Receiving your avis d’impôt 

Everyone who makes a French income tax declaration in May–June 2026 relating to income they had in 2025 should receive an avis d’impôt income tax statement this summer. This will give details of any tax due for 2025.

If you declare online, this will be in your personal space at impots.gouv.fr under Documents and the button for 2026 or Evénements. For paper declarations, or if you did not opt out of receiving a paper avis, you should also be posted a copy.

It is useful to check your avis summer tax statement against that of the year before, as unless your circumstances have changed drastically, it should show similar figures. 

This is an important document for most French residents and is frequently requested during dealings with public and private organisations, including the prefecture and the caisse d’allocations familiales (CAF) family benefits office, which uses it to calculate recipients’ child benefits. It will also be required if you wish to apply for a mortgage to purchase property in France.

Key figures include your revenu fiscal de référence (essentially, the net taxable income) and impôt net (net tax bill). However, the latter will probably be subject to some tax at source paid during the year or estimated instalments for some kinds of income. So, check finally that the amount shown as retenue à la source (taken at source) looks correct, and the total amount remaining to be paid.

Your amount taken at source can also be found in your online account at impots.gouv.fr under Gérer mon prélèvement à la source. Your previous tax bills can also be found in your online account.

There is no standard English translation available for French tax statements. You can of course pay a translator to put the document into English for you, but this should not be necessary if you know what the terms shown mean (see more in our useful vocabulary guide).

Understand your avis

What to check first

The first point to check is what you owe. This may be nothing; it is also possible that you are due a refund, or you could have to make a payment. This information is in a box on the top right of page 1. In the case of a refund, you should already have received this into your bank account or in the post as a cheque.

If there is tax to pay, it will be taken by direct debit from your bank account on September 25 or, if the sum is more than €300, it will be in several payments, on September 25 as well as October 27, November 27 and December 29, 2026. 

If you anticipate difficulties paying, for example due to a drop in your income, contact your tax office with evidence of your situation before the first payment date. Officials may offer more time to pay, if they consider this justified. 

Your revenu fiscal de référence (RFR) is shown under the box about payments, along with your ‘number of parts’.

The RFR is your net taxable income (plus or minus certain sums) and can be important as it is used to check your entitlement to various French benefits and services. 

These include eligibility for a Livret d’épargne populaire bank account, low rates of social charges on pension income, higher-level renovation grants, social housing, educational grants etc. Unless your 2025 income was significantly different from your 2024 income it should be comparable to t he figure shown last year.

Your bank account details – for payments and refunds – are also shown and you should check they are correct. 

Other details on page 1 includes Vos références, on the top-left, including your French tax number (numéro fiscal) and the reference number for this statement (référence de l’avis) which you will need if you contact the tax office about it. 

Beneath is a list of ways you can contact your tax office (the simplest is a private message in your personal space).

Pages two and three of the avis: 

These pages give a breakdown of your bill. At the top is your parts number again, for example ‘1’ if you live alone or ‘2’ if you are a couple without children who live with you. A letter indicates the situation du foyer: this can be M (married), O (pacsed), D (divorced or separated), C (living alone), or V (widow/er).

Next come your sources of taxable income (salary, pensions etc) and any fixed-rate or real expenses deductions made from them as well as any tax credits and reductions. These are used for the calculation of your impôt net – net income tax. 

There is also a section for the calculation of social charges, which are combined on the same statement as income tax.

Finally, there is the calcul du solde de votre impôt pour 2025 – a calculation of what, if anything, remains to be paid, taking account of tax and charges already paid at source and any instalments you paid with regard to income, such as foreign pensions or rentals (acomptes prelevés en 2025 sur votre compte bancaire), which are also listed in this section. 

It will also factor in any advance amount of tax credits/reductions you may have received in January 2026 based on credits/reductions you claimed in 2025 for 2024 income.

If you want to make sure that the amount of tax-at-source/instalments is correct, you can find the amounts you paid in the Prélèvement à la source section of your personal space, under Consulter l’historique de tous vos prélèvements.

A figure called Plafond épargne retraite is only relevant if you have a French private pension plan or intend to open one. It corresponds to how much you could pay into one this year and have the amount deductible from taxable income when you come to declare next year (see the last section of chapter 6).

Your taux: 

At the bottom of the avis you will find moyen d’imposition – the averaged-out rate at which your income was taxed in 2025 – and taux marginal, which is the highest income tax band that was used in the calculation.

If something looks wrong: 

If you have queries, the quickest solution is to contact your tax office via the private messaging service, quoting the reference number of the avis. 

If you realise you forgot to include something in your declaration – for example, amounts of money eligible for tax credits or reductions (a charity donation or payments for home services such as childcare or gardening etc.) – you can use an online corrections service usually until December. 

See chapter 12 for a list of common mistakes such as forgetting to declare the existence of overseas accounts. Note that if the latter applies to you, you will need to contact the tax office as you cannot use the online corrections service for this – the corrections service is essentially for modifications liable to change the amount of tax owed. 

To use the corrections service via your personal space, click Accédez à la correction en ligne. This will reopen your online declaration so you can make necessary changes.

You will receive an updated avis once you have made the changes, indicating the new level of the tax you are expected to pay, if relevant. However, this avis is not processed automatically, and may take some time to appear online.