April-May marks the French income tax season. All French residents have to declare the income they earned between 1st January 2021 and 31st December 2022. This will enable the tax office to define your fiscal income “revenu fiscal”, used whenever you need a mortgage or bank loan, ask for some benefits or to register your kids to the creche. Based on your personal situation, you may be liable to some income tax called “impot sur le revenu”.
We are talking about a personal tax here and not a business tax. As a French resident, you will be declaring your various sources of income for 2021. This could be your business income, salary, rental income, pension, or dividends.
This is confusing, but when we talk about French income tax 2022, we actually mean your 2021 income. If you arrived in France in 2022, you won’t have to complete your first French income tax form until May 2023.
Finally, as a micro entrepreneur, you also need to complete your French income tax 2022, even if you opted for the income tax at source “Impot liberatoire”. You won’t be taxed again on your business income, but if you have other sources of income, these need to be declared too. This is a compulsory, as the tax office looks at your overall family income.
1 - French income tax basis
A - French income tax timescale
The deadline to complete your 2022 French income tax online varies according to the department where you live:
- Department 01 to 19 - 24th May 2022 at 23h59.
- Non-residents 01 to 19 - 24th May 2022 at 23h59.
- Department 20 to 54 - 31st May 2022 at 23h59.
- Department 55 to 976 - 8th June 2022 at 23h59.
- Paper declaration - 19th May!!
B - First income tax declaration by post
Be careful, if you arrived in France in 2021, you will have to start by completing a paper declaration, before you move online next year. You are unlikely to receive the forms in the post, even if you requested for your personal income tax number “numero fiscal”.
If you haven’t received the income tax forms yet, scroll down this article to download the relevant forms. You will have to print them, fill them in and post it to your local tax office. This tax office can be called Service Impots Particuliers (SIP), Tresor Public, Service des Finances Publiques, Tresorerie or Les Impôts and it’s all the same thing…
You can find your local SIP office at www.demarchesadministratives.fr, by entering your local town. Here’s an example of my location in Les Pieux.
C - Which income should I declare in France
You will need to gather the following documents and/or numbers, in order to be ready for your 2022 French income tax declaration:
- If you are an employee: gather your payslips.
- If you are a Micro Entrepreneur : download your Attestation Fiscale. Go to http://www.autoentrepreneur.urssaf.fr Mes Documents/ Mes attestations/ Attestation Fiscale
- If you have an entreprise indivduelle, EURL/SARL, SAS/SASU: your accountant will handle this for you (for a fee obviously).
- If you've received a pension: check the amount received in € between 1st January & 31st December 2021.
- If you've received some dividends in 2021 - check the amount.
- If you gave some money to a French non-profit organisation - Look for your attention fiscale to get 50% deduction (e.g Restos du Coeur, SPA, Secours Populaire).
- If you used CESU for garden maintenance, cleaning services, school support "soutien scolaire" or babysitter/child minder. : This person or company would have issued an Attestation Fiscale. Get it.
I know, that's a lot of digging around... But you don't want to over declare or not claim what you are entitled to. Believe me, half the job is done, once you have collected this information.
D - Which forms should I download for my French income tax
Depending on your personal or professional situation, you will have to fill out different or additional forms. You can find these forms on Impots-Gouv.fr
- Form 2042 is the basic form that mentions all the information the tax authorities are aware of (or not at all, if you are new to France!). Check the information is correct and make corrections if necessary. If this is your first paper declaration, add your personal details (name, DOB, address, single/married or PACsed (civil union)/widowed, number of children). If you moved houses in 2021, make sure you update the address.
- Form 2042-C is the form that mentions your income (salary, pension, etc.). If you declared in the past, this income from French origin will be automatically added. Check it and correct it if necessary.
- Form 2042-C-PRO is used to declare your micro entrepreneur turnover. Enter the total sales declared to URSSAF (you can check this on your attestation fiscale from URSSAF). Don’t apply any rebate, the tax office will do this.
- Form 2042 RICI is for tax reductions or tax credits with details of your dependents, home employment, donations to non-profit associations, etc.
