France tax season scams: taxpayers warned over new phishing emails
Fraudsters exploit declaration period to trick people filing returns
New scam sees potential victims told an outstanding fine risks a sharp increase
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French authorities are issuing warnings over potential scams relating to annual income tax returns as the declaration season approaches.
Declarations for annual tax returns (based on income earned the year prior, in this case 2025) open on April 9 this year.
Each year, fraudsters exploit the declaration period with online scams, often sending fake emails posing as authorities to request bank details or payment.
New scam in 2026
Several familiar scams return each year – including fake refund notices and calls to costly fake helplines – but a new scam has emerged in 2026.
It sees scammers send an email noting that an individual has had funds from their accounts seized by the authorities as part of a saisie administrative à tiers détenteur (SATD) process.
It claims the amount taken will sharply increase (examples received in the French media show supposed fines of €343 increasing to €675) unless taxpayers click a link and send payment immediately.
While an SATD procedure is a legitimate process used by the Trésor public during disputes, this email is fake and directs victims to a fraudulent site mimicking an official one.
The Interior Ministry posted about the scam on social media earlier in March, highlighting it as a ‘phishing’ scam. It uses the threat of financial penalty to panic victims into handing over cash.
The ministry encourages recipients to delete the email and to not interact with it.
This mirrors general advice from French tax authorities over potentially fraudulent emails arriving over the tax declaration period.
The Direction générale des finances publiques recommends users log directly into the French tax site to check if they have any outstanding payments, and never to click on a link in an email.
“The tax authorities never send you emails inviting you to visit online forms to obtain a refund without logging in to your authenticated space, or to notify you of the result of a possible review of your tax situation,” it previously stated.
More advice on spotting fraudulent emails pertaining to be from the tax authorities is available in our article here.
