Your first French tax return, and how to get it right
The French return is annual, largely pre-filled and mostly online. None of that helps in the first year, because the system does not yet know you exist.
The French income tax return is filed once a year in the spring, covering the previous calendar year, by the household rather than by the individual. Online filing is the norm and is compulsory for anyone able to do it, but it requires a tax number, and a newcomer does not have one until the administration has registered them. The first return is therefore very often filed on paper, and that first paper filing is what creates the tax number used for every subsequent year. Working out that sequence in advance saves the panic that otherwise arrives with the first deadline.
Getting into the system
The tax number is issued by the tax office covering your address, and obtaining it is an administrative step rather than a tax one. The office is determined by where you live, and a household that has just moved will often need to establish contact with it directly. Once the number exists, an online account can be created, and from the following year the return is pre-filled with the salary and pension data French payers have reported. Foreign income is never pre-filled, because no foreign payer reports to the French administration in that way.
Deadlines fall in the spring and are staggered by department for online filing, with a separate and earlier date for paper. They change every year. They are published by the tax authority for the year in question, and they should be read there rather than taken from any secondary source, this page included.
The annexes almost every newcomer needs
The main return, the 2042, carries the household's income. Three annexes recur in nearly every foreign national's file. Income received abroad goes on the foreign income return, the 2047, which feeds figures back into the main form and also identifies which treaty relief method applies. Accounts held outside France are declared on the foreign account return, the 3916, one entry per account. Capital gains on securities generally require their own annex. A newcomer who files only the main form has almost certainly filed an incomplete return.
Withholding at source is only a payment on account
France operates withholding at source on salaries and pensions paid by French payers, and instalments on other categories. Neither replaces the return: they are payments on account, and the return remains the act that establishes the tax. A newcomer whose income arrives from abroad will typically have had nothing withheld at all in the first year, and will then face both a balancing payment for that year and instalments for the next one in the same period. Anticipating that overlap is a cash-flow question rather than a tax one, and it catches people who assumed the withholding meant they were up to date.
Filing late, and correcting
A late return attracts a surcharge that increases with the delay and with whether the administration had to formally demand it, and interest runs on the tax itself. A return that was filed but is wrong is a different matter and a far less serious one: the online service allows corrections after filing, and a spontaneous correction is treated more favourably than a correction extracted by an audit. That pattern runs through French tax procedure generally, and it is worth internalising early: a taxpayer who fixes the file pays less than one the administration has to fix it for.
What to assemble before the first filing
Your residency date and the documents supporting it. Every payslip and pension statement, French and foreign, for the whole calendar year. A list of every account held outside France during the year, including those opened or closed. Statements for foreign investment income, with any tax already withheld abroad. The treaty article that covers each category of foreign income. And the address of the tax office for your commune.
Frequently asked questions
How do I file if I do not have a French tax number yet?
You file on paper, and that first filing is what creates the number. Online filing is compulsory for those able to do it, but it presupposes a tax number and an online account, neither of which a newcomer has. The paper return goes to the tax office covering your address, which you can identify from your commune. Once the administration has processed it and issued your number, you can open the online account, and from the following year the return arrives partly pre-filled.
Is my foreign income pre-filled like my French salary?
No, and assuming otherwise is a common source of incomplete returns. Pre-filling works because French employers, pension payers and banks report to the administration; no foreign payer does so in that way. Every item of foreign income has to be entered by you, on the foreign income annex, which also records any tax already paid abroad and identifies the relief method the treaty applies. The pre-filled figures you do see cover only the French side of your file.
I already pay tax at source. Do I still have to file?
Yes. Withholding at source and instalments are payments on account, not a final settlement, and the return remains the act by which the tax is established. This matters most in the first year, when income arriving from abroad has typically had nothing withheld at all: you can then face a balancing payment for the year just ended and instalments for the year in progress within the same period. That overlap is predictable and worth budgeting for before it arrives.
What happens if I file late or get something wrong?
The two situations are treated very differently. A late return attracts a surcharge that rises with the delay and with whether the administration had to formally demand it, and interest runs on the tax. A return filed on time but containing an error can be corrected, and a correction you make spontaneously is treated far more favourably than one produced by an audit. The administration prices a voluntary fix well below a forced one, and that holds across French tax procedure generally.
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Prepare my first French return
Book a callWritten by Stéphane Molère, Président d'Éthique et Patrimoine — page last reviewed on 2026-08-30 — rules quoted are those in force at that date.