There is no more stressed-out taxpayer on earth than a U.S. expat in France. These are two of the most demanding governments on earth when it comes to taxes, filings and elaborate calculations of income and deductions. Which is why it can be especically frustrating to find that you don’t even know how to let the French tax office know you are here. So, from one expat to another, here is a detailed guide to announcing your taxpaying-household to the French authorities for the first time.

Note: if you arrived in 2022, and are just hearing about this form, don’t worry. Your local tax office (https://www.impots.gouv.fr/particulier) can guide you on the timing of your 2022 return.

The form that gets everything started: cerfa formulaire 2043-SD

You can download the 4-page Form 2043 here and submit at any time during the year. So if you’ve just arrived in France, go ahead and start early. Despite its appearance, Form 2043 is not a tax return, and income information does not have to be precise.  You are only giving the tax authorities a description of your household and your best estimate of income so that they can get you properly into the system. The name of the form, Demande de taux personnalisé et/ou d’accomptes de prélèvement à la source, translates roughly as a request for a personal tax rate and/or witholding tax set up. Remember, as in the U.S., French taxes are supposed to be paid in estimated installements throughout the year rather than all at once at the end. But none of that can even begin until you have a numéro fiscale for the year, and that is what you are going to ask for now with the Form 2043.

Page 1: Tell them who you are

Happily, this first page goes very quickly. As the taxpayer filling out the form, you are going to be Déclarant 1, and you will enter your name, address, date and place of birth, phone, email address, and your numéro de sécurité sociale française (the number on your carte vitale, if you have that). As this is your first time registering with the French tax office, you are asking for a numéro fiscale, and you can leave that line blank.

Put the same information in for your partner or spouse on the right side. You have the option to state that you will want to file separately by clicking the check box on the right side marked “Mariés ou pacsés…. Cochez” (by the way, cocher la case or “check the box” is a great phrase to learn for your french administrative future).

Both partners should sign at the bottom of the first page, filling in the city and date above in standard French fashion: “À   Paris  Le   1 novembre 2022.” The box to your right is only for cases where an attorney or other legal representative is filling out the form on your behalf.

Page 2: Tell them about your household

French taxes are calculated based on the number and status of people in a household. Each household files a single, combined return. The first checkboxes are easy: are you married, widowed, single, divorced or separated, or partnered under french PACS law? Check the box that applies.

 Once you’ve got that done, you are asked to review 8 situations that could change your tax situation. The options are:

Part A (previous single parent, disabled person, veteran)

1.     You live apart from your partner and have been at some point in the past the parent of a single child.

2.     You have a pension for a disability of at least 40% of functions, a disabilitiy card or a carte mobilité inclusion (CMI, or “mobility card”) for disability.

3.     You are a veteran, have a military disability or have a war pension.

 Part B (current single parent)

1.     You are a single parent or have a disabled person living in your household this year (note the difference from A1, where your dependent is now gone from the household).

Part C (dependents)

1.     fill in the years of birth for any child who is currently your dependent and is under the age of 18 or is handicapped, no matter what their age. Then give below the year of birth of any child who holds a Carte d’invalidité or CMI-invalidité.

2.     Give the years of birth of any children for whom you have a shared custody arrangement. And again, give the birth year of any children with one of the two types of carte d’invalidité.

3.     Give the years of birth of other people  (not your children) in your household who hold one of the types of carte d’invalidité.

Part D (adult children living in your household in France)

This section is for anyone with adult or married children who are still going to be filing their taxes as part of your household in France. If this pertains to you, give the number of non-married adult children in box “J” and in box “N” give the number of married adult children in your household AND include their partners and dependents for the total.

 

Page 3-4: At last – your income

Let me start with a reminder that this section is NOT your tax return. You do not have to have exact figures and generally, you won’t. At the top of the page, you will asked to give the date of your arrival in France. You then give the year that you plan to use to make your estimates of household income: you can either use the most recent tax year or estimate for the one to come, at your discretion.

The French system of categorizing income requires some explanation, so we are defining each category below. But keep in mind that your French tax authorities really are here to help, especially with tricky stuff like international income. If you have questions about where to include particular income, put a note in the box labeled “Observations ou complétements à signaler” at the end of the form. A tax agent will likely reach out to you by email or phone when they are processing the form to discuss details. And once you have your numéro fiscale, you can access your personal login space (“espace particulier”) on the impot.gouv.fr site to upload documents, make changes and submit questions.

Types of Income:

“Traitements, salaires...” (Wages and salaries)

This category is the most common one. It includes income you receive from your job or your business in France and/or from other countries (traitements and salaires). In the same section, you will find “Revenus des associés et gérants” with a reference to the French Code Général des Impôts article 62. This line is for income received by the directors of specific types of French businesses. If you have a French business registered as a SARL, EARL, EURL, SCA, SNC, SCP and for which the business itself pays income taxes, you may fall into this category. If none of these acronyms look familiear to you, you probably don’t.

You will next find lines for income received for any copyrighted  and public employee research work you have done (“Droits d’auteur, fonctionnaire chercheurs”) and for remuneration (i.e. commissions) received as a general insurance agent (Agents généraux d’assurance).

Top tip: Below this a catch-all category for any other reportable income (“Autre revenu imposables”). You can use this line to report unemployment income, certain French payments under a pre-retirement scheme. This is also a great place to put significant annual income from non-retirement investments or any other income for which you just can’t find another category. Add an explanation for tax authorities in the box at the end of the form.

