Information to CERN pensioners affected by tax at source in France

On the basis of the information we have to date, here are some answers to the questions posed to us by our retired colleagues residing in France about the withholding tax that will come into effect on 1 January 2019:

• As in the past, you will continue to report your income between April and June of each year;  this declaration allows the tax authorities to calculate your tax rate.
• If you receive a pension of French origin, the paying agency will have received from the tax office your tax rate and will directly deduct the corresponding tax:  the tax payment on this French pension having thus been made, you will receive less than today.
• The CERN Pension Fund—an organization established outside France and therefore not subject to French law—will not make any deduction:  your CERN pension will be paid to you, without change, as it is now into your Swiss account.  One twelfth of the tax corresponding to this CERN pension and calculated using your tax rate, will be levied each month on the French bank account that you have communicated to the tax authorities:  this is the monthly payment.
• If you have opted in the past for monthly payment of your tax, the change will be minimal:  instead of a payment, from your French account, spread over the first 10 months of the year, it will be spread over 12 months.
• Any adjustments (credits and tax reductions, regularization, etc.) will be made at the end, after your final declaration.
• The two key figures, tax rate and monthly payment for 2019, can be found on page 4 of your 2018 tax assessment ("avis").
• On page 4 also, it is indicated that you can opt for quarterly payments instead of monthly payments.
• Finally, for those of you who have to pay social contributions (CSG, CRDS, Casa) on their CERN pension, it would seem that the payment of these contributions is excluded from the monthly payments, but that these contributions must be paid in one go on receipt of the 2019 tax notice:  so be careful…