Hello,

I'm checking up to see if my understanding of the France-US income tax treaty is correct.
The taxpayer is a US greencard holder who has a permanent home in France, is living in France, and subject to income taxation by France. The taxpayer received more than $10,000 in interest from a US bank account, and my research has indicated the following.

Pursuant to income tax treaty Article 4 pg. 1:
"For the purposes of this Convention, the term "resident of a Contracting State" means any
person who, under the laws of that State, is liable to tax therein by reason of his domicile,
residence, place of management, place of incorporation, or any other criterion of a similar nature. But this term does not include any person who is liable to tax in that State in respect only of income from sources in that State, or of capital situated therein."
It seems the taxpayer could be considered a resident of both countries, however pursuant to Article 4 pg. 4 (formerly pg. 3 in the original treaty):
"Where, by reason of the provisions of paragraphs 1 and 2, an individual is a resident of
both Contracting States, his status shall be determined as follows:
(a) he shall be deemed to be a resident of the State in which he has a permanent
home available to him; if he has a permanent home available to him in both Contracting
States, he shall be deemed to be a resident of the State with which his personal and
economic relations are closer (center of vital interests);"
It appears that the tax payer is for income tax treaty purposes a resident of France.

Pursuant to Article 11, pg. 1:
"Interest arising in a Contracting State and beneficially owned by a resident of the other
Contracting State shall be taxable only in that other State"
It appears that the taxpayer as a resident of France should not be taxed by the USA for the USA-sourced interest income.

Pursuant to article 29 pg. 2:
"Notwithstanding any provision of the Convention except the provisions of paragraph 3, the
United States may tax its residents, as determined under Article 4 (Resident), and its citizens as if the Convention had not come into effect. For this purpose, the term “citizen” shall include a former citizen or long-term resident whose loss of such status had as one of its principal purposes the avoidance of tax (as defined under the laws of the United States), but only for a period of ten years following such loss.”
It appears that the saving clause would not apply to the taxpayer because the taxpayer is a greencard holder and not a US citizen.
I am therefore reasoning that the taxpayer does not pay US taxes on the US derived interest at all. In other words, it shouldn't be on the 1040 for taxation and then offset by a foreign tax credit from France.

I am now looking for the mechanics of how to report the above sentence to the IRS.
Looking at Section 301.6114-1(b)(8), I see the following requires form 8833 disclosure:
"For returns relating to taxable years for which the due date for filing returns (without extensions) is after December 15, 1997, that residency of an individual is determined under a treaty and apart from the Internal Revenue Code."
Does this apply to article 4 pg. 1? Because I am planning to file the taxpayer as a 1040. I believe article 4 pg. 1 affects the residency of this individual for IRS purposes, but rather for tax treaty purposes, but I want to check whether this 8833 disclosure is required for the specific above code.

When looking over the rest of section 301.6114-1(c), I'm not seeing anything waiving the reporting requirement for interest income.
I'm therefore concluding that perhaps I should leave the interest income off the 1040, but disclose via 8833 the amount of this interest income as well as the specific provisions of the tax treaty (article 4 pg. 4 and article 11, pg. 1) that exempt this interest income from US taxation.
Is this the correct way of doing it, or am I missing something in my research?

Lastly, I just want to comment that it's quite a mess reading through these income tax treaties because the IRS seems to post only the original outdated treaties as well as their subsequent protocols stating which paragraphs of the original treaties are being changed. It seems like a really weird format for people to do research because you have to switch between three different documents. Do any copies of these tax treaties exist in their current form or do we all have to "reverse engineer" them to see what they currently state?

Thanks in advance, I know this is a big post.