You retired from teaching in Leeds, settled in the Charente, and now two tax offices claim a slice of the same Teachers’ pension. HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC, the British tax authority) keeps deducting British income tax through PAYE (Pay As You Earn, the British withholding system) before the money reaches your French bank account. Then the French avis d’imposition (the official tax assessment notice) arrives from your local service des impôts des particuliers (the personal tax office) and appears to tax that very same pension all over again. A neighbour tells you to stop declaring it in France. A well-meaning accountant in London tells you Britain has no right to tax a French resident at all. Both pieces of advice are wrong for your case, and following either can cost you surcharges, interest and years of correspondence.

This guide is written for a British retired public servant living in France after Brexit: civil servants, NHS staff, teachers, police officers, firefighters, local government employees and members of the armed forces. Every French legal term is explained the first time it appears, and every decisive statement is linked to its official text so you can verify it yourself. Part I answers the threshold question: which of your British pensions does the France–UK double tax treaty leave taxable in Britain, and which does it hand to France? Part II is strictly practical: how to declare a British-taxed pension on the French return, how the treaty credit wipes out the French bill, what social charges apply, and how to challenge a wrong assessment on either side of the Channel. All quotations, figures and decisions below were checked against the official sources during the preparation of this article.

I. Which of Your British Pensions Does Britain Keep the Right to Tax After Your Move to France?

A. Why Your NHS, Teachers’, Civil Service, Police or Forces Pension Stays Taxable in the United Kingdom

Before any treaty allocates anything, French domestic law must first make you taxable in France. The gateway is the domicile fiscal (fiscal domicile, the connecting factor that makes you a French tax resident). It is defined by Article 4 B of the General Tax Code (Code général des impôts), and the test is deliberately wide. You are regarded as fiscally domiciled in France if your household or principal place of stay is in France, if you carry on a professional activity here otherwise than incidentally, or if the centre of your economic interests is here. In the words of the statute: “Les personnes qui ont en France leur foyer ou le lieu de leur séjour principal” are treated as having their fiscal domicile in France. For a retired couple who sold up in Yorkshire, bought near Angoulême and now spend eleven months a year in France, the first test alone is normally decisive. Keeping a dormant London bank account or remaining registered with a former GP in Manchester does not undo that result.

The same Article 4 B adds the sentence that opens the door to the treaty: “Les personnes qui satisfont à l’un au moins des critères fixés aux a à c du présent 1 ne peuvent toutefois pas être considérées comme ayant leur domicile fiscal en France lorsque, par application des conventions internationales relatives aux doubles impositions, elles ne sont pas regardées comme résidentes de France.” (Article 4 B of the General Tax Code, Légifrance). In plain English, even where you meet a domestic residence test, France must step back wherever the double tax treaty allocates residence or a taxing right to the other country. The treaty is therefore the second lock, and for pensions it works with two different keys.

The first key is Article 18 of the France–UK tax treaty of 19 June 2008, which covers ordinary pensions and reserves them, subject to the government-service rule, to the country where the pensioner lives (BOFiP, France–UK treaty commentary). Your UK State Pension, a British private personal pension and an occupational pension from a private-sector employer therefore fall to France alone once you are French resident. They must still be declared in France, but Britain should not tax them, and the treaty credit described in Part II neutralises any British deduction that persists.

The second key is Article 19 of the same treaty, on government service (fonctions publiques), and it reverses that outcome: a pension paid by the British State, a local authority or a public-law body, directly or out of a fund it set up, for past service to that body, is taxable only in Britain even though you live in France (BOFiP, France–UK treaty commentary). This is the provision that governs the Civil Service pension scheme, the NHS pension scheme, the Teachers’ Pension Scheme, police and firefighters’ schemes, the Local Government Pension Scheme and the armed forces pension schemes. The British government’s own guidance confirms the practical result in plain terms: most UK government pensions, such as civil service pensions, remain taxable only in the United Kingdom when you live abroad (GOV.UK, tax if you leave the UK to live abroad).

