How is surplus energy sold to EDF declared on French tax form?
Understanding the declaration process for income, including deadlines and exemptions
Taking a meter reading once a year will make your surplus energy income easier to declare
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Reader Question: We have a contract to sell our surplus electricity from our solar panels to EDF. The tax office said we need to declare it and we should use box 5NN – but there seem to be many options that open up. Also, how can we tell the correct amount to declare? N.H.
If this relates to income from 2023, you should already have declared it this spring, but if you forgot, you can rectify this via the online corrections service that is available in your personal space at impots.gouv.fr until December 4.
Click Accéder à la correction en ligne in order to go back into your declaration to do this.
If box 5NN was mentioned, you probably have a small solar installation (under 3KWc). Such income is declarable but exempt from actual tax and social charges.
People who sell their surplus electricity to EDF usually take a reading from their metre once a year at the anniversary date of the contract (when your set-up started working) so as to establish a facture (bill) via their online espace producteur. A payment is then made for the 12 months.
As with other forms of income, it is the income received in the relevant year that is declarable (ie. a payment from EDF in 2023 for the 2023 income declaration this year).
The box is called revenus nets exonérés and comes under revenus industriels et commerciaux non-professionnels – if this does not appear in your declaration, select it from the list in the section for choice of rubriques which comes after the personal information.
Read more: Explained: What to check on 2024 French tax statements
Box 5NN
There should be no complication with completing 5NN (or related boxes 5ON and 5PN for declaring the same kind of income for the second member of a couple or a dependent who lives with you).
It is, however, part of a section with other kinds of micro-BIC income, so you can ignore boxes with other labels.
If power is greater than 3KWc, then the electricity sold is taxable and needs to be declared either in one of boxes 5NO etc to benefit from a 71% allowance.
Read more: When are payments for solar energy production from French home received?
