During election campaigning in France, President Macron stated that he wanted to review taxes and make reductions for businesses and individuals.
One of the most unpopular taxes in France is the wealth tax. Under current rules (2017) as a French resident, taxable wealth includes worldwide assets such as property, jewellery, cars and investments.
Several months into his reign and Macron seems to be keeping to his promise that he plans to rein in France’s wealth tax. The current structure imposes a 0.5% starting levy on assets over €900,000 (£762,000, $990,000), increasing gradually to a top rate of 1.5% to anything over €10m.
Under the new rules Macron is proposing, any non-property related wealth would be exempt from the tax.
What do wealth tax changes in France mean for expats?
“It makes using tools such as ‘contrat d’assurance vie’ far more attractive than before and will help France retain wealthier residents and attract new ones” says Jennie Poate, financial expert. “An Assurance Vie is a wrapper that holds financial investments, like a Life Policy in some countries. The French name makes it sound like a life insurance policy but it’s not, it’s an investment product. For expats in Franec it can be a good way to maximise tax savings, capital is available for draw down and a variety of different fund options are available according to the risk the person wishes to take. This varies from interest bearing products to stocks and shares. In the future property investment may be less attractive as that will be included in the wealth tax calculation. The expectation is that investment into long term policies will rise dramatically if the option to reduce wealth tax by investment into an ‘Assurance Vie’ over property is available.”
The information on these pages is intended only as an introduction only and is not designed to offer solutions or advice. Beacon Global Wealth Management can accept no responsibility whatsoever for losses incurred by acting on the information on this page.
The financial advisers trading under Beacon Wealth Management are members of Nexus Global (IFA Network). Nexus Global is a division within Blacktower Financial Management (International) Limited (BFMI).All approved individual members of Nexus Global are Appointed Representatives of BFMI. BFMI is licenced and regulated by the Gibraltar Financial Services Commission and bound by their rules under licence number FSC00805B
