French income tax: Online service now open to correct declarations

It is not too late to correct your income tax declaration if you forgot to declare something or realise you made a mistake.

Now that everyone who declared online should have received their avis d’impôt income tax statement in their personal space, an online correction service is open to make any last-minute changes.

If you realise there are corrections to be made you should visit your personal space at impots.gouv.fr and click corriger ma déclaration. This should be done from a desktop computer, not a smartphone or tablet.

This service is also available to people who made an ‘automatic’ declaration this year – this is where no actual declaration is made because you believed you had nothing to add to a summary that that tax office sent to you and no additional income sources compared to last year.

The correction service will allow you to reopen a version of your declaration and make changes so as to submit it again. It is open from now to mid-December.

Most aspects of the declaration can be changed. For example, you can modify sums declared, add extra incomes, or gifts you made to charity eligible for tax credits etc. You can also correct the sections related to dependents or add a new RIB if your bank details have changed, however you cannot use this service to change aspects related to your name, family status or address.

A confirmation email will be sent at the end and in due course, you will receive a new corrected avis, including, if relevant, the adjusted tax amount and new tax-at-source rate.

There are no penalties as such for doing this but it is possible there could be some interest payable for late declaration of certain incomes at 0.2% per month, though this may be reduced by half if the tax office judges it was a mistake made in good faith.

If you only declared by paper this year, a correction can be made by sending a new declaration to the tax office (service des impôts des particuliers), on which you should write on the first page: DECLARATION RECTIFICATIVE, ANNULE ET REMPLACE.

You can find the blank forms by using the search box at impots.gouv.fr. For example the main form is called 2042. Make sure to get the latest versions of the forms.

You should also send in a paper declaration if you declared online originally but need to change elements related to your name or family situation (marriage, Pacs, death, divorce…), in which case include a note saying: Cette déclaration annule et remplace la déclaration en ligne.

If you need to change your address you can do this in your online space under Gérer mon profil and signaler un changement d’adresse. You can also notify the tax office of this in a letter.

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