France in Focus

Today I got an email to say the tax bill is online. I printed it off but I have a question. It's the first time we've had to pay tax no contribution sociales just tax. It appears that the payment will be taken in 4 instalments - is this the norm? I would rather just pay the whole lot in one go and be done with it.

I am probably not the best person to answer because I do everything on paper but it seems very early for tax notifications to be sent out. I thought end August was the norm.

Are you sure it is not a scam?

I would go quite separately into you tax account and see what it says there. Don't click any links.

Got mine today too, glug!

Ours came in today too .... gulp !

@exile Thanks but no it's not a scam. I did go into the account but not via email.

Sparkle wrote: ↑Sat Jul 30, 2022 6:13 pm Today I got an email to say the tax bill is online. I printed it off but I have a question. It appears that the payment will be taken in 4 instalments - is this the norm? I would rather just pay the whole lot in one go and be done with it.

We used to pay in one go years ago but then it changed and now we pay in 4 instalments : not sure whether it's the norm or not but assume it might be.

I think how often you pay depends on how much you owe. We are required to pay monthly.

I pay our tax in 4 instalments. You can use the impots app to change the amount. There is also an option to pay monthly. If you have under paid your tax for 2021, the impots recover it in 4 installments Sept to Dec 2022.
Check that prélèvements sociale have been applied at the correct rate if you are on an S1 as there are many cases of this being done incorrectly.
Payments towards the 2022 tax return you will make next May start in Jan/Feb 2023 depending on whether you opt for monthly or quarterly payments.

We pay monthly. And any amount owing is taken out as 1 lump sum in Sept, and the new monthly amount also starts in Sept. Interesting how our experiences are so different.

If tax was overpaid for the 2021 tax year, they either made the refund on 21 July or will pay on 4 Aug (depending when the avis became available). For those who underpaid for 2021, if it was 300€ or less it is taken on 26 Sept. If the sum was over 300€ it is taken in four equal instalments, 26 Sept/27 Oct/25 Nov/27Dec.

With the change to the prélèvement à la source for most French tax payers, they will try to collect all of the tax for 2022 in 2022 rather than waiting until the second half of 2023. They cannot do that automatically for those who do have most of their income from abroad. So I think they will also look at your 2021 avis and assume your 2022 income will be the same. So you may find the amount of the monthly/quarterly debit will have changed from July 2022 onwards. Otherwise you can make the change online for the remainder of 2022.

They will also set your 2023 monthly/quarterly debits based on your 2021 income.