French tax payment due for nine million households. Will you get it?

Around nine million households in France will receive a payment into their bank accounts next week, as the first instalment of 2026 tax credits is paid.

Payments will average around €600 and will be paid from January 15 onwards by tax authorities. 

Households employing a gardener, cleaner or nanny, making donations to a charity or political party, or paying administration fees to a care home – among other eligible expenses – are set to benefit. Full details on what qualifies can be found here.

Payments will come from the DDFIP or DRFIP and be titled ‘ADVANCE TAX CREDIT’.

How does the system work?

Tax credits are paid out annually in France, with a first payment in January and a second in the summer (usually in July).

The January payment covers an estimated 60% of the tax credits authorities believe a household is entitled to in the year, based on the most recent information it has.

In January 2026 for example, this is based on the spring 2025 tax return (itself covering information relating to income and credits in 2024). 

When households file their annual tax declaration in the spring (this year will cover 2025 income), authorities re-evaluate the total amount a household will receive based on this updated information, which includes information about tax credits from the previous year.

This is then used to calculate the second summer payment, which may be more or less than initially expected based on the January estimates.

For households whose tax credits have not changed on previous years (both from the 2025 and 2026 declaration), payouts should remain the same, with the remaining 40% given in summer. 

In some cases – such as if a previously full-time childminder is no longer employed – households may be asked to repay some money if the estimated 60% paid out in January equals more than the total tax credits for the year.

The system is in place so that households do not have to wait so long for tax credits to be paid out. 

For example, if the annual January payment system was not in place, a tax credit obtained in January (say, 2025) would not be paid out until summer (in 2026).

However, the calculations can lead to some surprises in the form of lower-than-expected summer payments.

To avoid unexpected changes, households can manually inform tax authorities of a change in situation.

If this is completed at the end of the year (for this January’s payments, the deadline to update information was December 11, 2025) authorities will take this into account to update payments for next year, and keep the January/summer payments to a 60% - 40% ratio. 

Although it is too late to change this for the January 2026 payments, you can still update the information and plan ahead for the summer 2026 payout, either reducing or cancelling the payment.

This is carried out through people’s personal spaces on the tax website – full information on how to do this is in our article here.