Postby maths » Wed Aug 23, 2017 2:46 pm
Foreign pension income falls within the definition of relevant foreign income (RFI) and thus under UK domestic law if it is not remitted (as defined very broadly in ITA 2007) it remains unremitted and thus counts towards the £2,000 limit.
I would suggest that the UK/France DTA in this regard is not relevant. The DTA is more complex than normal (eg Article 19(2) and (4)(a)) but even if it is the case that any French source pension income is not subject to UK tax under the DTA that does not mean it can be treated as remitted when within the UK domestic definition of "remittance" it does not fall to be treated as a remittance.
I would also add that unless Article 19(4)(a) applies to the pension, the French source pension is only taxable in France assuming it is in fact remitted to the UK (assuming the recipient is an English national and UK resident and not a French national).