Two points about the scope of Article 19 matter in everyday files. First, the pension must reward service rendered to the paying State, authority or public body, and it may be paid directly or out of a fund the body set up, which covers the large funded arrangements such as the Local Government scheme as well as pensions paid straight from the Exchequer. Second, the French and British administrations read this article symmetrically: a French pension de fonctionnaire paid to a Briton retired in London stays taxable in France on exactly the same logic. If your household receives two pensions, for example a Teachers’ pension for one spouse and a private company pension for the other, the two pensions take different treaty routes in the same return. Confusing them is the single most common error in these files, and it is the error this guide exists to prevent.

B. The Three Boundary Cases That Decide Real Files: Nationality, Commercial Activity and Mixed Service Histories

The first boundary is nationality. Article 19(2) ends with an exception that surprises many households: where you live in France and hold French nationality only, the same government service pension becomes taxable only in France instead of Britain. In plain English, if you live in France, hold French nationality only, and draw a British government service pension, that pension becomes taxable only in France, not in Britain. The exception requires both conditions together: French residence plus sole French nationality. A dual British-French national retired in the Dordogne keeps the normal rule, so the NHS or civil service pension stays taxable in Britain. In practice the French tax office will ask for proof of nationality before applying either branch, so keep passports and any certificate of nationality with the tax file rather than hunting for them after the assessment arrives.

The second boundary is the nature of the activity. Paragraph 3 of Article 19 sends pensions linked to profit-making business carried on by a public body back to the ordinary employment and pensions articles, which for a French resident generally means taxation in France (BOFiP, France–UK treaty commentary). Where the pension rewards service performed in connection with a commercial business carried on by the State or a public body, the government-service privilege falls away. Most mainstream public-service careers, classroom teaching, hospital nursing, the police, the fire service, central administration and the forces, sit safely outside this exception. It bites instead at the margins, for example pensions linked to profit-making undertakings run by public entities, and those files need individual analysis rather than a blanket answer.

The third boundary is the mixed career, which is now the normal case rather than the exception. A nurse who spent fifteen years in the NHS and then ten years with a private clinic has two pensions taking two routes: the NHS pension taxable only in Britain under Article 19, the private scheme pension taxable only in France under Article 18. A teacher with a Teachers’ pension plus the UK State Pension declares both in France, but only the State Pension joins the French taxable base in the ordinary way, while the Teachers’ pension is declared and then neutralised by the treaty credit. The armed forces deserve a paragraph of their own, because paragraph 4(b) of Article 19 adds a genuine double exemption for war-related pensions covering British forces disability, sickness and war-injury pensions: where Britain exempts them, France exempts them too, whatever your nationality, while any taxable fraction of the same pension falls back under the normal government-service rule (the France treaty arrangements published by HMRC). A forces disability or war-injury pension that Britain exempts is therefore exempt in France too, whatever your nationality, while any taxable fraction of the same pension falls back under paragraph 2. Keep the British exemption certificate, because the French office cannot grant this relief on assertion alone.

II. How Do You Declare in France, Pay Only Once, and Put a Wrong Bill Right?

A. How Do You Declare a British-Taxed Pension on the French Return and Secure the Treaty Credit?

French domestic law starts from worldwide taxation. Article 79 of the General Tax Code provides: “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.” And Article 170 of the same code requires every person liable to income tax to file a detailed return of income and family circumstances: “toute personne imposable audit impôt est tenue de souscrire et de faire parvenir à l’administration une déclaration détaillée de ses revenus et bénéfices, de ses charges de famille et des autres éléments nécessaires au calcul de l’impôt sur le revenu”. The treaty never relieves you from declaring. The government service pension goes on the return in full, converted from sterling, and the treaty then operates inside the French computation to cancel the French tax on it. Omitting the pension because “the treaty exempts it” is the error that generates automated reassessments, because the French office sees the bank transfer but no corresponding line.

In practical terms, report the gross annual pension in sterling on form 2047 (the foreign-income schedule) and carry it to form 2042 (the main return), converting at a consistent yearly rate and keeping the rate sheet with your records. Declare the gross British amount before any British tax, not the net received after PAYE, because the French computation starts from the full pension and the treaty credit does the rest. Article 158, 5, a of the General Tax Code then grants the standard pension relief: “Les pensions et retraites font l’objet d’un abattement de 10 % qui ne peut excéder 4 439 €.” The 10 per cent allowance applies within its ceiling and floor per pensioner, exactly as for a French pension, before the treaty credit removes the remaining French tax attributable to the British government pension.

