How to pay and the deadlines

The online declaration service will open on Thursday April 9, 2026. 

Declaration deadlines are at different dates in May to June, depending on where you live and can be checked at tinyurl.com/dec-date or on this page on service.public.fr. 

The deadlines for completing the declaration have yet to be announced officially, but according to tax workers' union Solidaires Finances Publiques, they will be the following, giving taxpayers six to eight weeks to complete declarations.

Deadlines are based on where your main home is and the type of declaration you are making:

• Declarations on paper forms: Tuesday May 19

• Residents in departments 01 - 19: Thursday May 21

• People who are not French tax residents: Thursday May 21

• Residents in departments 20 - 54, and Corsica: Thursday May 28

• Residents in departments 55 and above, including French overseas departments: Thursday June 4

Deadlines are at midnight on the day. 

Almost everyone should declare online if possible. 

If you need a paper form, prefilled forms for people who have declared in the past will be sent out during April.

Tax assessments (avis d'impôt) should be available in online spaces around late July to mid-August. Paper versions typically go out from late July to late August. If yours is delayed, it will have correspondingly later payment dates on it.

The ASDIR (avis de situation déclarative à l’impôt sur le revenu) notice provided immediately after declaring online is not an avis d’imposition. It is an indication of what tax will be payable and contains no payment details. However, it can be used to show your revenu fiscal de référence and those with no tax to pay do not receive anything else.

In the majority of cases if you have any tax to pay after your income has been assessed, this will be taken out of your bank account by direct debit. Similarly, any refunds will be paid into your account (usually in July or August), appearing on bank statements as REMB IMPOT REVENUS. 

This, as well as for the system of regular instalments that some people pay on known recurring incomes such as rents, is why you need to give bank account details as part of your declaration.

• If any income tax that remains payable (un solde à payer) is less than or equal to €300, it will be taken out of your account 10 days after the payment date shown on your avis d’impôt (likely to be in September).

• If your income tax to be paid is more than €300, it will be automatically spread out over four payments, in September, October, November and December. The exception is if you received your avis late, in which case there will be two payments in November and December if it came in the autumn, or, if in December, in one go in February next year.

Only if, for some reason, you did not communicate your bank details to the tax office, or they cannot successfully take a payment because you closed the account or it does not hold sufficient funds, you will have to pay the amount by conventional methods such as cheque (payable to the Trésor Public), or by cash or bank card at your local tax office, assuming the amount is less than €300.

Another option in this case is paiement de proximité, which means paying at a local tabac shop operating this scheme. 

Online payment on the tax website is another option for any amount and is available for anyone with a French bank account or one in the Sepa zone, including the UK.

You can do this in your personal space by clicking the yellow payment button. Alternatively, use the green Payer en ligne button at the log-in screen for your space to make a ‘direct online payment’. In this case, all you need is your numéro fiscal (French tax number) and the référence de l’avis, which can be found near the top of the avis. It is also possible to pay via the app impots.gouv.fr. 

If you need to update your bank account details, you can do this in your account at Gérer mon prélèvement à la source, then Mettre à jour vos coordonnées bancaires. Changes with regard to levies by the tax office will take effect from the month after you notify the change of details (unless made from December 16–31, in which case they will take effect from February).

It is also possible to communicate new bank details on the phone via the main tax office helpline. 

If you anticipate difficulties with paying, you can ask the tax office to consider giving more time, which must be done in the month before the next bank levy is due.

As well as possible sums of extra tax that may be levied in the latter part of 2026 with regard to tax on 2025 income, you will continue to pay tax at source as applicable with regard to incomes arising in 2026 (directly or as estimated instalments). This may give rise to regularisations in the latter months of 2027.

Non-residents are asked to pay via the same methods as residents. However, residents of certain countries may not be able to open SEPA zone bank accounts, in which case it is permitted to pay instead by bank transfer to the bank account of the non-residents’ tax service (tinyurl.com/non-res-pay).

Contact the tax office

If you need help with your tax form you can visit a branch of France Services, or ask for help at your tax office. A map of help points is available at: tinyurl.com/tax-place.

A good way to send queries to your tax office, and the method the services prefer, is via the online message service accessible in your personal space on the website (you need to write in French).

You can also book a phone or in-person appointment via your space, clicking Contact et RDV. Alternatively, visit impots.gouv.fr/portail/contacts and select Vous êtes: Particulier, then answer the questions. Some routes through this end up inviting you to give your address, and you are then shown a landline phone number for your tax office and may have the option to select to arrange a meeting.

When The Connexion tried this, it worked with: La gestion de vos impôts > Prendre rendez-vous > Pour toute autre question sur vos impôts.

General tax queries can also be made on the national tax helpline 0033 (0)809 401 401. When you call, after introductory comments, you will be asked to select 0, or 9 if calling from a smartphone, for more options.

In the latter case, you receive a text with buttons to press for common queries, to send a private message, or to continue a call.

If you select 0, there are further options, for example 2 for tax at source or 3 for help with declaring property use. 

Option 4 is “for those who do not have internet access or who are having difficulties with online procedures”. This is also the best way to get hold of an advisor to ask general questions.

An app called Acceo can help hearing-impaired people contact the tax office.

If you need to change your declaration

Changes to online declarations can be made until the declaration deadlines.

Once avis assessments are issued in late summer the Corriger ma déclaration service is open for further changes via your personal space on the tax website.

This is usually open from early August to mid-December.

If you declared on paper and realise you made a mistake or forgot to declare something (before receiving your avis d’impôt) print a new version of the relevant blank form(s), fill the form(s) out

correctly and write at the top:

DECLARATION RECTIFICATIVE,

ANNULE ET REMPLACE

Send by registered post (lettre recommandée avec avis de réception) to the tax office.

If you have already received your avis there is a process called a réclamation, which may be accompanied by a demande de sursis de paiement (request for postponement of tax): see tinyurl.com/reclamation-impots). In this case, you will need to send proof of the changes you want to make