As a tax resident in France, we must declare all non-French accounts such as banks, investments including crypto, life insurance policies, etc in the tax form 3916.
Tax : French Income Tax Declaration Deadlines In 2024 For AY2023 Income
One 3916 form per foreign account for offline declarations.
What to Declare?
A non-exhaustive list of accounts held outside France,
- Bank accounts (resident or non-resident, single or joint account, savings or current, etc). For example: NRE, NRO, FCNR, etc.
- Life Insurance policies, etc.
- Crypto and related accounts (Crypto.com, Kraken, etc).
- Investment accounts (Interactive Brokers, Trade Republic, Revolut, Trading212, Zerodha, Kuvera, ICICI direct, Etoro, etc).
- Money transfer accounts like Wise (formerly Transferwise), etc have to be declared, only if there is a personal non-French IBAN created in your name. If there is an IBAN that does not start with FR, it must be declared.
- A Paypal account that is only used to pay for your purchases, or via which you have cashed less than €10,000/ year, you do not have to declare it.
- Credit and debit cards do not have to be declared because they are not bank accounts.
Bank fixed deposits (FD) do not require a declaration because the accounts holding these deposits are already part of the above list.
Good to know:
You must declare all your foreign banks even if they have zero balances.
There are so many ppl who were asked to pay huge fines like 20k€, 46.5k€, etc for not declaring these accounts.
Which accounts?
- It concerns all the accounts opened/held/closed in the last financial year. For example, January to December 2023.
- Accounts that were declared in the previous tax declaration and if they are still open, you can click on the “REPORT” option (for online declarations) and carry forward the information from last year. This option avoids re-entering the existing information.
- Accounts opened or closed since the previous tax declaration.
- Accounts that were never declared in the past and are still active.
- Accounts for which you hold the power of attorney (POA) to use the account.
Where to declare?
Each foreign account must be declared in Annexure 3916.
Offline Declaration:
- If you are doing an offline paper-based declaration, you have to download Annexure 3916 from the Impots website. The forms are different for each year. For the 2024 tax declaration, check the Millésime 2024 section.
- If you have multiple accounts, the pages 2-4 have to be repeated for each account.
Foreign Bank Accounts
Foreign Brokerage Accounts
Foreign Crypto Accounts
Online Declaration:
- If you are doing an online declaration via your personal Impots account, you need to check the box Annexe n3916-3916 bis in the list of annexures. The declaration process will automatically prompt the relevant sections to be completed.
- Without completing this annexure, you will not be able submit the tax declaration.
Correcting previous declarations
- If you have not declared these accounts in the previous years, then you can correct your tax declarations for up to the last 3 years.
- For example: the correction period ends on 31st December 2024, for 2021 income tax collected in 2022.
- You can complete the 3916 form and send it to your local tax office by post.
Penalty for undeclared Foreign Accounts
- It is your responsibility to ensure that all your foreign accounts are declared in 3916.
- Failure to declare a bank account or investment account can lead to a 1500€ penalty per non-declared account.
- This can go up to 10000€ for bank accounts in countries, which have not signed any financial info exchange agreements with France.
- Failure to declare crypto-related accounts can lead to a penalty of 750€ per account and 125€ for wrong/mission information.
- This penalty can go up to 10000€.
Sources & References
- Annexe n3916-3916 bis impots.gouv.fr
- Dois-je déclarer les comptes ouverts à l’étranger ? service-public.fr
- Dois-je déclarer mon compte Paypal ou un compte bancaire ouvert à l’étranger et comment ? service-public.fr
- Comment déclarer mes comptes et mes contrats d’assurance vie détenus a l’étranger? impots.gouv.fr
- Impôt sur le revenu – Comment corriger votre déclaration ? impots.gouv.fr
Disclaimer
- Any finance-related information shared is not professional legal, tax, or investment advice.
- The information provided is of an educational and general nature and is not investment advice within the meaning of Articles L. 321-1 and D. 321-1 of the French Monetary and Financial Code.
- Investment carries risks of loss and past performance does not guarantee future performance.
- For all professional advice, please consult a certified financial planner, CGP, CIF, tax consultant, etc.
Update 24/04/2024:
All the 2024 year tax forms were published today for people who need to do an offline income tax declaration this year
https://www.impots.gouv.fr/formulaire/2042/declaration-des-revenus
Hi. I see that you have indicated that we need to update Trading account number for Brokerage accounts. Is it mandatory to report Trading account number or Demat Account Number? or can I update any one of the two?
Hello, I have added a video dedicated to declaring foreign brokerage accounts.
How to declare your Foreign Brokerage Accounts in Form 3916? || IBKR || eToro || Zerodha
https://youtu.be/n-xujwUghTE