French households can start declaring their income for 2021 from this Thursday, April 7. Those who cannot and still file a paper return will have until midnight May 19 to return it. For those who declare their income online, the deadline ranges from May 24 to June 8, depending on their department of residence.
Tax notices will be sent between July 25 and August 5 to taxpayers who declare their income online, and between July 29 and August 31 to those who have filed a paper declaration.
The Director General of Public Finances, Jérôme Fournel, was delighted Thursday that 87.3% of tax households have made their last tax return online or automatically. “In 2019, we were at an Internet reporting rate of around 68%”he said during a press conference at the Ministry of Economy and Finance.
In 2021, France had 23.1 million online declarants, 103,000 more than the previous year. More than eleven million users have resorted to automatic declaration.
Mileage scale, tax-exempt premiums… this year’s novelties
Certain measures taken during the past year bring some modifications to this declaration. One of the main new features concerns the kilometric scale, which allows taxable households to deduct part of their fuel expenses as professional expenses.
Due to soaring prices at the pump, the government has decided to increase this scale by 10%, a measure that concerns “the heart of the middle class”, according to the Ministry of Economy. This should concern 4.3 million households declaring their actual costs, of which 2.5 million are actually taxed.
In addition, the tax-exempt purchasing power bonus, known as the Macron bonus, has been extended in 2021. It is exempt from tax up to a limit of 1,000 euros for any employee earning less than three times the minimum wage (gross), and up to 2,000 euros for companies with less than 50 employees who have concluded a profit-sharing or promotion agreement for so-called “second line” professions (i.e. professionals, excluding caregivers, who have continued to work on site during the confinements). The inflation bonus of 100 euros received from December 2021 by millions of households is not subject to income tax.
The government has also extended the increase to 75% of the amount of the donation of the tax reduction granted for a donation to an association helping the most deprived. This increase also applies to donations to religious associations.
New tax credits are appearing: that of 30% granted for a first subscription to the information press, or even that of 75% (up to a limit of 300 euros) for the installation of a charging system electric vehicle in a dwelling.
The rate of the tax reduction for an investment in SMEs is increased from 18% to 25% for investments made from May 9 to December 31, 2021.
Finally, in recent years, “regularly, people who declared children did not ask to obtain the scholarships to which they are entitled”, noted Thursday Jérôme Fournel. To remedy this, users whose tax household includes one or more children attending middle school or high school will be able to check, at the end of their online declaration, their eligibility, using a simulator.