Fiscal Planning for Retiring in France by Robert Anthony
France Can be a low tax jurisdiction!!
France is seldom seen as a low tax jurisdiction – which it can be, provided everything is correctly planned. Certainly the current “earned income” situation in France is not at all attractive.
It should be taken into account that even with a tax level higher than countries like the UK and US, with careful structuring a taxable rate in excess of 54% excluding social taxes can be reduced to between 0 – 10% of taxable income (which is below the rate of Switzerland and the other countries of the European Union!).
When retiring there are several types of income such as investment income and pension income. The question therefore remains: How can one have different sorts of taxable income and still retain a relatively modest tax rate? Obviously, very high net worth individuals may have different problems such as wealth tax. The average person’s wealth, however, is relative and this article is addressed to those with an asset base under 10 million dollars.
How this question of lower taxes can be achieved is not an unsolvable mystery. When one scratches below the surface one finds legislation that enables tax planning which gives a very different result from the initial perception. Correctly structured, retirement in France can be fiscally advantageous. France can even be a low tax jurisdiction – better than any other OECD country in Europe !
One will now separate the forms of income to show the planning needed and also the effect on each type.