Declaring UK bank accounts when living in France
I read in Connexion that there are severe penalties for not declaring foreign bank accounts as part of your annual tax declaration. We live in France and make our declarations here including all interest paid on our UK accounts / investments. However we hold a current account with a UK bank with no interest payable. Do we need to also declare this?
The French require a list of bank accounts held outside of France, and this is declared on the form 3916, or alternatively a sheet of paper stating: names of the account holders, name of the bank, the bank’s address, the account number, the nature of the account (cheque, deposit, etc), the date the account was opened and closed (if applicable).
All accounts which someone has in their name or to which they have access to as a beneficiary and so can use as if their own, need to be declared.
When declaring online you must click to complete the comptes à l’étranger section, which is listed under Divers (miscellaneous).
When declaring on paper the form is normally to be submitted annually but it is usually acceptable to write ‘3916 aucun changement’ (no change) in the additional information box on the main 2042.
Whether the account pays interest is not significant.
If you have already declared and did not mention an account, it is still possible to write to the tax office to clarify the omission if you declared by paper forms.
Changes and additions to online declarations can be made up until the date that the avis d’imposition assessments are issued in July, though it is best to do it as soon as possible.
A service then opens for further corrections (last year this was open until mid-December).
This question was answered by Olaf Muscat Baron who is a Fellow of the Chartered Association of Accountants UK, a French expert comptable and an International tax advisor.
He is the principal accountant of Fiscaly, an accountancy firm based in the Dordogne.
See www.fiscaly.fr or call 09 81 09 00 15
Email your tax questions to news@connexionfrance.com
