What is it ?
Do I really have to pay taxes as a non resident ?
I have some bad news for you, yes. I mean it’s bad news if you don’t like to pay taxes. In France, you have to pay some taxes as a non-resident (meaning that you don’t live in France more than 6 months a year or don’t have the majority of your income from French sources).
You’ll have to pay taxes only on the earnings on the sum that you received from work done in France or under french law.
There are two rules to bear in mind :
- The taxes are calculated based on the household earnings, meaning that if you’re married, the income of both people will be taken into account and the rates will be applied then. There is a measure in France called “quotient familial” that lowers the amount of taxes you pay.
- Taxes are directly debited out of your income and you don’t have any paper to fill. However, the applicable rate will be based on the previous year’s earnings. Meaning that if you found a job in 2022 and didn’t work before, your rate will be 0%. This will make for a big surprise in 2023 when you’ll have to pay all your back taxes. To avoid this, get in touch with the fiscal administration to determine an average rate for the first year.
In 2021, this is the standing scale.
| Applicable rate | Year | Quarter | Month |
| 0% | 15 018€ | 3 755€ | 1 252€ |
| 12% | From 15 019€ to 43 563€ | From 3 756€ to 10 891€ | From 1 253€ to 3 630€ |
| 20% | From 43 564€ | From 10 892€ | From 3 631€ |
For more details about the way your own tax amount is calculated please have a look at the “Income tax” article.
How to pay your taxes in France as
a non-resident?
It is actually not difficult. You do it the same way a resident does it. The easiest way is to do it online on your personal account. In order to open one, get a numéro fiscal and access the documents, please have a look at the “Income tax” article.
Tips and tricks
- Check the tax system in your own country, you may need to declare your income over there
- Don’t forget to adjust your rate every time your work status change, if you get a raise or change jobs. Otherwise, you may have a load to pay. For example, I got a raise in 2020 and forgot to adjust my rate, I had to pay over 2k of back taxes. Juliette got the same thing but with a sum along the lines of 5k.
