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I worked in France (received a salary) between 19/May/2014-04/May/2015. I moved to the United States on the 28/April/2015. I believe that French taxes are due at the end of May (or end of June if being payed online). All I could gather right now is that I need to fill out a "declaration de revenu", which is also available online at http://www.impots.gouv.fr/portal/static/. However, to access the online space, I need a "numero fiscal" that I do not know how to get.

Repeated emails to my previous employers has not helped at all and I can't speak much French to understand what is being said in all the French websites. Google translate falls short on most occassions. How do I go about paying my income tax and not default? Is there any agency in the USA that can do this for me (cost not being a question)?

dearN
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2 Answers2

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  • The current déclaration de revenus concerns income received from January 1 2014 to December 31 2014.
  • See here : http://vosdroits.service-public.fr/particuliers/F357.xhtml. If your case is that you are a one person income and your revenue is above 9690 € (under this income, you don't have to pay income taxes).

  • If you were getting salary from a french company, your december 2014 fiche de paye should have a line at the end that mentions revenu net annuel or revenu net imposable. That is the basis for your income tax calculation. Your french employer has to provide this data to you (he is providing it to the french tax office on the other hand).

  • You can download and print a paper version of the déclaration de
    revenu here :
    http://www.impots.gouv.fr/portal/deploiement/p1/fichedescriptiveformulaire_9783/fichedescriptiveformulaire_9783.pdf

  • Besides (sort of) basic informations on page 1 and 2, you only have to fill line 1AJ, column déclarant 1, with the income mentioned above on page 3.

  • You can then send this printed version to the Centre des finances publiques that is attached to your address while you were in France. To find the Centre des finances publiques

  • How to find your Centres des finances publiques ? (from @Gala answer's) :

    Go to http://www.impots.gouv.fr/portal/dgi/public/contactspart

    On this page click first on “Besoin de plus d'informations, de nous contacter ?“ and then on “Contacter votre service local” to unfold the proper form

    The mandatory field "voie" means your postal address (like "rue des fleurs" or "avenue du 8 mai 1945")

    The mandatory field "code postal" means your 5 digits postal code

  • There might be some tricky fields on the document that seem basic to a native french speaker where some help can be useful.

Gala
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audionuma
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  • Ah ok! I was actually summing my gross pay from May 2014 to April 2015! I didn't realize that the tax year was from Jan 1 to Dec 31. I'll look for revenu net annuel or revenu net imposable on my pay slip for Dec. Thank you. – dearN May 06 '15 at 21:04
  • Take into account that the fact that you voluntarily get in touch with the income tax services from a foreign country will (should) be appreciated and might help in dealing with potential delays in you paperworks (meaning you might not be charged with late declaration as you are of goodwill). I think the best for you would be to find a french expat in your current location to help you with filling the form, it should not take more than 30' if your status is simple (single income, only salary) towards France. – audionuma May 06 '15 at 21:46
  • How do I find the centre des impots I mail my document to? Merely searching for it directs me to impots.gouv.fr. Should I be searching for the centre des impots for the department I worked in (91) in France (Paris/ile de France being where I worked)? – dearN May 06 '15 at 22:27
  • @drN : see answer edited. You have to look for the Centre des impôts where you lived, not where you worked. – audionuma May 06 '15 at 23:02
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    Centre des impôts is now called Centre des finances publiques – audionuma May 06 '15 at 23:08
  • Thank you for your patience on this. One final question perhaps the French embassy website states that tax returns need to be returned to Service des impôts des particuliers Non-Résidents (SIPNR), 10 rue du Centre, TSA 10010 , 93465 NOISY LE GRAND, FRANCE . However, it would appear to be for non-residents. I just wanted to make sure that since I spent more than 183 days in France, I am not a non-resident and this is not the address I send my declaration de revenue to. – dearN May 06 '15 at 23:28
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    French Embassy in the USA, information on taxes – dearN May 06 '15 at 23:35
  • As much as I hate to add to this, there are over 50 centre des finances publiques associated with my residence address in Paris. Can I send my declaration to any one of them? – dearN May 07 '15 at 00:06
  • @drN I first thought about mentioning the SIPNR in my answer but the guidance from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs indicates that for the year you left, you should still send all the forms to the tax office for your last place of residence in France. You would only contact the SIPNR if you still have French-sourced income the year after. – Gala May 07 '15 at 01:34
  • @drN This is just a phone number look-up site, see my answer on how to find the right one directly from impots.gouv.fr. – Gala May 07 '15 at 01:40
  • I have edited my answer to reference the better suggestion from @Gala. – audionuma May 07 '15 at 06:01
  • Yes, but the address I seem to find through impots.gouv.fr per your and @Gala suggestion is the "Conciliateur fiscal départemental". This is not a "centre des finances publiques". This is quite confusing now. – dearN May 07 '15 at 10:09
  • @drN I just entered a random address in Gif-sur-Yvette and I found a regular SIP, namely this one. I am not sure what's going on. – Gala May 07 '15 at 13:54
  • @Gala Well thank you for trying. I appreciate it. However, where exactly did you type in gif sur yvette? I couldn't find the field where this would go into. (sorry for being a bit of a dolt) – dearN May 07 '15 at 18:11
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    @drN On this page click first on “Besoin de plus d'informations, de nous contacter ?“ and then on “Contacter votre service local” to unfold the proper form. – Gala May 07 '15 at 19:58
  • @Gala yes I did get to that point. But what should I use for the first champ obligatoire, viz., Voie (n°, BTQ, type, libellé)? Voie is not "platform" in this case. – dearN May 07 '15 at 20:00
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    @drN You should put your address. “Voie” is a generic word covering “allée”, “rue”, “avenue”, “impasse”, “boulevard”, “chemin”, “ruelle”, etc. “Gif-sur-Yvette” would then go into “localité“ although you don't really need to specify that as you need to put the postcode under “code postal” anyway. – Gala May 07 '15 at 20:09
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If it's the first time you file a tax return in France, you don't need any special code or number. It is however not possible to file online, unless you are between 20 and 25 and have received a letter from the tax office (that's intended for young French residents who were previously mentioned on their parents' tax return, not for expats obviously as the tax office wouldn't know about you).

You have to get a paper form (or print it?) and send it by post to the tax office competent for your former place of residence. To find it, you can enter your address on impots.gouv.fr under “contacter votre service local”.

There is a box at the very top of the form where you have to choose either “You are filing a tax return for the first time” or “You have already filed a tax return before” and then provide your FIP and fiscal numbers. Since you don't have a number yet, you have to check the first box and the tax office will then assign a new number for you and it will be mentioned on your “avis d'imposition”.

Beyond that, the documentation and forms are only available in French as far a I know and I don't think you can expect the tax office to provide any contact point for English speakers so it will be difficult to deal with all this without help.

Gala
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