Hi Pat,
Many thanks for coming back – remember I’m not any trained expert, it does seem to me your lawyer has conflated the tax credit treatment of e.g. UK taxed pension, with UK CGT and treated them the same, whereas they are different. I wondered this when Article 6(?) was mentioned instead of Article 14 – CGT.
I’m very aware there is always a human desire to hold to the advice which really suits us and appears to help further our goals – I think it is a good practice though to ask ‘how would the other side see this’ or ‘what are the potential negative findings’ which could be made in a case.
If I may be so bold to offer, here it would be, be prepared for a situation where you do pay french CGT, the pain ameliorated by the UK CGT one definitely has to stump up. Of course, when you sally forth armed with your accountants opinion into the friendly france tax inspector’s den I hope your lawyer will prevail!
Sadly there seems to be a dearth on SF of people saying “yes they accepted that” etc, though at the end of the day I suspect it might be down to what box on the return you can put the gain in – and there’s an idea, why not ask your lawyer what boxes you would fill in and test the scenario on the France tax simulator?
And my lesson(s) learned from the thread – yes, get second opinions, then third opinions, don’t trust any one lawyer, and budget for the worst case scenario!
All the best and once again, thanks for taking the time to check with your advisor. My original reading of the DTT replicated below.