“More than 300,000 taxpayers” have made their income declaration via the mobile tax application, a tool available for the first time this year, indicates Amélie Verdier, Director General of Public Finances (DGFIP) Monday May 6. It is, in fact, now possible to declare your 2023 income via the tax application, especially for the simplest situations, which require few corrections. “It’s a success, it shows that this declaration formula works well”, welcomes the Director General of Public Finances. Declarations are also still possible on impots.gouv.fr. The campaign extends until June 6 for certain departments.
Even if income tax is now deducted at source, you must check and possibly correct your declaration. In 2023, 17% of taxpayers had, for example, not filed their real estate declaration after repeated bugs. Amélie Verdier would like to emphasize that it is obligatory to do so: “The tax administration does not know everything, they have to tell us who lives where, who is in the accommodation you own, what is your main residence and your secondary residence, etc. Last year, people found themselves wrongly imposed, then were relieved.” If forgotten, the owner is liable to a fine of 150 euros per undeclared premises.
franceinfo: What is the first feedback on the application which allows you to declare your income with your phone?
Amélie Verdier : We already have more than 300,000 taxpayers, including the Minister of the Budget, Thomas Cazenave, who gave me some user feedback, so it’s a success. Which shows that this declaration formula, particularly for anything that is a simple declaration, works well.
Is it more for declarations that are simple, where there are not many things to correct?
Exactly. That’s exactly it, knowing that otherwise we can absolutely continue to go to the internet impots.gouv.fr.
In 2023, there were quite a few bugs regarding the declaration of real estate with several postponements, and in the end 17% of taxpayers did not do it at all. How to avoid this this year ?
There is still a large majority who did it, I would like to thank them. It’s true that last year we had difficulties, we developed the applications. We may also have simply recalled that the tax administration does not know everything. And in fact, yes, you have to tell us who lives in the home you own. When you are a tenant, what is your main residence or your secondary residence?
“It’s true that last year, there were people who found themselves wrongly taxed, and who were reduced.”
Amélie Verdieron franceinfo
But actually, we are normally better engaged this year.
If forgotten, the owner is liable to a fine of 150 euros per premises which has not been declared. There were no fines last year. How will it go this year? ?
I repeat that I invite all owners and occupants to declare where they are. Once again, I repeat, the objective of the tax administration is not to impose fines or adjustments on you, it is to explain to you how it works, to make you feel confident. And above all, you can call us, send us emails or come see us if you have any questions.
Another concern that was detected this year: income from furnished “Airbnb type” tourist accommodation is not systematically captured and a million people are affected.
If you rent your accommodation on a platform, you must declare the income linked to this rental. And we are in a system that is somewhat in transition, in cooperation with neighboring member states of the European Union. And this year, we did not recover all the corresponding income.
“It is not because the income linked to the rental of accommodation is not included in your pre-filled returns that it is not your responsibility to declare it.”
Amélie Verdieron franceinfo
Tax services are subject to a new territorial network. There are fewer specific branches of the Public Treasury, but more proximity points in service centers and town halls. Is it effective?
It’s more the return we get. It is a reform which is still quite recent, which has allowed us both to professionalize services, with public finance agents who are really very committed to meeting the needs of everyone, and also to be better adapted to the fine mesh of the territory. So, public finances are in all departments, there is a specific sub-departmental network. And in fact, we have conventions, in the France Services houses where we can either have a video appointment, but also in person, train the advisors so that they can answer the first questions from the town hall hotlines. And in fact, we do this very finely, that is to say, we define things locally.
Does this mean fewer staff and the disappearance of state services in certain rural communities?
Concretely, we have today, after this reform called the new proximity network, we have more points of contact than before because in fact, what is important for people is not to know if there is a Public Finance logo on the frontispiece of the building where they are going, but it is to have an answer, to speak to someone, and that is very important for us. It’s really a very strong culture for the DGFIP of the service, this territorial network. And I say again, you can also do it by telephone 0 809 401 401 or by secure messaging via your internet space.
And therefore less cash flow does not mean fewer staff?
This is not what determines the evolution of the DGFIP workforce. Our constant concern, and it will also be mine for the future, is to be as close as possible to the needs of users. Once again, it’s better to have the right person answer the phone if necessary rather than someone who doesn’t know. And we have a reform which has been demanding for the public finance agents to whom I want to pay tribute, since there are many who have changed assignment, moved, had to regroup.
“There are places where we are opening what we call the demetropolization of contact centers. It is no less effective.”
Amélie Verdierfranceinfo
And above all, there are always places where we open services, so it is not a movement that goes in only one direction which would be the reduction of public service, on the contrary.
So it’s not because there is dematerialization that we don’t have a physical person in front of us or on the phone, when we really have a problem?
I’m going there Friday May 10. You know, there are a lot of French people who bridge the gap, but the public services will be there to respond if necessary. So once again, what concerns us is that we have the right answer based on the needs of users.
The income tax scale has been revised by 4.8% in line with inflation so that taxpayers do not suffer fiscally from rising prices. It is not painless for public finances: six billion euros in shortfall. We saw a hole of 21 billion euros in total last year in revenue. Which do you prefer: a trial for incompetence or insincerity?
I find you a little harsh. There was a gap between the year-end forecasts and what we observed at the end, indeed. We had tax revenues which were quite good throughout the beginning of the year, so it’s not that we didn’t want to see. Tax revenues were good until the start of the school year. By the time we stall things, in September, but even still until the beginning of October. And then, what happens is that there was indeed and we are still analyzing.
“We were probably a little surprised by the fact that inflation slowed quite significantly.”
Amélie Verdieron franceinfo
We see very clearly, VAT is based on turnover, therefore less inflation, less VAT, less income tax, less corporate tax as well, which is a tax for which Companies have a fairly broad ability to know what they pay into public finances. In the year in question, they make expectations about their profits for the next year. So we will also see what happens in the coming months. Afterwards, it is obviously a very strong concern that we can make our forecasts reliable and be completely transparent about what is happening. It’s a little difficult to follow the gap between this economic situation, which has been rather good, and taxes which have not been at the appropriate level.