April brings the Easter Bunny, daylight saving and the dreaded French income tax season. Eh oui, c’est maintenant! As the online declarations officially opened on 11th April, it’s time to start gathering all your documents and check the deadline for your French département.
In this article, I’m summarising the key deadlines and documents you will need to file your taxes. To understand how income tax works in France, watch my YouTube video on French income tax.
I also strongly recommend you book an appointment with your local tax office “Service Impôts Particuliers - SIP” or an accountant for help.
1 - Income tax season in France - les impôts
The French income tax season goes from 1st January to 31 December. If you moved to France halfway through the year and started a business or working here, you have to file a declaration both in France and your home country.
The double tax agreement with most countries means that you need to file taxes in both countries, but that you won’t get taxed again. In France, you have to declare all income earned and taxed abroad. This enables the French tax office to assess your overall household income called “revenu fiscal”. This is very important if you plan to buy a property or renew a visa. Banks, the prefecture or the family child support services called Caisse d’Allocation Familiale (CAF), will take your revenu fiscal to assess whether you can afford to buy a property (mortgage, level of debts), stay in France (carte de sejour or visa renewal) or if you are entitled to any benefits (child support, school, housing).
2 - 2024 income tax deadlines (for the 2023 declaration)
The deadline to file your 2023 French income tax is based on where you live, i.e. “le département”. If you read this article later in the year and just realised that you missed the deadline, take some time to fix it now - better late than sorry. It’s very important for someone with a visa to file their French income tax, even with zero income, as the “avis d'imposition” will be requested by the prefecture for your visa renewal.
The deadlines to file your taxes in France are as follows:
- Department 01 to 19 - 23rd May 2024.
- Non-residents 01 to 19 - 21st May 2024.
- Department 20 to 54 - 30th May 2024.
- Department 55 to 976 - 6th June 2023.
- Paper declaration - 21st May = ANYONE declaring for 1st time in France!!
- The exact deadline for all is at 23h59.
- You missed the deadline: Better late than sorry…
If you moved to France in 2023, the bad news is that you have to file by paper by 21st May 2024. This deadline is based on the day you post your letter with La Poste (i.e. stamp date) or in your home country or non-residents.
3 - Where can you get the 2023 French income tax forms
As you read through this article, you are probably realising that you now need to get the right forms for your French income tax declaration. You might as well look for a needle in a haystack or on Google…
I don’t expect you to have any idea of what is important. I have therefore listed below, the most common forms that you will need below.
Print the forms that apply to your situation, and start filing in your personal information. Add the information that makes sense to you. Then take them to the tax office for help. You can watch this video where I explain how to book an appointment with your local tax office. Be aware that this option is only available in April and May, and then disappears. Be quick to book your appointment. The tax office is super helpful.
Download your 2023 French income tax forms:
- Website on which all 2024 forms are published
- Form 2042 recaps your personal information. Check if the information is correct and make corrections if necessary. If this is your first paper declaration, add your personal details: name, DOB, address, single/married or PACsed/civil union, widowed, number of children. If you moved house in 2023, got married, lost a loved one or had a child, make sure you update your information as this can only be done once a year. If your village or street changed name in 2023, take this opportunity to update the information. This happened to many villages in 2023 and is called “changement d’adresse administrative”.
- Form 2042-C mentions your income such as salary, pension, etc. If you declared in the past, your income from French origin will be automatically added. Check it and correct it if necessary.
- Form 2042-C-PRO is used to declare your micro entrepreneur turnover. Enter the total sales declared to URSSAF.
- Form 2042 RICI for tax reductions or tax credits with details of your dependents, home employment, donations to non-profit associations.
- Form 2047 for your income earned and taxed abroad. For instance, rental income abroad, salary paid abroad, etc. This will not be taxed again, but it will be taken into account to assess your overall household income. Plus more info on form 2047.
- Form 3916 and 3916 bis to declare your bank accounts held abroad. This form includes your personal or business accounts, as well as your payment gateways (Paypal, Stripe, Payoneer) or online banks (N26, Revolut, Bunk). Complete one form per account or gateway.
- Form 2042 DSI is for entreprise individuelle au réel simplifié or EURL/SARL, SAS/SASU (not for micro entrepreneurs). Declaration Sociale des Independants (DSI) is used both by URSSAF and Impots to assess the entrepreneur’s social charge and income tax. If this is you, your accountant will do this for you.
What to do with these forms:
- Print the forms applying to your situation.
- Start filling them out or gather the information relating to each (salary, pension, turnover, dividends, etc).
- Go and see your local tax office for help.
- Or hire an accountant to do it for you. Let me know if you need an introduction.