- Form 2047 is for your income earned and taxed abroad. For instance, rental income abroad, dividends paid abroad, etc. This will not be taxed again, but it will be taken into account to assess your overall household income.
- Form to declare your accounts held abroad. This form includes your personal or business accounts, as well as your payment gateways (Paypal, Stripe, Payoneer)or neo-banks (N26, Revolut). Complete one form per account or gateway.
- Form 2042 DSI is new and doesn’t apply for micro entrepreneurs. It is for enterprise individuelle au reel simplifie or EURL/SARL, SAS/SASU. The Declaration Sociale des Independants (DSI) will be used both by URSSAF and Impots to assess the entrepreneur’s social charge and income tax. If this is you, your accountant will fill in this form for you.
If you need to search for another form, type “formulaire xxx millesime 2022”, to ensure it refers to 2021.
Print the relevant forms applying to your situation and start filling them in as a draft. You can then get help from the tax office. I strongly recommend hiring an accountant if you have multiple sources of income in France and abroad.
E - Book an appointment with your local tax office for help
You can see that it can be a daunting task for the first time. My advice is to collect all the above information and to book an appointment with your local tax office for help.
Watch this video to see how to book a physical appointment with the tax office. The appointment is booked online, but you will get a meeting at the tax office (easier than by phone or email). This option to book an appointment seems to be only available for the tax season.
This way next year, you’ll only have to copy and paste what you’ll learn with the tax office this year. C’est pas génial? Si-si, je vous le dit…
2 - How to complete form 2042 C Pro as a Micro Entrepreneur
As mentioned previously, you will have to declare your gross turnover. Don’t include the VAT if you are VAT registered and don’t apply any rebate. You can find this number on your annual tax certificate that URSSAF publishes at the beginning of the year on your autoentrepreneur.urssaf.fr account.
Log in to your autoentrepreneur.urssaf.fr account / Go to Mes Documents / Mes Attestations / in the drop-down menu choose Attestation Fiscale Annuelle. The tax authorities need to know your actual turnover for 2021, which is why you must check the amount you have already declared to URSSAF, to ensure it is the same.
A - Indicate your activity type
On page 1 of form 2042 C Pro, you will have to add your personal details (name, address), as well as your business SIRET number. You will also have to indicate the nature of your income. You will have the choice between:
- BA - Benefices Agricole
- BIC - Benefices Industriles et Commerciaux
- BNC - Benefices Non Commerciaux
Your choice as a micro entrepreneur is either BIC or BNC:
- Benefices Industriels et Commerciaux (BIC) relates to buy-to-resell, trade, tourism, shops, e-commerce, manual services, and artisans. It basically regroups activities registered with Chambre de Commerce or Chambre de Metiers.
- Benefices Non Commerciaux (BNC) refers to profession liberales registered with URSSAF, consultant, progammer, coach, techer, intellectual based activities.
B - Declare your turnover - If you HAVE opted for the income tax at source
This is still on page 1 of form 2042 C Pro. If you have opted for the income tax at source “Impot liberatoire” (i.e you are paying either an extra 1%, 1.7% or 2.2% every month or quarter at the same time as your social chargers to go toward your income tax), add your turnover in the following cells:
- 5TA for the sale of goods. E.G shop, food truck, ecommerce.
- 5TB for manual services, artisans and gites. E.g conciergerie services, carpenter, gites.
- 5TE for professions liberales relating to URSSAF. E.g consultant, coach, programmer.
C - Declare your turnover - If you HAVE NOT opted for income tax at source
If you have not opted for the income tax at source “impot liberatoire”, you are under what we call “regime micro”. Add your total sales declared to URSSAF in cell:
- 5KO (on page 3) for the sale of goods. E.G shop, food truck.
- 5KP (on page 3) for manual services, artisans and gites. E.g conciergerie services, carpenter, gites.
- 5 HQ (on page 6) of form 2042 C Pro, for professions liberales relating to URSSAF. E.g consultant, coach, programmer.
Again, I strongly recommend hiring an accountant if you have multiple sources of income in France and abroad.
