Tax on Dividends paid by French Listed Companies

Thrugelmir

Could someone kindly let me know what the tax position is on dividends paid by French listed companies to a non resident.
 
Before investing thought that I should confirm the position. 

Mr.Saver

I don't know the tax rules on France side at all, so that part will need to be filled in by other people who are familiar with the French tax laws.

On the UK side, it's easy. Foreign dividends over £300 in a tax year will need to be declared in the foreign section of Self-Assessment, and anything below £2,000 will be tax at 0%. So, in summary:
Foreign dividends less than £300: You don't need to do anything
Foreign dividends more than £300: You will need to declare it
Foreign & UK dividends less than £2,000: You don't need to pay tax
Foreign & UK dividends more than £2,000: You will need to pay the dividends tax. The tax rate is available at here.

Also, if France deducts any tax before paying the dividends to you, you may be able to claim the foreign tax relief in the UK, see here.

benbay001

Related - Would an ISA shelter you from the UK tax of the French dividend?

bowlhead99

benbay001 said:

Related - Would an ISA shelter you from the UK tax of the French dividend?

Yes, all income and gains in an ISA are exempt from UK tax - that doesn't change whether they are from a UK company, French company, Guernsey company, US company, etc etc.

As there would be no UK tax bill in that circumstance there wouldn't be any opportunity to deduct foreign tax from it, even if foreign tax had been paid (ie no chance to claim any foreign tax from HMRC because HMRC don't have any money from you in relation to that dividend, to give back via a reclaim).

French withholding tax on dividends paid to a non-resident individual is just under 13%.

drphila

Mr.Saver said:

Foreign dividends less than £300: You don't need to do anything

You still need to report it in the Dividends section of the SA form

bowlhead99

drphila said:

Mr.Saver said:

Foreign dividends less than £300: You don't need to do anything

You still need to report it in the Dividends section of the SA form

*If* you're doing an SA form, yes. But if you haven't actually got any dividend tax to pay and are not doing an SA for any other reason, you don't need to do anything.

A small amount of foreign income that you don't need to pay tax on would not be a trigger for needing to file a self assessment. If you had foreign income that you actually needed to pay tax on, or over £10k of savings and investment income, or had various other types of income or personal circumstances that led you to need to do a self assessment... then you'd need to declare it because your SA return wouldn't be truthful if you didn't include it.

Thrugelmir

Thanks everyone