The credit itself comes from Article 24 of the treaty, whose French mechanism the Conseil d’État explained in an opinion given directly on this treaty. The court first confirmed that the treaty’s “nonobstant toute autre disposition de la présente Convention” language means British-taxable income stays reportable in France while remaining protected: the phrase “signifie qu’alors même que d’autres stipulations de la convention prévoient que certains revenus sont imposables ou ne sont imposables qu’au Royaume Uni, ces revenus peuvent néanmoins être pris en compte pour le calcul de l’impôt français” (Conseil d’État, opinion of 12 February 2020, No 435907). It then settled the point that rescues most pension files: “cette condition n’exige pas que les revenus en cause aient été soumis à une imposition effective.” No effective British taxation is required. And it gave the rule its usable form: “la condition prévue à l’alinéa (i) du a) du paragraphe 3 de l’article 24 de la convention doit être regardée comme satisfaite s’il est établi par le résident de France qu’il a déclaré les revenus en cause au Royaume-Uni, parce que ces revenus étaient compris dans la base de l’un des impôts énumérés au a) du 1 de l’article 2 de la convention, alors même qu’il n’aurait acquitté dans cet Etat aucun impôt à raison de ces revenus.” (Conseil d’État, 12 February 2020, No 435907). A retired teacher whose British personal allowance wipes out any British liability therefore still obtains the full French credit, provided the pension fell within the scope of British income tax and was duly declared there. Keep the P60 (the British end-of-year pay and tax certificate), the pension payslips and, where relevant, the British self-assessment return, because the French office routinely asks for them.

Two related points complete the declaration picture. First, the special British claim form changes nothing for you. The French administration explains that a French resident seeking exemption from British withholding on private pensions and similar income must file a specific claim on the France-Individual form for individuals, certified by the French tax office (BOFiP, treaty application procedures France–UK). That procedure exists for income Britain must give up, essentially Article 18 private pensions. A government service pensioner claims no British relief, because Britain keeps the taxing right, so there is no form to send to HMRC and no certificate to wait for. The only paperwork runs the other way: declare in France, attach the British proofs, claim the Article 24 credit.

Second, income tax is only half the bill; social charges (prélèvements sociaux, the French social levies collected alongside income tax) follow their own logic. Pensions of French residents can attract the general social contribution (CSG), the social debt repayment contribution (CRDS) and, where applicable, the solidarity contribution, even where the treaty neutralises the income tax. The rates are set by statute: “Sont assujetties à la contribution au taux de 8,3 % les pensions de retraite, et les pensions d’invalidité” (Article L.136-8 of the Social Security Code), with a reduced 3.8 per cent rate for modest households and CRDS on top. The escape route for most retired public servants is the S1 healthcare certificate: “ne sont pas redevables de la contribution les personnes qui, par application des dispositions du règlement (CE) n° 883/2004 du Parlement européen et du Conseil du 29 avril 2004 sur la coordination des systèmes de sécurité sociale, relèvent en matière d’assurance maladie d’une législation soumise à ces dispositions et qui ne sont pas à la charge d’un régime obligatoire de sécurité sociale français” (Article L.136-6, I ter of the Social Security Code). A British pensioner whose healthcare in France is funded by Britain under an S1 is therefore outside the French social charges on the pension, while an early retiree affiliated to the French universal scheme (PUMa) stays inside them. The boundary is actively litigated: the Court of Cassation has held that exceptional lump-sum redemptions of supplementary pension contracts can fall outside the CSG, CRDS and health-contribution base, The point was settled by the Court of Cassation, Second Civil Chamber, 8 October 2020, No 19-16.078, published in the Bulletin, which excluded exceptional lump-sum redemptions of defined-contribution supplementary pension contracts from the CSG, CRDS and health-contribution base where the policyholder uses the early-release faculty for the specific events listed in the Insurance Code. Commuted lump sums and redundancy-linked payments therefore deserve separate analysis rather than being folded silently into the pension line. Readers wanting the full social-charge picture, including refund claims for past years, can consult our companion guide on the 9.1 per cent charge and the S1 exemption (British retiree: the social charge on your UK pension and the S1 exemption), and those weighing a transfer out of a British scheme should read our analysis of the 25 per cent overseas charge first (UK pension, QROPS transfer and the 25 per cent charge).

