I am moving (or returning) to France. What income should I declare ?
Depending on the tax obligations to which you were subject prior to your arrival in France, the procedures for declaring income earned in respect of the year of your arrival in France from abroad will vary:
You had no tax obligations in France when you lived abroad
This applies when you lived abroad and you no longer had any French earnings taxable in France.
In the year (Y+1) following your arrival/return (Year Y), you must file online income tax return no. 2042 in the location of your new home in France and declare the French income taxable in France that you received between the date of your return and 31 December of Year Y and any appendices based on the type of income received (property income return no. 2044, foreign earned income return no. 2047, etc., all of which can be downloaded from the impots.gouv.fr website). To learn more, please refer to the “Particulier” (Individual) section of the impots.gouv.fr website. However, if you consider that you are unable to do so, you can exceptionally use a paper return.
If you still have interests abroad, please refer to the International section, under the heading “I am a resident of France with interests abroad" / Taxation of foreign-source income in France ” in the “Individual" section.
Please note :
You do not have access to the online tax return and must therefore send a paper return to your tax service if you are declaring your income and/or assets in France for the first time,
For more information, please refer to the section, “I am not a resident of France but I have interests in France” / Tax liability and reporting obligations in France for non residents
You had tax obligations in France and you were affiliated with the Individual Tax Department for Non-Residents prior to your return to France
If you were a non-resident and you had French earnings taxable in France prior to your return in this country, you were affiliated to the Individual Tax Department for Non-Residents (SIPNR).
You should therefore file online a return concerning this income with the SIPNR. The following year (Y+1), the SIPNR will forward the return to your new local tax department in the location of your new home in France.
You should use return no. 2042 NR to declare French income earned prior to your return (between 1 January of year Y and the date of your return) and return 2042 to declare income earned after your return (between the date of your return and 31 December of the year of return), accompanied by the various appendices based on the type of income received (property income return no. 2044, foreign earned income return no. 2047, etc.). If you can't file your return online, you can exceptionally use a paper return.
You will be taxed as a non-resident on the first part (to learn more, please refer to the section “ “I am not a resident of France but I have interests in France” / Tax liability and reporting obligations in France for non residents”) and a resident for the second part (to learn more, please refer to the “Particulier” (Individual) section of the website.
Please note : If you are employed by the central government, local authority or hospital civil servant posted outside France and your salaries remain taxable in France, you don't have to file return no. 2042 NR. All your salaries must be declared on return no. 2042.
You had unlimited tax liability in France and you are affiliated with the tax department in the location of your tax residence in France
This is the case:
If you were a central government, local authority or hospital civil servant posted abroad who was considered to be a resident of France for tax purposes and if your household had remained in France
You were liable in France for tax on all your income, including compensation for your activity abroad. You therefore filed your tax return with the tax department that covers your primary residence in France.
Please see the following information sheet : Tax treatment for employees of the central government, local authorities and public hospitals posted abroad
If you were a mixed couple (you as a foreign tax resident and your spouse as a French tax resident) who are married (or in a civil partnership) under a joint property regime
You had to declare all household income, i.e. that of the spouse with tax residence in France, of the children and dependants of the household domiciled in France, as well as income from French sources that you received while outside France (provided that the tax is attributed to France by a tax treaty). You were affiliated with the tax department covering the primary residence in France.
In these two cases, you will continue to be affiliated with the tax department covering your primary residence in France and you will file tax return form 2042 for the year, as well as any appendices based on the income earned (property income return no. 2044, foreign earned income return no. 2047, etc.).
To make the process easier and to create your personal account, please see the following information sheet : I am a non-resident. How can I connect to my personal account or set up one ?.
UPDATED DINR PART on JUNE 14, 2024