Tax deadline extended for millions in France due to computer bug

Many were left unable to declare their professional taxes online

Close up of computer screen showing the French tax website
May people were met with an error message when they tried to declare professional income
Published Modified

Millions of people have been given more time to declare their taxes online due to a bug on the French tax website making it impossible to enter income from business and professionals.

The deadlines for declaring 2023 income via the French tax website impots.gouv.fr are staggered in groups according to department number. 

The first to hit deadline were departments 01 (Ain) to 19 (Corrèze) on May 23 at midnight. This was also the deadline for non-residents with French income to declare.

Read more: French Income Tax 2024: When will tax statements arrive?

However, already on May 21, many people scrambling to file online found that they could not enter professional and business income (BNC and BIC) - including self-employed income for micro-entrepreneurs (formerly auto-entrepreneurs).

When they tried to do so, they were met with a message stating:

La déclaration en ligne est actuellement indisponible, tout est mis en œuvre pour corriger rapidement ce dysfonctionnement - “Online declaration is currently unavailable, all means are being deployed to correct this error as soon as possible”

The bug was corrected on May 24 - after the deadline had passed for these departments and for non-residents.

The tax website now displays the message:

“Users in departments 1 to 19 as well as non-residents who had difficulties declaring their non-commercial revenue (BNC) and industrial and commercial revenue (BIC) will be given until May 30 to complete their tax declaration.”

The Connexion has contacted the French tax authorities, who were not immediately available to comment on the nature of the problem.

The Connexion tax guide 

Alongside our articles on the 2024 income tax season, The Connexion has a dedicated tax guide.

It is available in our digital shop, and answers many questions from Britons and other non-French people about the income declaration system in France. 

Information includes help on declaring UK pensions, rental income from non-French sources, rules on self-employment income and many other topics. 

It costs €14.50 and comes as a digital download.