Receive French tax credits? If so it is good to update your information

Households in France that benefit from tax credits are being reminded to update information about the services they use, or they may face having to pay money back in late summer 2026.

Millions of households benefit from tax credits (crédits d’impôt) annually in France, for services ranging from employing a gardener or childminder, donating to a political party or charity, or property investment schemes such as the loi Pinel. 

France’s system of advance tax credit payouts can lead to unpleasant surprises if situations change, however, leading to some people needing to pay back credits advanced to them at the start of the year. 

French tax authorities have recently sent out letters to households benefitting from tax credit payments, advising them to update their information this autumn so that next year’s payments are more accurate.

How does the system work? 

Tax credit payments in France are split into two. 

In January, an advance payout of tax credits is made, making up what tax authorities believe is 60% of the annual total a household should receive.

This system is in place so that households do not need to wait until the summer to receive tax credits due to them from the previous year.

The payout made is estimated based on the previous spring’s tax declaration, where information on tax credits was given. 

For example, payments in January 2026 will look at the 2025 declaration of 2024’s income, those in January 2025 were based on the 2024 declaration (itself regarding 2023’s income), etc.

When the annual spring income declaration is completed, authorities look at this to reassess the tax credits a household should receive for the previous year, using the up-to-date information.

In the summer, the remaining amount is paid out based on this reevaluation. 

If the tax credits you are set to receive remained unchanged between the most recent declaration (given in spring) and the one prior (used for January’s estimates), you will receive the remaining 40%.

However, any change to tax credits indicated on the most recent declaration will see this amount change. 

For those benefitting from additional amounts of tax credits, an increased payout will be made, and for those with fewer, payments will drop accordingly.

In some cases where there was a major difference in eligibility for tax credits for 2025 income as compared to 2024 income (such as an end to hiring a childminder) this may see households needing to pay back some of the tax credits paid out in January 2026 in the summer of the same year.

Manually make note of changes 

While the split-payment system helps households with minor changes to tax credits deal with fluctuating payments – and cuts down on wait times for tax credits to be paid out – it can still lead to issues such as overpayments in January. 

However, it is possible for households to manually note a change in their circumstance so as to limit the tax credits paid out to them in January if it may lead to overpayment.

This can be done by logging onto your personal space on the French tax site, 

clicking on the ‘Gérer mon prélèvement à la source’ section, and then ‘Gérer vos avances de réductions et crédits d’impôt’.

From here, you can update the information so as to reduce or cancel the January payment.

This allows the authorities to take more recent information into account, using information from the actual 2025 year instead of your spring 2025 declaration for 2024. 

The deadline to make any changes is December 11. 

Note that in some cases for home services it is now possible to benefit from tax credits upfront without waiting (ie. by paying less for the service, with Urssaf compensating the service provider). 

Any advance tax credit payments made from Urssaf in this way will be automatically deducted from the January payout.