Can French tax resident keep UK bank account?

aroominyork

My son has UK (and Aussie) citizenship. He lives in Paris and during the next six months will move his tax residency to France; also, later this year he will be eligible for French citizenship and will probably apply. He has a current account at Nationwide. My question is whether there is any chance that once he has informed HMRC of his change of tax residency, Nationwide will force him to close or change his account? This is important because he wants to take out a two-year savings product this month and the institution in question would want to pay interest and the final capital into the same Nationwide account that he funds it from.

eskbanker

If Nationwide are already aware that he lives in France, changing tax residency or citizenship shouldn't affect his ability to retain the account.

If push came to shove, it ought to be possible to change the linked account for a savings product, but presumably he'll be planning to migrate his finances fully to France anyway?

grumpy_codger

I think it's just residency that counts, not tax residency or citizenship.

www.nationwide.co.uk/help/your-details/registering-foreign-address-online/

ETA:

And what "two-year savings product" does he want to apply for?

For all their fixed rate products they say very clearly:

Who can apply

UK residents aged 16 or over.

www.nationwide.co.uk/savings/compare-savings-accounts-and-isas/

I think formally he has already lost his UK residency.

Ergates

Both UK and France allow multi-citizenships, so becoming a French citizen would not impact his UK citizenship.

A non-UK resident cannot open or hold an ISA.

WastedWords

Non-UK resident can continue to hold ISAs opened while UK resident, however the ISAs would probably not be considered tax free in the new country.

PRAISETHESUN

Tax residency or country(s) of citizenship aren't really the issues here but physical residency is. Focusing purely on tax residency here, most banks are happy to deal with tax multi-residents (apart from US which is a completely different kettle of fish), but not all banks are happy to offer accounts to non-UK physical residents, or to retain existing accounts once the holder leaves the UK. I would ask Nationwide directly what their stance on this is. Also to mention that HMRC are not going to pass along anything you tell them to Nationwide themselves, so you will have to inform them of your change in tax residency yourself as well.

And I would also echo the points above about ISA considerations. I have to deal with double taxation in Australia/UK and it has made ISAs annoying to manage in the past. Other types of savings are generally ok, but you need to keep on mind the different tax years in different countries and keep records accordingly.

born_again

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6667936/can-french-tax-resident-keep-uk-bank-account

Many banks do not allow non UK residents to open new accounts.

He will need to inform Nationwide that he is going to be paying tax in France. As he will need to declare these accounts to French tax authorities, tax purposes.

aroominyork

Thanks All. He will inform Nationwide (thanks grumpy_codger for www.nationwide.co.uk/help/your-details/registering-foreign-address-online/) and HMRC and continue paying tax in France. There is lots to work through, including that when he liquidates his ISA & LISA, France will tax the gain since he first took them out - not since moving to France. Since he is unlikely to buy a property in France he will take the LISA penalty, though at least that should reduce the France-taxed gain.