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Reader Question: Are UK voluntary National Insurance contributions tax deductible in France? If so, how are they declared?

UK voluntary NI contributions are not tax deductible and do not need to be declared, but it is often worthwhile making them to ‘top up’ UK pension entitlement.

This is especially the case if you worked prior to moving over and are still working and are thus entitled to contribute at ‘class 2’ level (as opposed to class 3, which costs more than four times as much).

The benefit of making voluntary 'top-up' contributions is so as to claim a higher UK state pension at UK retirement age (to claim a 'full' pension, you currently need 35 paying-in years).  

The full UK state pension is currently £230/week and is subject to a ‘triple lock’ so it goes up by 2.5%, average wage increases, or inflation – whichever gives the higher amount (from time to time there are rumours of this being changed but it is politically sensitive).

Doing so has no effect on ability also to build up and claim a French pension. 

The EU’s ‘pension aggregation’ principle (maintained with the UK via Brexit deals) also means paying-in years to a UK pension can boost the amount of a French pension, especially if you are far from the full standard 42 years of paying in. 

It will not in this case mean that you can claim as much as someone who worked in France all their life, but it will mitigate the reduction applied due to reduced numbers of paying-in years. 

Paying-in years towards a French pension can also count towards the minimum 10 years of pension payments required to claim some pension from the UK.