The last line allows you to enter business expenses (“Frais réels”) that will be deducted from the income you’ve listed above. It is important to note here that certain French business types allow you to choose between taking a standard deduction rate to account for business expenses (i.e. 10% of revenue) or to take actual expenses you calculate from your receipts.

“…Pensions, retraites, rentes” (pensions, retirement income and annuities)

As the name suggests, the first line of this category includes income received during the year from anything that, in the U.S., we would consider to be retirement income. That means private or government pensions from a former job, 401k accounts, 403b accounts, IRA’s, SEP IRA’s and social security, in general. You will not be paying French taxes on much of this. The French-U.S. tax treaty generally leaves taxation of retirement accounts to the country in which they were earned. But you do need to report those amounts on this form so that the French system can gage your total household income for the purpose of assigning tax rates and to determine your eligibility for certain benefits. The French authorities will credit those non-taxable amounts to you on your actual tax bill.

The next two lines in this section allow you to report income received during the year from disability pensions (“pensions d’invalidité”) or money received as alimony or child support payments (“pensions alimentaires perçues”). Note that “Rentes viagères à titre onéreux” refers to payouts you might have received from an insurance company for an annuity that you (or someone else purchased for you) to pay out after a certain age. You will add the amount of that income to the box that designates the age of the person getting this payout (less than 50 yo, etc…).

“Revenus fonciers”  (Real estate income for non-furnished property)

This is where French income categories can get tricky.  The French system distinguishes between rental income from a non-furnished property vs. a furnished one and also allows favorable tax treatment for certain types of rentals. You will only use this section if you are renting unfurnished land or buildings, and your proceeds exceed 15,000 € per year. Note, in some circumstances you might use the first line “micro foncier” if you are under the 15,000 € per year but want to deduct actual expenses rather than take the flat, simplified deduction. 

Lines 2, 3 and 4 prompt you to list the amount of your expenses/deductions from the rental income, itself, for the year (“Déficits imputable sur les revenus fonciers”), total expenses related to the business, including the above (“Déficits imputable sur le revenue gobal”) and expenses/deductions you are carrying forward from an earlier year (“Déficits antérieurs non encore imputés”).

“Revenus Agricoles” (Farm income)

This section will let you list your income from farming. If you have a small French farm and are using the streamlined “Régime micro BA” reporting system, you will use line one to enter your total revenues beforedeductions. If, on the other hand, you have chosen to use the “Régime du bénéfice réel”, you will use line 2 to report taxable income (as opposed to gross receipts), noting the two different boxes for those who use a professional management service (“OGA”) or do not (“sans”). Note that income from letting a room at your farm is usually included in your farming income.

“Revenus Industriels et Commerciaux” (Industrial and Commercial Revenus *may include rental income)

In the French system, this category includes artisans, merchants and other non-professional businesses. It also includes income received for renting furnished properties like . Again, you are given two ways to report this income. If you are using the streamlined system that gives you a flat rate deduction, you will fill in line 1 with gross revenues (without deductions) from selling goods. You should use line 2 if your business involves furnished rentals and your total household income from those rentals exceeds 23,000 € (in which case, your business is considered “professionnelle.” Those with less than the 23,000 € limit will report their furnished rental income in a later section.

If your income falls within the categories above but you plan to use actual expenses for your deduction, rather than the automatic flat rates, use line 3 (“Régime du bénéfices réel”) to report the net income you received. 

“Revenus Non-Commerciaux” (Non-commercial/ professional service business)

This is a broad category for any number of professionals entrepreneurs, freelancers, designers, etc… If you receive income from this type of activity that is not in the form of wages, you will use this section to report it. Line 1 allows you to report just your gross profits if you are using the micro BNC tax regime (the tax office will give you an automatic deduction based on a percentage of revenus). If you earned more than 70,000 € from these activities, you will need to use line 2 instead to record your net income, noting the “OGA/Visuer” box if you are using a professional management service or “sans” if not.

“Locations meublées non professionnelle” (non-professional furnished rentals)

This income section is reserved with those who rent furnished lodgings and fall under the 23,000 € total income bar for this type of income. As with other income types, those under a certain income limit (77,700 € for 2023 for furnished lettings or 188,700 € for chambres d’hôtes) can use a micro régime in which a flat abatement is applied to your income before taxes. Others will use the boxes under “Régime du bénéfice réel.”

The furnished letting and tourist lodgings business generally requires registration with your local mairie. The way that you registered your property will determine which line you should be using on the Form 2043.

 

“Charges déductibles” (Deductible expenses)

Once you have found a space in the sections above for your different types of income, you have the opportunity to tell the tax office about certain other expenses that might lower your tax bill. Specifically:

“Pensions alimentaires versées à des enfants majeurs” (Support for adult children)

“Autres pensions alimentaires” (support for other family dependents, incl. minor children, grandchildren, parents)

“Déductions prévues par les articles 156,II….” (deductions to which you are entitled but were not included in business expenses or other costs included above).

The “Épargne retraite” category allows you to report tax-deductible contributions to one of the French retirement accounts. You should receive a statement from any of these that you are subscribed to with the relevant information. And the last line of this section asks to you check the box (box 6PS) if you have just moved to France after living abroad during the last 3 years.

 

Adding notes

The open box at the end of the form allows you to provide the agent who reviews your form with any additional information. Feel free to use this space to add details or express doubts about any income or likely deductions that did not seem to fit easily into one of the spaces provided. When in doubt, add more detail. An agent will likely get back with you to ask questions and provide guidance on how you will fill out the actual tax return (Form 2042).