Morning all!
For this year’s revenue declaration (2022 revenue) it now mentions “capitalisation” funds or something in the list of foreign accounts one has to declare.
Does this include defined contribution pension schemes / funds? I havent previously declared those but it’s the first time I’ve noticed the word “capitalisation”.
I haven’t retired yet, one or two years to go.
Thanks in advance for your help.
The detailed notes to the annexe (3916 (see below) spell out that the focus of the Impôts is very clearly on Assurance Vie and similar investment products opened or held offshore. Obviously whilst that doesn’t make it clear that they’re not interested in overseas pension schemes, I think it a reasonable assumption that they would not be expecting you to report the latter’s mere existence (as opposed to existing long standing obligations to report pension income from them)…others may have different interpretations. I am not reporting the very existence of offshore pension schemes, but obviously have reported income from those, where applicable.
• Lorsque des contrats de capitalisation ou des placements de même nature, notamment des contrats d’assurance-vie, sont souscrits par des personnes physiques auprès d’organismes mentionnés au I de l’article 1649 ter du code général des impôts qui sont établis hors de France, les souscripteurs sont tenus de déclarer, en même temps que leur déclaration de revenus, les références des contrats ou placements concernés, la date d’effet et la durée de ces contrats ou placements, les opérations de remboursement et de versement des primes effectuée au cours de l’année précédente et, le cas échéant, la valeur de rachat ou le montant du capital garanti, y compris sous forme de rente, au 1er janvier de l’année de la déclaration.
Thanks George,
I do agree with that interpretation, seems logical.
Let’s see if anyone else has a different interpretation.
Alan
Alan, my guess is that non-French Assurance Vie accounts represent quite a significant tax ‘leakage’ risk for the French fisc, hence their evident focus, alongside (on the same 3916 form) crypto, itself of course a significant tax leakage risk.
Overseas pension funds I would have thought hold little specific concerns for the fisc, since they are usually (very) heavily regulated. The distributions from them are subject to forms of withholdings in home countries, reporting obligations in France, and are fully covered by tax treaties etc, to a much greater extent than either crypto (probably not specifically referred to in tax treaties) or offshore Assurance Vie.
Thanks George for you detailed answer, a,d sorry for the late reply! I do agree that the Fisc wouldn’t be too worried about pension schemes in UK but I’m more worried about the fines for not declaring!!! The new wording this year (unless I’m mistaken) includes “par capitalisation” and that is exactly the phrase used to describe find based pensions (either DC pensions or Sipps/Qrops). I suppose there is no harm in declaring
them…
I’m curious about this too. Do we think the same interpretations apply to Final Salary type UK (employer) pension schemes? I very much understand the need to declare the income from payments once retirement begins, but the existence of such a fund until then is a gray area in terms of declaration.
By the way, some people on here have suggested that organising a meeting at the local Impots is the way to go for these kinds of questions, but when I try to do this a small box appears saying ‘pas de rendez-vous disponible’ and that’s it! Same when I opt for a telephone rendez-vous. When I try to call them I get a robot inviting me to push a load of different buttons then I’m told there’s nobody available to take my call!
I even tried calling a couple of expert comptables locally to ask if they offer services to individuals but they weren’t interested; I guess they’re busy at the moment and small-fry like me calling at the last minute get short shrift.
I don’t know your area… but I do know that our Tax Office (1.5 hrs away) does accept folk who turn up and queue… (for what can seem like days 
).
Their website says what days they are open to the public and (if I recall correctly) PM is for Rendezvous (which are always already full)… but those particular mornings AM are “free”…
Last time we queued, we arrived around 7.30am and we were not the first !!
Whatever… best of luck.
Thanks Stella!