Expats having moved to France in 2025 need to file their first paper income tax declaration. The deadline is 19th May 2026 for the paper declaration. In this article, I’m showing you how to declare your 2025 income as a micro entrepreneur.
Remember that you need to declare all your income (salary, pension, non professional rental in France), your foreign bank accounts in form 3916, as well as your income earned and tax abroad. The latter will go in form 2047 and I recommend that you get help from an accountant for this or from the tax office - Service Impots Particuliers, as they help for free.
I have covered the basics about 2025 French income tax in a previous article. And you can also watch this video to understand how French income tax works.
1 - Can I declare online rather than by paper/post
If you have requested a Tax Identification Number (TIN), actually called Numéro d'Identification Fiscale (NIF) in France, you should be able to declare it online. Go to Impots.gouv.fr, enter your fiscal number and use 0€ as your “revenu de référence”.
If you’ve declared by post last year, dig out your “Attestation d’impôt sur le revenu”: Gather your NIF number and income of reference from this document. You will need it to create your impots.gouv.fr account or to login.
Warning: Having access doesn’t mean that it is easy to handle. I would still recommend having the first declaration handled by an accountant, so it’s all set up nicely. Next year, you could attempt it, if your situation hasn’t changed.
2 - Forms you will need as a Micro Entrepreneur
I have listed below all the forms that you may need for the 2025 French income tax declaration.
Download keyforms fo your 2025 French income tax declaration:
- Form 2042 - Main form to be used by ALL. Personal details, dependents, change of address, salary, pension tax deductions.
- Form 2042-C - Additional income: foreign salary, pension, capital gain.
- Form 2042-C-PRO - Micro entrepreneur turnover.
- Form 2042 RICI - Tax reductions or tax credits: donations to non-profit associations, services à domiciles.
- Form 2047 - Income earned and taxed abroad: rental income abroad, dividends paid abroad, etc. Double-taxation agreement = tax credit.
- Form 3916 to declare your accounts held abroad - Bank accounts owned abroad: personal or business accounts, payment gateways (PayPal, Stripe, Payoneer)or neo-banks (N26, Revolut). File one form per account or gateway.
3 - Getting ready to Declare your Micro Entrepreneur income
Here are the key things you need to know in order to declare your micro entrepreneur income correctly:
- You need to declare your sales cashed in 2025! Don’t deduct anything such as your social charges or expenses.
- You need to know whether you opted for impot libératoire, also called versement libératoire. Impot what?
I know that I have lost you here. Impot liberatoire is when you decide to pay your income tax at source, at the same time as your social charges. Meaning that you would have paid an extra tax percentage to URSSAF all year long.
3.1 - How can you know if you opted for impot liberatoire, also called versement liberatoire:
- Check your last URSSAF turnover declaration: can you see an extra 2.2% for profession liberale, 1% sales gites, shops or ecommerce, or 1.7% for manual activities? If so, you have opted for impot liberatoire.
- Check your INPI registration papers - Synthese initiale validee. Under “Options Fiscales” you will see “Option pour le versement libératoire” with oui or non.
- You can also check on your micro entrepreneur URSSAF account. Got to: Mon Compte/ Mes Informations Personnelles or Mes Paramétres under Détail de mon compte auto-entrepreneur / Prélèvement libératoire de l'impôt sur le revenu “oui/non”
Now the last step to get ready is to know how much to declare. You want to make sure that you will declare to Impots, the same account that you declared to URSSAF. Because, yes they will compare their data at some point (it can take up to 3 years) and it they spot something strange, they will likely get in touch to check why.
3.2 - How to get your URSSAF fiscal attestation - Attestation Fiscale
URSSAF tends to send you an email early in the year with a copy of your attestation fiscale. It’s now time to dig it out. If you can’t find it or didn’t receive it, login to your micro entrepreneur URSSAF account. Go to Mes Documents/ Mes Attestations / Attestation Fiscale Annuelle, et voilà!
After these steps you should:
- Have your attestation fiscale with your 2025 turnover.
- Know if you opted for versement/impot liberatoire.
4 - Micro Entrepreneur with versement libératoire / impôt libératoire
I can hear you “Valerie, I have already paid my income tax. Why should I pay it gain?”. Don’t worry, you won’t be taxed again, but you STILL need to complete a tax return. This tax return includes your overall household income and might also include your other half’s salary, rental income, dividends, etc.
It’s still very important to declare, because you will be asked for your attestation d’avis d’impot again and again for a visa renewal, renting or buying a property, etc.
Get a copy of Form 2042 C PRO.
- Go to page 1 of Form 2042 C PRO
- Add your business details, address and SIRET number under “indentification de personnes exercant une activite non salariee”
- Under “Nature de l’activite” tick BIC for gites, ecommerce, shops and manual activities or BNC for profession liberale”
- If you have 2 micro entrepreneur is the same household, use declarant 1 for you and declaration 2 for your spouse. Keep the same order across all forms.
- Take your 2025 turnover and add it to one of the cells below
- 5TA = Sale of goods, shops, food trucks, ecommerce.
- 5TB = Manual services, artisans and gites. E.g conciergerie services, carpenter, gîtes.
- 5TE = Professions liberales relating to URSSAF. E.g. consultant, coach, programmer.
5 - Micro Entrepreneur under Regime Micro ( = not opted for impot liberatoire)
Get a copy of Form 2042 C PRO.
- Add your business details on page 1
- Add your business details, address and SIRET number under “indentification de personnes exercant une activite non salariee”
- Under “Nature de l’activite” tick BIC for gites, ecommerce, shops and manual activities or BNC for profession liberale”
- If you have 2 micro entrepreneur is the same household, use declarant 1 for you and declaration 2 for your spouse. Keep the same order across all forms.
Your activity is buy to resell, gites, manual services - Commerçants / Artisans
Go to page 3 of Form 2042 C PRO
- Go to the section called “Revenus Industriels et Commerciaux Professionnels - Régime micro BIC “
- 5KO for the sale of goods. E.g. shop, food truck.
- 5KP for manual services, artisans and gites. E.g conciergerie services, carpenter, gîtes.
- If you started your activity in 2025: Add the number of months you were in business in cell 5DB.
Your activity is coaches, consultants, programmers - Profession liberales
Go to page 6 of Form 2042 C PRO
- Go to the section called “ Revenue Non Commerciaux Professionnels - micro BNC
- 5 HQ for professions liberales relating to URSSAF. E.g. consultant, coach, programmer.
- If you started your activity in 2025: Add the number of months you were in business in cell 5XI.
Very important for ALL of you:
Do not complete cells 5HY or 5HG, they relate to another business regime and NOT micro entrepreneurs. This will mess up your taxes!
6 - Who do I send my French tax return to?
Anyone filing their French tax return for the first time has to return it by post with “la Poste”by 19th May 2026. The stamp date will be used to see if you missed the declaration deadline. Although I’ve never heard of anyone being fined for a late declaration.
You can find the address of your local tax office by typing “SIP + name of your town/village in France” in your favourite search engine. Or use www.demarchesadministratives.fr and type "SIP + your village". SIP stands for Service Impots Particuliers
For non-French residents, send your forms to SIP in Noisy-le-Grand.
- SIP Non-residents, 10 rue du Centre, TSA 10010, 93 465 Noisy-Le-Grand Cedex
- Phone +33 1 72 95 20 42- Monday to Friday 9 am to 4 pm French time.
That’s it, you are done for your micro entrepreneur income declaration. Remember to reach out to an accountant or the tax office in doubt for for help with other sources of income.
Right, I’m off to handle my income declaration and my Mum’s.
