What are “Acomptes” ?
An acompte is an advance payment of tax in France. You can view the acomptes you have paid in your online impots.gouv account. These payments are calculated based on your most recent French tax return and generally correspond to 1/12 of the total tax you paid the previous year.
Acomptes are similar to the PAYE system in the UK or estimated quarterly tax payments in the US. However, unlike these systems, French acomptes are debited directly from your bank account on a monthly basis. It is important to note that les acomptes are not an additional tax. They are simply estimated tax payments made in advance each month, helping you avoid a large tax bill at the end of the year.
Who needs to pay “Acomptes”?
Anyone who has French income tax and social charges to pay will be subject to acomptes. People that are self-employed, or who receive rental or dividend income, are among those who typically pay acomptes through a monthly direct debit of their bank account.
If you are a salaried employee of a French company, your employer generally withholds tax directly through payroll. This appears on your payslip as “prélèvement à la source” (tax withheld at source). Employees usually do not pay additional acomptes on this type of income.
Keep in mind that if you overpay tax during the year, the excess amount will be reimbursed after you file your French tax return and receive your annual tax assessment. There is no need to worry about the estimated nature of these advance payments.
Can I adjust my payments? What else should I be aware of?
Yes! You can reduce or stop your acomptes. However, this should be done carefully, as there may be consequences depending on your situation. If you reduce your payments too much, you may need to pay additional income tax when you file your tax return for that year.
In addition, if there are insufficient funds in your bank account when the tax authorities attempt to collect an acompte, the payment will be refused and you may be subject to penalties, typically around 10%. For this reason, we recommend ensuring that sufficient funds are available in the bank account linked to your impots.gouv account.
If you wish to stop monthly acomptes, you can do so via your impots.gouv account > Prélèvement à la source. The tax office will apply the change from the following month.
Watch our informational video to learn more about this topic!