French income tax statements are arriving - 13 million homes need to pay more

Millions of households in France will need to pay additional tax on their 2024 income, French tax authorities have confirmed, as final notices for the year are sent out.

Around 13.1 million households – out of 41 million overall – will need to make additional payments, at an average of €1,901 per household. 

This is 33% higher than the nine million households who were required to pay additional tax last year (on 2023 income) and is largely due to wage increases in 2024 outstripping inflation.

Households are informed of the amount they have to pay through a tax statement (avis), which will be sent out to all declarants by Friday (August 1), although most households will have received it by now.

A similar number of households will receive a tax refund by bank transfer (or cheque) by August 1 with the average sum being €1,017. 

The refund will enter your account with the name 'REMB IMPOT REVENUS' and be send from 'DGFIP FINANCES PUBLIQUES'. If they do not have any bank account information, authorities will send the refund via cheque to the given address.

Any amounts to be refunded will also be shown on the avis sent out to households.

The avis is sent by post or found in a declarant’s personal space on the French tax website. 

How do payments work?

If a household owes €300 or less, a single payment for the total is taken on September 25. If the sum due is more, payment is taken out in four equal payments on September 25, October 27, November 27, and December 29. 

It is important to ensure the tax authorities have up-to-date bank details to take these payments via direct debit, with a deadline of September 14 to organise this.

Wage increases major cause of tax increases

For employees, income tax is collected at source from salaries alongside social charges, and the amount deducted is based on information that tax officials have from previous declarations. 

However, if over the course of the year your financial status changes – for example by changing jobs to one with a higher salary or getting an internal promotion and pay rise – your at-source tax may not change with it. 

This means that you will have paid less tax than due, and the authorities will recoup the extra amount through these additional collections based on your spring declaration. 

Wages increased by an average of 2.8% in 2024 according to government statistics agency DARES, but end of year inflation was only 1.8%, limiting the amount that income tax bands rose. 

For many people this caused more of their earnings to be in a higher tax bracket than their at-source deductions accounted for. 

You can alter the amount of at-source tax you pay if your salary changes at your personal space on the French tax website. This can reduce the amount you need to pay through these additional payments.

If you think you have made a mistake with your tax declaration

If you believe there was an error on your income tax declaration, there is still time to amend some of the information. 

This can be done online using the ‘Accédez à la correction en ligne’ button in your personal space on the French tax website. 

You are only able to update certain financial details, and cannot update personal information such as marriage/Pacs status, an address change, etc. 

Declarations can be altered until December 4, 2025. 

Our previous article reviews how the process works.