Taxation issues relating to impatriates and expatriates

International taxation

“Impatriate” may be used to describe two different situations. The first relates to the arrival of a foreign worker in France via a company. The second relates to an expatriated employee returning to their country of origin after a period of at least 5 years.

An “expatriate” on the other hand may be defined as an employee working in a country other than their own. In fact, the word “expatriate” derives from the Greek “exo” (outside) and “patrida” (the country). And so any person working outside their country of origin is considered as being an expatriate.

Impatriates and expatriates may benefit from an income tax relief scheme on their salaries and on their foreign investment income received during the period of their assignment. It should be noted that impatriates and expa-triates fall within different taxation schemes.

This favourable taxation was set up in France to attract “foreign talent” and enable France to be competitive with other countries. In fact, this type of taxation relief also exists in a wide number of countries, in particular to attract senior executives in major international groups. This also results in tax income related to high income earned by expatriates and impatriates which is still high in spite of these relief schemes.

In exchange for these taxation benefits, impatriates bring their expe-rience, dynamism and new skills to French companies. The aim is to create growth in the company. In making their integration easier, in particular by advantageous taxation schemes, the French government hopes to attract new talent to diversify the skills level of French companies.

 

Discover below the summary of this document

 

1. Impatriate taxation
   • Who is eligible to benefit?
   • Requirements for residences for tax purposes
   • For how long can an impatriate benefit from this scheme?
2. Expatriate taxation
   • Rules which are common to all exemptions
   • Full exemption
   • Partial exemption
3. Issues for impatriates and expatriates
   • Who are these impatriates and expatriates?
   • Why attract them?

 

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