UK tax on French "Assurance Vie"

[vdm]

Hello,

I am a french notional moving to the UK shortly with my family (and becoming a UK resident, non domiciled).
My plan is to buy a house in a year or 2, stay in the UK for some time (10 years?) with no plan to stay in the UK permanently.

Most of my liquid investments are held as French "Assurance vie".
My plan was to keep the "Assurance vie" until I find a place to buy and then make a withdrawal to use as deposit.
The issue is I don't manage to find any information on how a withdrawal from a french "assurance vie" would be taxed in the UK for a UK resident. Any ideas on that?

Thanks

Note: some french tax may be payable on the assurance vie because some of them are less than 8Years old, but I have a good understanding of what happens on the french side.

[maths]

Others may know, but I do not know how the tax authority here in the UK will treat an assurance vie.

In many ways it appears to be very similar to what we refer to as a "single premium investment bond" but also has the hallmarks of a "personal portfolio bond".

The latter are pretty catastrophic for UK tax purposes.

There is relief where the owner has been non-UK resident and surrenders the bond.

Unless you can get some sort of definitive answer the best option may be to surrender it prior to becoming UK resident assuming the FRench tax consequences are acceptable.

I would also add that remittance basis treatment is not available re gains made on our bonds even if the bond is offshore and the individual is not UK domiciled.

[vdm]

Others may know, but I do not know how the tax authority here in the UK will treat an assurance vie.

In many ways it appears to be very similar to what we refer to as a "single premium investment bond" but also has the hallmarks of a "personal portfolio bond".

The latter are pretty catastrophic for UK tax purposes.

There is relief where the owner has been non-UK resident and surrenders the bond.

Unless you can get some sort of definitive answer the best option may be to surrender it prior to becoming UK resident assuming the FRench tax consequences are acceptable.

I would also add that remittance basis treatment is not available re gains made on our bonds even if the bond is offshore and the individual is not UK domiciled.

Thanks for your reply. Surrendering the policies before I move would attract a french tax between 15% and 35% on the increased value of the contract, so I'd like to avoid it as much as possible (but it is still reasonable).
For now, I still hope somebody will be able to shed some light on the subject!

I take your point regarding the being unable to use the remittance basis of taxation for offshore bonds. That's very annoying and as a result I really need to know what the UK tax would be if I surrender the "Assurance vie" while being a UK resident.