stable and lawful way without working, is covered for health costs. Article L. 160-1 of the Social Security Code states: “Toute personne travaillant ou, lorsqu’elle n’exerce pas d’activité professionnelle, résidant en France de manière stable et régulière bénéficie, en cas de maladie ou de maternité, de la prise en charge de ses frais de santé dans les conditions fixées au présent livre.” See Article L. 160-1 of the Code de la sécurité sociale on Légifrance. Stability and lawful residence are assessed under statutory rules, and Article L. 111-2-3 entrusts a decree with setting “les conditions d’appréciation de la stabilité de la résidence et de la régularité du séjour”. See Article L. 111-2-3 of the Code de la sécurité sociale on Légifrance. In practice this is the protection universelle maladie (PUMA, the universal French health cover): after three months of stable residence with a valid residence right, you can register with the CPAM even if you have never worked in France.
For State Pension recipients, however, the better route is usually the S1. Ask the British authorities for an S1 certificate once you draw the State Pension and move to France, then register it with your CPAM. The S1 makes the United Kingdom the State that bears the cost of your French healthcare, gives you full French cover on the same terms as a French insured person, and — crucially for part I — keeps you outside the French CSG charge on the pension, because you are not à la charge of a compulsory French scheme within the meaning of Article L. 136-1. Our detailed guide on CSG on a British pension, the S1 and how to claim a refund explains that exemption and the refund procedure step by step. If you reached France before drawing the pension, you may start under PUMA and switch to S1 status when the State Pension begins; tell the CPAM and keep both registration letters, because the tax office uses your affiliation history to set the CSG position year by year.
A final practical warning on health costs. Before your French registration is complete, keep your Global Health Insurance Card (GHIC) and every medical invoice. Necessary care received during a gap in cover can be reimbursed retrospectively once the CPAM file is complete, but only with dated proof of payment. Readers who hit a refusal at this stage should consult our guide on recovering medical costs paid before CPAM registration.
B. HMRC still withholds tax or France charges social charges: how do I get it back and challenge?
Two disputes dominate British retirees’ files: British tax withheld at source that should never have been taken, and French social charges levied at the wrong rate or from someone holding an S1. Each has its own remedy, and the two can run at the same time.
On the British side, the mechanism is treaty relief at source plus repayment. Send form DT-Individual to HMRC with proof of French residence — your French tax notice or a certificate of residence from the French tax office — and request that the State Pension be paid gross with an NT code. For tax already deducted, the same form triggers repayment for the open years, subject to HMRC time limits, so act as soon as the first wrongly taxed payment lands rather than waiting for the French assessment. Keep copies of everything: HMRC coding notices, replies from the pension payer and proof of posting, because files do get lost between Newcastle, Wolverhampton and your French address. If HMRC refuses relief on the ground that the pension is a government-service pension, answer in writing that the UK State Pension is paid in consideration of a National Insurance record and falls under Article 18, not Article 19, quoting the treaty sentence reproduced in part I. In stubborn cases a formal complaint, then the Adjudicator’s Office, can unblock a file that the treaty entitles you to win.
On the French side, check the CSG line before paying. The three most frequent errors are: CSG charged at 8.3 per cent when the reference income entitled you to 6.6 or 3.8 per cent or to exemption; CSG charged for a year in which you were covered by an S1; and CSG charged on a pension that the treaty reserves to the United Kingdom — rare for the State Pension, but possible where a pension has been misclassified. Each error is corrected by a réclamation contentieuse — a formal tax claim — addressed to the tax office that issued the assessment, within the statutory time limit shown on the notice, attaching the S1 or affiliation history, the DWP statements and the calculation showing the correct rate. If the administration maintains the charge, the dispute moves to the administrative court (tribunal administratif), where treaty allocation and the two conditions of Article L. 136-1 are reviewed in full. Do not let the deadline pass while negotiating informally: file the formal claim first, negotiate second.
The courts’ attitude should encourage careful challengers and discourage casual ones. The Marseille Administrative Court of Appeal recently dealt with a taxpayer who challenged both income tax and social charges: “M. B… A… a demandé au tribunal administratif de Toulon de prononcer la décharge, en droits et pénalités, des cotisations supplémentaires d’impôt sur le revenu et de contributions sociales auxquelles il a été assujetti au titre des années 2012 et 2013 et de mettre à la charge de l’Etat le versement d’une somme de 3 000 euros au titre de l’article L. 761-1 du code de justice administrative.” After a journey up to the Conseil d’État and back on remand, the court closed the case with: “Article 1er : La requête de M. A… est rejetée.” Read the ruling: CAA Marseille, 5th chamber, 22 September 2025, No. 25MA00518 on Légifrance. The message is worth understanding: judges examine the legal basis of each charge in full, so challenge the ground that actually cancels a charge — the treaty article, the S1 cover, the rate or the exemption — rather than betting everything on a procedural detail.
For British readers planning ahead rather than fighting arrears, three related guides complete the picture. If you have not yet claimed the pension, read our guide on paying voluntary National Insurance from France to protect the State Pension. If you hold a private pension alongside the State Pension, the declaration and reclaim logic is set out in our UK private pension guide. And if a lump sum or a transfer is on the table, see our analysis of pension lump sums and QROPS transfers for British residents in France. Taken together, these pieces map the whole British retirement in France; the present article is the State Pension cornerstone.
Conclusion
A British State Pension received while living in France belongs to France for tax purposes under Article 18 of the 2008 treaty, subject only to the government-service exception of Article 19. Declare the gross pension on forms 2047 and 2042, apply the 10 per cent allowance, verify the CSG rate against your reference income, and use the S1 to keep the pension outside French social charges altogether. Claim the British exemption through HMRC with form DT-Individual, keep the pension uprated through the International Pension Centre, and register promptly with the CPAM. Where either administration gets it wrong — British withholding that should have stopped, French social charges at the wrong rate or against an S1 holder — the file that wins is the documented one: treaty text, DWP statements, S1 and affiliation history, filed within the time limit. Handled in that order, the State Pension becomes what it should be after Brexit: a stable, rising, singly taxed income supporting your French life.
Need a quick opinion on your case
Our firm offers a telephone consultation within 48 hours with an advocate of the chambers, to check your State Pension file, your S1 position and your treaty claim before you write to either administration. Call +33 6 46 60 58 22 or write via our contact page, attaching your latest French tax notice and your DWP statement.