Selecting the online sections/rubriques

When you declare on impots.gouv.fr, one of the first tasks after completing your personal/family situation details (see the next section in this chapter) is to choose which parts of the main Déclaration principale you need for your particular situation. You select the rubriques (‘headings’) applicable to you from a list, which presents the types of revenue that – when declaring on paper – would appear on the 2042, 2042C, 2042C-PRO, or 2042-RICI.

The online declaration will then tailor the pages for you to fill in, as opposed to showing you everything from the paper 2042 (including sections that do not apply to you). 

There is a search box at the top of the page to locate any sections you do not see listed. You can refer to the paper forms for box names or use the name of the item you are searching for (see the previous article on useful vocabulary).

If necessary, also click the Déclarations annexes button to generate any required annexe forms (these do not have ‘2042’ numbers in their paper versions) such as the 2047 form for foreign income, or the 2044 for unfurnished rental income above €15,000.

These annexes will then be provided as separate online forms at the top left of the screen so you can move between them and the rest of the declaration. 

All selected rubriques and annexes should be completed before you sign off your declaration.

Under Revenus, select types of income that you need to declare, such as:

• Traitements, salaires for employed work

• Pensions, retraites for pensions (French and foreign)

• Revenus de capitaux mobiliers for investment income

• Plus-values et gains divers for capital gains from investments

• Micro-foncier for unfurnished rental income declared under the micro system

• Revenus fonciers for unfurnished rental under régime réel

• Revenus exceptionnels ou différés for one-off windfalls that you want to benefit from the quotient system

• Micro-entrepreneur if you earned money from a business that was taxed during the year under the versement libératoire

• Revenus agricoles for income from agriculture

• Revenus des locations meublées non-professionnelles for non-professional furnished rental

There are several categories for self-employed income depending on the sector, e.g., Revenus industriels et commerciaux professionnels, for sales or certain services – this would also be used for furnished rental if you are a professional landlord (see chapter 6 for more on this).

There is also a box to tick if you have self-employment income and you pay business social cotisations under the traditional estimated instalment system, rather than as a micro-entrepreneur (Vous relevez: Du régime général des indépendents). Note there is a specific box if you do farming work and belong to the MSA, which deals with social charges for farmers. 

Under charges (expenses), select Charges déductibles if you need to declare expenses incurred such as support for adult children or an ex-spouse. Select réductions et crédits d’impôt to declare gifts to charity, home-help expenses, union membership fees etc giving rise to credits and reductions and choose Investissements locatifs if you have relevant income from buy-to-let schemes. 

Prélèvement à la source: this will usually be pre-selected if you had some tax taken at source during the year, to ensure that this is shown in your declaration (otherwise, select if you had such deductions, as you may need to fill in these amounts manually).

Divers (miscellaneous) is used to declare foreign bank accounts (you may need to select annexe 3916 if this is not generated); foreign-source income; the benefit of tax credits and reductions carried over from previous years; amounts of work or pension income that are subject to social charges; and exemption from the social charges CGS and CRDS for certain investment incomes.

Non-résidents: This includes a part (Retenue à la source des non-résidents) relevant to non-residents who have had tax deducted at source on certain French incomes such as pensions or salaries. Select this option to declare wealth for French IFI tax if applicable (see more about wealth tax in chapter 9 of this guide). 

Impôt sur la fortune immobilière: Select this if you are eligible to declare for French IFI property wealth tax.