REF.: 059

If you’re non-resident and receive income from French sources, you are liable to Income Tax.

If you are declaring your income for the first time, you need to send your handwritten tax declaration to the French Tax Office for non-resident individuals. After you have declared your income tax for the first time, you will be issued a number to then complete all further declarations online. You can make all subsequent declarations via the website www.impots.gouv.fr. This year, the deadline for handwritten declarations is the 18^th May 2018, for both residents and non-residents. The 23^rd May 2018 is the deadline for all online declarations.

In France, the amount of Income Tax to be declared is determined by the amount of income received the previous year. Therefore, your income from 2017 will be declared in 2018. On the other hand, if you have received any income in France for the first time this year, then you only have to declare this in 2019.

In France Non-Residents may be classed as: “Schumacker Non-Residents” ^[1].

This applies to you if the majority of your global income comes from France, as well as if:

• Your tax residence is in an EU Member State or in the European Economic Area,
• Your French withholding tax is greater or equal to 75% of all your income,
• You do not benefit from any scheme in your country of residence (due to your personal or family situation, or a low level of income) in that country that reduces your taxes.

If you meet these requirements, you can request that your income tax declaration be classified as that of a person domiciled in France[2]. The benefits of being considered a “Schumacker Non-Resident” are:

• You can deduct expenses from your income (including support benefits),
• You can benefit from tax cuts and tax credits in the same way as French residents,
• The withholding tax rate on your income and your French profits is removed,
• The minimum income tax rate of 20%, originally only applicable to non-residents, is no longer applicable. You will be taxed in the same way as a French resident.

In principle, salaries, pensions and annuities paid to non-residents are subject to income tax (the withholding tax replaces the income tax) between 0% and 20%. In this case, there is no obligation to declare this tax unless the income taxed exceeds 42 370€ in 2018. Income above this threshold will be taxed at a minimum rate of 20% and the withholding tax already paid will be deducted from said income tax.

If you have any questions regarding the French income tax declaration, do not hesitate to contact us via telephone +33 (0) 1 53 93 94 20 or [email protected]. Our team of experts will happily assist you with any queries you might have.