French income tax return: What is the imprimé fiscal unique?

If you hold any accounts or investments which can generate income, your French bank or other financial institution will issue a document called imprimé fiscal unique, or IFU.

This is useful for checking that such income has been correctly inserted on your French tax declaration form.

It will probably have already been pre-inserted by the tax office unless you are declaring for the first time, but it is still your responsibility to check and to ensure the amounts are correct.

The IFU may be posted to you (more likely from high street banks) or can be found in your online account with the provider.

You will have a separate one from each relevant institution, and it will show declarable interest and dividends from any taxable accounts or assurance vie policies etc.

There are three parts to the IFU, section 2561 for the most common form of income, 2561 bis for less common kinds such as fonds communs de placement or marchés à terme (kinds of investment fund), and 2561 ter for certain tax credits.

It is worth keeping the document in your files for future reference in case of any questions from the tax authorities.

If you only have bank accounts that do not generate interest, or tax-free ones such as a Livret A, LDDS or PEA, you will not receive an IFU.

Note that there are certain kinds of property investment income (eg. where held in an assurance vie) that can be found on an IFU which are relevant not only for income tax but for French property wealth tax (IFI) declarations, where applicable.

Declarations are now open. For more help with your income tax declaration see our French Income Tax 2021 help guide.

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