France’s income tax declaration for the 2025 year (based on 2024 income) opened yesterday, with declarants having between six and eight weeks to submit information.
While some people with simple tax affairs will be able to benefit from ‘automatic declarations’, this is not available for those declaring for the first time. The latter will have to follow specific steps, which often involves making a paper declaration.
In most cases paper declarations are only available for first-time declarants or other people who are unable to declare by internet due to lack of internet access, advanced age or other difficulties.
This means that for the majority of people, declarations in subsequent years are made online via your personal space on the French tax site impots.gouv.fr.
The online declaration is similar, though not identical, to the paper one and will become easier to complete year by year as you become familiar with the process.
Below is a checklist of things to remember when making your first online declaration and some advice for how to do it.
However, if you do not have all of the information on the checklist there is an alternative of logging in using FranceConnect (see below for more information).
Checklist
Your numéro d'accès en ligne
This is specific to making your first online declaration when creating your account on the site.
It is found on the top of your main paper declaration form that is sent to you. Note that it changes each year so you must have the most recent one.
If you cannot find it, the tax office will be able to tell you what it is for the current year.
Note you only need this when creating your account – once it is set up you log on in a more traditional way, either with your numéro fiscal and password or the FranceConnect application.
Your numéro fiscal
You will need your numéro fiscal – French tax number – to log onto the site.
This is a 13-digit number and can be found on your previous avis (tax assessments) – which should have been sent to you following your first declaration.
You do not need to ask the tax services for such a number as you already have one if you have made a prior declaration, but may be able to ask them to help you retrieve it if you cannot find it.
Find out more about finding your numéro fiscal here.
The number is mostly used to log into the site, however may be needed in other situations, and banks sometimes ask for the number.
Your revenu fiscal de référence
The final number you need is your revenu fiscal de référence, or household tax number.
It is also found on your previous tax assessment, at the top of the page.
It roughly relates to your taxable income, and is often used by the authorities when calculating a household’s standard of living and eligibility for certain financial aids.
Read more: What is the ‘RFR’ figure used by French tax authorities?
Creating an account
To make your declaration you will first need to create an account (espace particulier).
To do so, you can use the information above to create your account.
This will then allow you to create a password that you can use for subsequent log-ins.
If you only have your numéro fiscal you can contact your local tax office asking for them to ‘invite’ you to create a space.
To do so you need to send provide proof of your address, and a copy of an official ID document (eg. your passport). They will then send you an email invitation to create an account, where you can again create a password.
Alternatively, you can login using FranceConnect.
This is a series of linked ‘official’ logins for national administrative services including the tax site, La Poste, national health body Ameli, as well as private authorised digital identity systems such as YRIS and trustme.io.
To make use of this system you only need to have access to at least one of the partner sites, which requires, as a minimum, that you should live in France, have a mobile phone and have at some point been registered with French social security for health and/or work.
Once one account is set up with one of the affiliated systems, it can be used to log into the others, meaning you only need to remember one password instead of several.
It can also be used to create an account for the tax site if you have not yet created one using the information above, or do not have the information available.
Non-residents can also ask for an account to be set up for them here.
Read more: How FranceConnect simplifies online admin tasks for residents in France
