The guide to French tax for new residents

Becoming a French tax resident: the four tests that decide explains how residency is established. This guide assumes you already know, and answers a more practical question: what to gather, in what order, before your first return.

The first French tax return is filed without the online account most residents rely on, because that account requires a tax number you do not yet have. This guide is built around that constraint: what to gather before the number arrives, what to gather afterwards, and which of the two French filing texts applies to each thing you own abroad.

Before you have a tax number

Documents to gather: proof of your residency date (lease or deed, employment contract start date, school registration for children); every payslip and pension statement for the full calendar year, French and foreign.
Who to contact: the tax office covering your address, to open your file and obtain your tax number; this is the step that has to happen before online filing becomes possible.
Question to ask: "can I file on paper this year while my number is processed, and what is the deadline for that paper filing specifically?" Paper deadlines are typically earlier than the online ones.

The list almost every newcomer needs

Foreign income: every statement of income earned abroad during the year, with any tax already withheld there. This goes on the foreign income annex, which also determines which treaty relief method applies.
Foreign accounts: a list of every account held outside France during the year, including ones you no longer use or that hold nothing: the reporting obligation attaches to holding the account, not to what it earns.
Foreign life assurance or capitalisation contracts: these are reported separately from bank accounts, under a different article; keep them on a distinct line of your list.
Digital asset accounts: held on any platform established abroad, reported under their own text with its own penalty scale.

The overlap nobody warns you about

If income arrives from abroad in your first year, nothing is typically withheld at source in France on it, unlike a French salary. That means the balancing payment for your first year can land in the same period as the instalments for the following year. Ask your employer's payroll contact, or the tax office directly, what withholding already applies to you — and budget for both payments arriving close together rather than assuming the first year is cash-flow neutral.

The folder to keep from day one

One file, five sections: residency evidence, French income, foreign income, foreign accounts and contracts, and correspondence with the tax office. Add to it as the year goes, dated, rather than reconstructing it the following spring.

This guide is a preparation checklist, not a filing service: form numbers, deadlines and thresholds change every year and are not reproduced here. Becoming a French tax resident: the four tests that decide and Reporting foreign accounts, contracts and trusts in France set out the underlying rules; this guide does not replace them.

Frequently asked questions

What is the very first thing I should do for French tax purposes?

Document your residency date with real evidence — a lease, an employment contract, a school registration — before anything else. Every other step, including opening your tax file and choosing which income falls under French rules, depends on that date being supportable rather than approximate.

I don't have a French tax number yet. Can I still file on time?

Yes, on paper, and that first paper filing is what generates your tax number for future years. Contact the tax office covering your address as early as possible, since paper deadlines are typically earlier than the online ones newcomers assume apply to everyone.

Do I need to list a foreign account I opened years ago and never use?

Yes. The reporting obligation attaches to holding the account during the year, not to whether it produced income or whether you used it. A dormant account is exactly the kind of item this guide's checklist is built to catch before the first filing rather than after.

ÉTHIQUE ET PATRIMOINE, a French simplified joint-stock company (SAS), registered office at 41 rue Saint-Ferdinand, 75017 Paris, France, Paris Trade Register no. 803 414 796, VAT no. FR 40 803 414 796, registered with ORIAS under number no. 24001817 (www.orias.fr) — Financial investment adviser (CIF) no. 18002418, member of ANACOFI-CIF, a professional association approved by the Autorité des marchés financiers, and Anacofi-Courtage for its brokerage activity. Presence: Paris, Montpellier, Singapore, Hong Kong, Bangkok, Shanghai and Dubai.

Prepare my first French return

Book a call

Written by Stéphane Molère, Président d'Éthique et Patrimoine — page last reviewed on 2026-08-30 — rules quoted are those in force at that date.