Online income tax declarations open in France: what’s new?

France’s online income declaration service opens today (Thursday April 11).

If you have a personal account at impots.gouv.fr you will be able to log in from an unspecified time (likely to be during the afternoon) to start your declaration, if you wish.

Everyone who lives in France should make a declaration, even if their income is very small and most, though not all (for example Livret A interest) kinds of income are declarable.

People who live abroad but have certain kinds of income arising in France, notably from renting out property, should also declare. In this case the declaration is via the Service des impôts des particuliers non-résidents at Noisy-le-Grand but the online portal is the same.

The only exception is residents with regular, known forms of income such as from French salaries and pensions, who may be eligible for an ‘automatic’ declaration, which involves checking information held, with nothing further to do if you agree with it. This will not be applicable to anyone who receives a pension or other income from abroad.

Read more: Millions to get emails from French tax officials – be sure to read it 

Five new changes this year include:

• The end of both the online declaration and the main paper form will include a questionnaire about completion of the biens immobiliers declaration if you bought a new home last year or changed the use of it, eg. a rental property became a second home. If so you will be directed towards the correct section of your personal space, to complete it after you have signed off your declaration (however it is not obligatory to do so immediately if you do not wish to).

• A new box to claim a special 92% income allowance for furnished holiday rental, under certain circumstances

• You can claim a 75% tax credit for donations you made to the Fondation du Patrimoine’s campaign to restore old churches (this is continuing in 2024)

• The ability to make more complex declarations than before on the smartphone app impots.gouv.fr

• You will need to be careful about declaring incomes from sites such as Airbnb as due to a technical issue there will not be a reminder of such incomes this year (refer instead to the document you should have received in January from the platform)

The Connexion’s French Income Tax 2024 help guide includes further information on this year’s changes, how the French income tax system works, and how to declare your 2023 income. This digital guide, priced €14.50, is available at this link.

An official simulator exists which can be used to estimate how much income tax you will pay, which can be found at this link. However you will also receive an estimate of your tax at the end of the declaration process before signing off.

There is no need to complete your declaration in one go – you can save a partially-completed declaration and return to continue later or another day.

You can also resubmit corrected versions as many times as you like until your declaration deadline date.

This year’s declaration deadlines start from May 21 for paper declarations, with the next deadline (it varies by your geographic department) being May 23 for online declarations for people living in departments 01 to 19 and non-residents.

Read more: What are the deadlines for French tax returns in 2024?