B. What Do You Do When HMRC or the French Tax Office Gets It Wrong?

Errors on the British side usually take one of two forms. Either the pension payer was told you were non-resident and issued an NT (no tax) code, so Britain stopped withholding on a government pension it was entitled to tax, and HMRC later presents the arrears with interest; or Britain keeps taxing an Article 18 private or State Pension that belongs to France, and you pay twice while each office points at the other. In the first case, regularise with HMRC through self-assessment and restore the correct code going forward, because the treaty entitles Britain to that tax and no French credit can create a British liability that was never paid. In the second case, claim double-taxation relief in Britain using the France-specific procedure (the Form France-Individual route for private pensions) and keep HMRC’s written answer, since the French credit under Article 24 only cancels French tax and cannot refund British tax wrongly kept. The double-taxation digest and the treaty collection on GOV.UK identify the correct form for each income type (GOV.UK, tax if you leave the UK to live abroad).

Errors on the French side follow an equally familiar script: the avis d’imposition taxes the government pension in full with no treaty credit, or it applies social charges to an S1 holder, or it treats the Teachers’ pension as an Article 18 private pension and asks Britain for tax that Britain will never concede. Start in writing with a reasoned complaint (réclamation contentieuse, the formal claim to the tax office) to your local office, attaching the British P60 and pension statements, the treaty article relied on, the Conseil d’État opinion above and, for social charges, the S1. Time matters: “Pour être recevables, les réclamations relatives aux impôts autres que les impôts directs locaux et les taxes annexes à ces impôts, doivent être présentées à l’administration au plus tard le 31 décembre de la deuxième année suivant celle” of the assessment, payment or triggering event (Article R*196-1 of the Tax Procedures Book (Livre des procédures fiscales)). Miss that date and even a manifestly unlawful charge becomes definitive. If the office maintains the assessment, the dispute moves to the administrative court (tribunal administratif), which applies the same two-step method used throughout this guide: French domestic law first, treaty allocation second, credit arithmetic last.

Throughout, keep one chronological bundle holding the residence evidence (French lease or title deeds, utility bills, travel records), the pension proofs (award letters, P60s, payslips, British returns), the exchange-rate sheets, both countries’ assessments and every letter from either administration. A complete bundle settles most files at the complaint stage; a scattered file turns a routine credit into litigation. And where the file mixes categories, a government pension for one spouse, a State Pension and a small private pot for the other, have each pension classified in writing before the return is filed. The classification decides everything downstream: Article 18 or Article 19, credit or no credit, S1 exemption or French social charges. Getting it set once, with the proofs attached, converts twenty years of annual anxiety into a repeatable routine.

Conclusion

A retired British public servant in France lives under one stack of rules that works in a fixed order, and each step in this guide maps onto it. First, French domestic law decides whether you are resident, through the household, activity and economic-centre tests of Article 4 B, with worldwide pensions entering global income under Article 79 and a detailed yearly return required by Article 170. Second, the treaty of 19 June 2008 allocates each pension separately: ordinary State and private pensions to France under Article 18, government service pensions to Britain under Article 19 unless you are a solely French national resident in France, commercial-activity pensions back to the ordinary articles, and war-disability pensions to double exemption where Britain exempts them. Third, the French return implements the result: gross sterling declared on forms 2047 and 2042, the 10 per cent allowance within its ceiling, the Article 24 credit that needs British declarability rather than British payment, and social charges that follow affiliation rather than income tax, with the S1 as the usual way out. The recurring errors are always the same: omitting the pension as “treaty-exempt”, declaring it net of British tax, filing the Teachers’ or NHS pension down the private-pension route, sending HMRC a claim form the treaty never required, and letting the complaint deadline pass. Avoid those five, keep one bundle of proofs from both countries, and the two envelopes that opened this guide become a single computation instead of a yearly dispute.

Need a quick opinion on your case.

Taxed in both Britain and France on the same public-sector pension, or unsure whether Article 18 or Article 19 covers your NHS, Teachers’ or forces pension? Get a telephone consultation within 48 hours with an avocat of the firm. Call +33 6 46 60 58 22 or write via our contact page. We advise British retirees throughout France, and in Paris and Île-de-France.