Retiring in Lithuania: Residence, Pension Taxation, the S1 Form and Cost of Living

French citizens enter Lithuania with a valid passport or national identity card and stay three months without a visa or formality; beyond that, they receive an EU residence certificate, valid for up to five years (France Diplomatie). Lithuania does not recognise the five-year extension of identity cards issued to adults between 2004 and 2013: a passport is required when the printed date has passed. Your Europe sums up the conditions for a retiree: full health insurance and sufficient income to live without financial assistance.

• Amount of resources: the official pages consulted set no figure; the administration assesses each situation, and a pension statement eases the file.
• Declaration of the place of residence: it rests on a lease or a title deed, submitted with the application or to the municipality within the following month (Lithuanian Migration Department).
• Permanent residence: a permanent residence certificate, valid for ten years, is open to EU citizens who have lived in the country for five years; the application goes through the MIGRIS information system, with an in-person visit for the originals and biometric data (Lithuanian Migration Department).
• Borders: random checks are frequent at the borders with Poland and Latvia (France Diplomatie).

The page on living in Lithuania details the documents and registration with the consular register.

The convention between France and Lithuania, signed in Paris on 7 July 1997, approved by the law of 30 January 2001 and in force since 1 May 2001 (impots.gouv.fr), allocates the right to tax each category of income.

• Private pensions and social security pensions (Article 18): subject to paragraph 2 of Article 19, pensions and similar remuneration paid to a resident of a State in respect of past employment are taxable only in that State. For a retiree resident in Lithuania, these pensions therefore fall to Lithuania; the French administration indicates that, where a convention contains no specific clause on social security pensions, the right to tax in principle goes to the State of residence (BOFiP, the French tax administration’s official bulletin). The return to be filed should be confirmed with the French and Lithuanian administrations.
• Public pensions (Article 19, paragraph 2): pensions paid by a State or authority for services rendered to that State are taxable only in that State, unless the beneficiary is a resident and national of the other State without holding the nationality of the first. A former French civil servant remains in principle taxed in France.
• Lithuanian scale: according to the Ministry of Finance, resident tax is 20% up to 36 times the average annual wage, 25% from 36 to 60 times and 32% above that, with 15% for certain income; the personal allowance is €747 per month subject to an income condition (Lithuanian tax authority). The rules applicable to a foreign pension should be checked with that authority.
• French levies: with tax residence outside France, the health contribution of 3.2% (basic pension) and 4.2% (supplementary pension) applies to general scheme pensions, and 7.1% to those of the self-employed; with tax residence in France, the CSG, CRDS and CASA apply (CLEISS).

The guide on receiving your pension abroad details the payment of pensions outside France. Individual advice lets you check the returns to be filed in each country.

A retiree who receives only a French pension, settles permanently or for more than six months a year in Lithuania and does not work there requests the S1 from their pension fund (the CNAV, the national old-age insurance fund, for the general scheme; the public finance directorate for foreign residents for State pensioners), preferably before leaving (CLEISS). For a long-term stay, France Diplomatie specifies that the S1 is then registered with a Lithuanian regional health insurance fund. Each family member concerned has their own S1.

• No local contribution: CLEISS indicates that no contribution to the local scheme is withheld, as the French pension already bears levies.
• Care in France: the holder stays covered in France and can be treated there for any reason, under French rules (CLEISS).
• Care pathway: contracted GP of free choice, referral to specialists, medicines subsidised at 50% or 100% of the reference price (CLEISS); see the Lithuanian healthcare system and the page on healthcare reimbursement.
• Dental and optical: care that is mostly private, with fees at the patient’s expense; supplementary cover can fill the gap.

To complement this with first-euro cover or wider access to private providers, Expavy helps you compare the options; see also the page on retirement insurance abroad.

The minimum wage is close to €1,150 gross per month, well below the French level (Eurostat), and the national average wage is close to €2,300 per month (CLEISS). These figures show the level of local incomes without setting a budget for a French retiree.

• Housing: rents and prices vary between Vilnius, Kaunas, Klaipėda and small towns; the Lithuanian statistics office and the registers centre publish the reference statistics.
• Health: the patient’s share for medicines and dental fees justifies setting aside a budget; the guide on budgeting for health abroad helps put a figure on it.
• Currency: the euro, with no exchange-rate risk for a pension paid in euros.
• Heating: the winters justify an energy budget, to be asked about with the landlord.

Vilnius concentrates health services, the French embassy, the French lycée and international connections; Kaunas appeals with its calmer setting, Klaipėda with its coast. France Diplomatie recommends caution at night in Vilnius in the Šnipiškės and Naujininkai districts, flags scams in certain nightlife venues and a drowning risk in marshy areas away from marked paths.

The choice depends on proximity to a hospital, a contracted doctor and transport. France Diplomatie strongly recommends the tick-borne encephalitis vaccine for walks in the forest and specifies that the LT72 application gives instructions and shelters in case of an alert. A trial stay of a full season, winter included, before signing a long lease limits unpleasant surprises; learning Lithuanian eases social life.

Periods completed in France and Lithuania are added together to open entitlement: the guide on quarters worked abroad explains the aggregation. According to CLEISS, the statutory age is 65 for everyone; it was 64 years and 10 months for men and 64 years and 8 months for women for earlier cohorts.

• Minimum period: 15 years of insurance in the pension scheme; a longer period, gradually raised, for a full pension (CLEISS).
• Deferral: up to five years after the statutory age, with an 8% increase per full year of deferral (CLEISS).
• Application: at the earliest three months before the statutory age (CLEISS).
• Social assistance pension: people without sufficient contributory rights can apply for it at the statutory age (CLEISS).

• Request the S1 from your pension fund, for yourself and for each family member concerned, and notify the French funds of the change of address and payment account.
• Obtain the EU residence certificate before or at the end of the three months and declare your place of residence with a lease or a title deed.
• Register the S1 with a regional health insurance fund, then choose a contracted GP.
• Register on the register of French nationals living abroad with the embassy in Vilnius.
• Declare the social security pension under the tax convention, after checking which State taxes it.

In the event of a return to France, the insured person contacts the last health insurance fund they came under: the page on returning to France details the steps.