Retiring in the Cook Islands as a French National: Residence, Taxation of the Pension and Health

The visa and permit criteria pages of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Immigration describe no category specific to retirees. For a French national, France Diplomatie (the French foreign ministry) indicates that no visa is required for up to 31 days, with a passport valid six months after the end of the stay, a return ticket and proof of accommodation. The international visitor permit is extended by 31 days for 115 New Zealand dollars (about €58), within the limit of 8 months of visitor stay at a time. The long-stay visitor permit costs 470 New Zealand dollars and requires health insurance for its whole duration; beyond six months, good character and an acceptable state of health must be established.

The “special entrant” category (960 New Zealand dollars, about €486) is reserved for a reason for stay that matches no other category, for a person who has not already held another special visa: the published page does not say whether a retirement project falls within it, and it is immigration (+682 29 347) that decides before any commitment. Visitor durations and fees change: they should be checked on the ministry’s website at the time of the project. The conversions on this page are based on the ECB reference rate.

Permanent residence, granted in sessions about every three years under the 2021 immigration act, requires a minimum age of 18, a valid permit or legal residence status, ten years of continuous residence (five for a New Zealand citizen), the “Kia Orana Values” integration programme, at least four sworn statements (including those of a traditional authority and a community organisation leader) and at least 312 hours of voluntary community service over the five years before the application. The page mentions neither an investment route nor a retiree route.

For housing, a retiree relies on renting: foreigners cannot own land, but can lease it for 60 years at most, under a procedure that goes through the owners’ consent and the Land Court. The detail is in the page living in the Cook Islands.

The BOFiP list of tax treaties includes New Zealand but not the Cook Islands; the territorial scope of the New Zealand treaty is read in its article 3 on impots.gouv.fr before any reasoning by analogy. No text read therefore limits the taxation in France of a non-resident’s pension, which local tax does not rule out in principle: each state applies its domestic law.

For a retiree who has become a non-resident, impots.gouv.fr indicates that withholding tax on salaries and pensions applies to French-source income taxable in France. The pension fund deducts it: after a 10% allowance, on a three-rate scale (0%, 12% and 20%) by income bracket; the first two brackets are final and the 20% withholding is credited against the tax. For a pension from several funds, each applies the scale without taking account of the other income, and a regularisation is possible. The thresholds change every year. A retiree who is no longer a French tax resident pays neither CSG, nor CRDS, nor Casa, according to CLEISS; a health insurance contribution of 3.2% on the basic pension and 4.2% on the supplementary pension continues to be withheld as long as they come under a French scheme. To receive your pension abroad, the guide receiving your pension abroad details the steps. On the local side, the Revenue Management Division is the contact: see the page working in the Cook Islands for tax residence and the scale, and take tax advice before departure.

Form S1 exists for European Union countries and equivalents; the Cook Islands are not one of them and do not appear in the CLEISS list of agreements. It is for the retiree to check with the local institutions to what extent the local scheme covers their care, and they can join the CFE voluntarily or take out private insurance. The CFE retirees’ plan has a contribution (depending on the country, age and family situation), with no health questionnaire; it covers care received abroad, while care in France remains covered by the compulsory French scheme. Retirees of the general scheme outside the European Union come under the CNAREFE. The guide health insurance for retirees abroad and the page healthcare reimbursement in the Cook Islands detail the cases.

Locally, public care is delivered by the Ministry of Health; its fee schedule exempts islanders and permanent residents aged 60 and over from fees, but places visitors in category II, at the full rate, with proof of health insurance at registration. The amounts of this schedule should be confirmed with the ministry. As visitors are excluded from the funding of transfers to New Zealand, insurance that covers evacuation is the central element of the arrangement. See the page healthcare system in the Cook Islands.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs pays an old-age pension to people aged 60 and over who live in the Cook Islands; its page says it is open to islanders and non-islanders, without detailing any particular condition for foreigners. It is taxable, is maintained during an absence of up to six months, and the beneficiary informs the ministry before any trip abroad, tourist or permanent. The Minister of Finance’s budget speech plans to raise it from 520 to 550 dollars a month from 60 to 69 and from 720 to 750 dollars from 70 (about €279 and €380). The conditions applicable to a French retiree should be confirmed with the ministry (+682 29370).

On the French side, CLEISS specifies that, without an agreement, insurance periods completed abroad are not taken into account for the rate of the French pension. The existence of a compulsory local pension scheme for employees, its rates and its conditions could not be read on an accessible official source: they should be requested from the employer or the local tax administration.

The Rarotonga household price index, published every quarter by the Statistics Office, is presented in the page living in the Cook Islands. No median rent, property price or retiree spending basket was read in the official sources: these figures are not given here. A realistic health budget matters more for a retiree than for a working person, the insurance premium varying with age, insurer and contract.

The benchmarks come from public services: Rarotonga concentrates the Ministry of Health, the hospital, five neighbourhood clinics and the Tupapa primary care centre, which matters for a retiree’s proximity to care. The language of procedures is English. For a permanent return to France, see the page return to France.