4 - Declaring your income as a Micro Entrepreneur
To complete this step, answer these 2 questions:
- Did you opt for the income tax at source called “impot liberatoire”? In doubts, check your registration papers or your last turnover declaration. If you still can’t tell, log in your micro entrepreneur urssaf account and check your profile. Mon Compte/ Mes Informations Personnelles or Mes Paramétres under Détail de mon compte auto-entrepreneur / Prélèvement libératoire de l'impôt sur le revenu “oui/non”
- Download a copy of your “Attestation Fiscale” from your micro entrepreneur URSSAF account. Under Mes Documents/ Mes Attestations / Attestation Fiscale Annuelle . Or watch my YouTube video showing you how to do this.
Please remember that you have to declare your turnover cashed in in 2023! This means your total sales received between 1st Jan and 31st December 2023. Don’t apply any rebate or deduction! The tax office will do this in their calculation, not you.
Have you answered these two questions? Now let's see where to add your turnover as a micro entrepreneur.
A - Micro Entrepreneur with versement libératoire / impôt libératoire
Warning: this section will be updated as soon as the 2023 forms are published by the tax office. The online declaration was activated on 11th April, but the forms cannot be downloaded yet. Come back to this section in a week, as the cells number can change slightly from one year to another.
You have opted to pay your income tax at source. Every month you are paying an extra percentage of your turnover to URSSAF to go towards your income tax. If you look at your last turnover declaration, you can see either an extra 2.2% for a profession liberale, 1.7% for an artisan or 1% for activité commercial.
You still have to declare, but don’t worry you won’t be taxed again. As explained earlier, this is to assess your overall household income.
Take your 2023 turnover (no rebate) and add this number to the suitable cell:
- 5TA = Sale of goods, shops, food trucks, ecommerce.
- 5TB = Manual services, artisans and gites. E.g conciergerie services, carpenter, gîtes.
- 5TE = Professions liberales relating to URSSAF. E.g. consultant, coach, programmer.
B - Micro Entrepreneur under regime micro ( = not opted for impot liberatoire)
This is you if you have not been paying your income tax at the same time as your social charges to URSSAF. You can spot this on your last turnover declaration, if your total social charges are 21.3% for profession liberale, 22.04% for artisan or 12.41% for activity commerciale.
REVENUS INDUSTRIELS ET COMMERCIAUX PROFESSIONNELS — Régime micro BIC - Page 3 :
- 5KO for the sale of goods. E.G shop, food truck.
- 5KP for manual services, artisans and gites. E.g conciergerie services, carpenter, gîtes.
REVENUS NON COMMERCIAUX PROFESSIONNELS — micro BNC - Page 6 :
- 5 HQ of form 2042 C Pro, for professions liberales relating to URSSAF. E.g. consultant, coach, programmer.
5 - Most common mistakes in French income tax declarations
The first and most common mistake is to forget to declare your holiday rental income as a non-resident in France. Non-residents owning a property in France and renting it on Airbnb or Vrbo should not declare their rental income in their home country but in France. This is important if you plan to move to France later on. You want to ensure that you are paying your taxes, not to have a red flag.
The second most common mistake is to not declare your foreign bank accounts. Again, you won’t be taxed in this and you don’t need to say how much money is on these accounts. But you need to declare them in form 3916. And most people forget to declare their business N26, Revolut, Stripe, Payoneer or Paypal accounts. If it has a foreign IBAN (not starting with FR), it needs to be declared.
And the third mistake specifically for micro entrepreneurs is to fill in cell 5HY on form 2042 C Pro. This cell is someone you would have forgotten to declare a business in the first place and wanted to fix things up with the tax office. Don’t tick this box!
6 - Who to send your income tax declaration to?
It sounds a bit mad that you have to find the forms online, and then find the address of your local tax office to post them! But I’m afraid that this is what will happen, if you didn’t request a fiscal number or TIN number from your tax office when you moved to France?
You can find the address of your local tax office by typing “SIP + name of your town/village in France” in your favourite search engine. Or use www.demarchesadministratives.fr and type "SIP + your village". SIP stands for Service Impots Particuliers
For non-French residents, send your forms to SIP in Noisy-le-Grand.
- SIP Non-residents, 10 rue du Centre, TSA 10010, 93 465 Noisy-Le-Grand Cedex
- Phone +33 1 72 95 20 42- Monday to Friday 9 am to 4 pm French time.
Do you want to go further and know exactly how income tax works in France? Watch my YouTube video.
7 - Ouh là là c’est dur!
Yes, I feel for you, as this one is a steep learning curve. And I’m not suggesting that you attempt this big task on your own.
Again, my advice is to book a call with your local SIP Impot office or get help from an accountant. If you need an introduction to an English-speaking accountant, send me an email with a brief summary of your situation (employee, self-employed, pension, dividends).
Help Valerie, introduce me to an English-speaking accountant.
