What should you do if you have missed France's tax declaration deadline?

Reader Question: I spent the spring in the UK and forgot about the income tax declaration deadline. Can I still declare online? If so, will I be penalised?

Even if you missed the spring deadline, you must still declare your income.

Declarations can still be made online through your personal space on the French tax site after the deadline in your department is passed.

Generally, online declarations remain available through individual’s personal spaces until the end of June, allowing those who miss original deadlines by a few days or weeks to do so.

After this, a specific corrections service then opens later in the summer (also via your online space) and is usually open until December. This is to correct declarations, rather than to submit one in the first place.

If you miss the extra time to declare online, you need to download a paper form and submit this manually.

The main forms are available to download here and you can also find other forms via the search box on the site.

Note that you may need several paper forms depending on your situation (including the forms to report non-French bank accounts in your name, income from a non-French source, etc).

If you have trouble with your declaration, you can visit your local tax office for more help.

If you live far away, you can visit a France services centre for advice.

Owning up to the mistake with tax issues is the best course of action as the authorities are generally more lenient to those who act in genuine good faith after making errors and come forward to fix them.

Penalties you may face

However, this does not guarantee that you will not face penalties for late declaration.

Anyone who declares late faces financial penalties, according to France’s tax code.

Those who fail to declare before the deadline face a majoration on their tax payment, which is an additional penalty levied on top of the final income tax calculated.

Majoration penalties are:

10% for those who miss the deadline in any way

20% for those who declare within 30 days of a mise en demure (a warning notice from the authorities) being sent to them

40% for those who miss the deadline and declare more than 30 days after a mise en demure is sent

This calculation is made on the amount of tax due prior to any reductions or amounts already paid.

In addition to this penalty, interest on unpaid income tax is also in place, at a rate of 0.2% per month a payment is missed.

In certain cases, it is possible to ask for a waiver (demande de remise gracieuse) of late payment penalties. Article L247 of the tax code applies to both the majoration penalty and late payment interest penalties.

You can request this if you declare late due to specific difficulties such as a death in the family, illness, etc.

Similarly to requests for deferred/reduced payments in situations where a person cannot pay due to financial limitations, requests can be made one of three ways:

Via written letter to your tax office

An in-person appointment

Online, through your personal messaging space on the French tax site

In all cases, you should attach/submit proof of the extenuating circumstances where possible.

Authorities have two months to get back to you – if they do not reply within this time, you should consider the request rejected.