Comments on: Work Experience in France http://www.francethisway.com/wp/work-experience-in-france/2007/02/ Living in France and daily life for a UK expat in the French blog! Fri, 20 Nov 2009 17:50:08 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: Arnold http://www.francethisway.com/wp/work-experience-in-france/2007/02/comment-page-1/#comment-3459 Arnold Mon, 19 Feb 2007 13:34:53 +0000 http://www.francethisway.com/wp/work-experience-in-france/2007/02/#comment-3459 Oh, and you WILL receive a French state pension. What happens when you retire is that they add up the number of years of contributions to national insurance or its equivalent elsewhere in Europe and whatever European country you retire in is stuck with the bill for the amount of state pension under their scheme that they would need to pay for that number of years of contributions. Soooo, best plan is to work in the cheapest country for national insurance equivalent and retire in the one that pays the highest pension. Funnily enough, you can them emmigrate from that country and still receive their pension! Oh, and you WILL receive a French state pension. What happens when you retire is that they add up the number of years of contributions to national insurance or its equivalent elsewhere in Europe and whatever European country you retire in is stuck with the bill for the amount of state pension under their scheme that they would need to pay for that number of years of contributions.

Soooo, best plan is to work in the cheapest country for national insurance equivalent and retire in the one that pays the highest pension. Funnily enough, you can them emmigrate from that country and still receive their pension!

]]> By: Arnold http://www.francethisway.com/wp/work-experience-in-france/2007/02/comment-page-1/#comment-3458 Arnold Mon, 19 Feb 2007 13:31:21 +0000 http://www.francethisway.com/wp/work-experience-in-france/2007/02/#comment-3458 One bit of good news... if you have a suitable pension in another European country before you arrive in France, then you are NOT required to have another pension in France as per European law. By suitable, in a UK context and working here as self-employed this means that you can count any UK pension scheme that is suitable for self-employed people such as SIPPs (the best option) and stakeholder pensions. What you can't count is a UK company pension unless you are still working for the company whilst in France, essentially as you can't contribute to it after you leave the company (if you could, I imagine that you could count that too). Incidently, you still get UK tax relief for at least five years after you leave the UK on any pension contributions up to the stakeholder limit when I left and probably more now under the new UK regulations. The French don't like it and send several letters demanding that you join a French scheme but by now have long since given up hope of getting me pay into a French pension as with each reply I quoted more and more European law to fill in gaps in their knowledge. They seemed to rely on the word "obligatory" for their arguments but it's only obligatory if you don't have a suitable pension from another European country. One bit of good news… if you have a suitable pension in another European country before you arrive in France, then you are NOT required to have another pension in France as per European law. By suitable, in a UK context and working here as self-employed this means that you can count any UK pension scheme that is suitable for self-employed people such as SIPPs (the best option) and stakeholder pensions. What you can’t count is a UK company pension unless you are still working for the company whilst in France, essentially as you can’t contribute to it after you leave the company (if you could, I imagine that you could count that too).

Incidently, you still get UK tax relief for at least five years after you leave the UK on any pension contributions up to the stakeholder limit when I left and probably more now under the new UK regulations.

The French don’t like it and send several letters demanding that you join a French scheme but by now have long since given up hope of getting me pay into a French pension as with each reply I quoted more and more European law to fill in gaps in their knowledge. They seemed to rely on the word “obligatory” for their arguments but it’s only obligatory if you don’t have a suitable pension from another European country.

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