France has one of the highest tax burdens in Europe, but also a generous regime for people it recruits from abroad. If a French employer hires you from outside France, part of your pay can be free of income tax for up to nine years.
This guide covers French personal tax for people moving to or living in France in 2026, including the impatriate regime, the household quotient, the residence tests, the 31.4% flat tax on investment income and the exit tax when you leave.
The key question: are you being hired from abroad, or moving first and finding work later? The answer can change your tax bill by a fifth.
What's changed: the 2026 finance law (Law 2026-103 of 19 February 2026) was only enacted in February. It raised every income tax band by about 0.9%, so the 11% rate now starts at €11,601. The 2026 social security financing law (Law 2025-1403 of 30 December 2025) raised the CSG on most investment income from 9.2% to 10.6%. Social charges on dividends, interest, share gains and crypto gains are now 18.6%, and the flat tax rises from 30% to 31.4%. The higher rate already applies to gains made in 2025, and to dividends and interest paid from 1 January 2026. Unfurnished rental income, property gains, life insurance and home savings plans stay at 17.2%.
📋 France tax at a glance for 2026
Topic | Details |
|---|---|
Tax system | Worldwide income for residents, taxed by household |
Top income tax rate | 45% above €181,917 per household part, plus 3% or 4% on very high incomes |
All-in on a US$100k salary | About 35%, or about 28% with the impatriate regime (about €87,000, single, including employee contributions) |
Foreign income | Taxed for residents. Impatriates get 50% off foreign dividends, interest and share gains |
Dividends, interest, capital gains | 31.4% flat tax (12.8% income tax plus 18.6% social charges) |
Crypto gains | 31.4% flat. No tax if your disposals total €305 or less in the year |
Wealth tax | IFI on real estate worth more than €1.3 million, at 0.5% to 1.5% |
Residence at a glance | Getting in: easy (any one of three tests). Leaving: sticky, with an exit tax on large shareholdings |
Double tax treaties | Agreements with 129 countries and territories on the official list |
The impatriate regime (article 155 B)
Article 155 B of the tax code lets a French employer offer you a pay package that is partly free of income tax.
Image 1 — the impatriate regime takes 30% of your pay out of income tax
The regime is for employees, and some company officers, who weren't French tax resident in the five calendar years before they start work in France. You must arrive in one of two ways:
intra-group transfer: a company in your group abroad sends you to a linked French company
external hire: a French company recruits you directly from abroad
People who come to France on their own initiative to look for work, or who already live in France when hired, can't use it. It exempts from income tax:
The impatriation bonus: the extra pay linked to your move. You can use the actual amount in your contract, or opt for a flat 30% of your pay.
Pay for work done abroad: the share of your pay for days worked outside France in your employer's interest.
Half of your foreign investment income: 50% of foreign dividends, interest, royalties and gains on shares, where the payer is in a country with a suitable tax treaty.
Each year you choose one of two caps: the bonus and work-abroad exemptions together can't exceed 50% of your total pay, or the work-abroad share alone can't exceed 20% of your taxable pay. Your remaining taxable pay must also be at least what a comparable employee in France earns.
The regime runs until 31 December of the eighth calendar year after you start, so up to nine tax years. It ends early if you leave the company that hired you, but a move within the same group is fine. It only reduces income tax: contributions are still charged on your whole salary, although impatriates can ask to stay out of the French pension schemes if they meet the conditions.
There's a separate wealth tax relief. If you weren't French tax resident in the five years before you arrive, you pay IFI only on property in France until 31 December of the fifth year after you settle. It has no employment condition, so retirees and investors can use it too.
👉 impots.gouv.fr: the impatriate regime, conditions, caps and duration (in French)
When you become tax resident in France
France doesn't use a simple day count. You're tax resident (domiciled in France for tax) if any one of these applies:
your household (foyer) is in France, meaning the place you and your spouse or partner and children usually live, or, if you have no household, France is where you mainly stay
your main professional activity is in France, employed or self-employed, unless it's only incidental
your centre of economic interests is in France, for example where most of your income comes from
There's no 183-day test. A family that stays in France can keep you resident even if you spend most of the year abroad. If another country also treats you as resident, the treaty tie-breaker decides.
Leaving takes care. You stop being resident only when none of the tests is met, so move your household, main work and income base together. There's also an exit tax: if you've been resident for at least six of the ten years before you leave, unrealised gains on your shares are taxed when you go if they're worth more than €800,000 in total, or you own at least 50% of a company's profits.
👉 impots.gouv.fr: when you are a French tax resident (in French)
👉 Légifrance: article 167 bis of the tax code, the exit tax (in French)
Income tax rates in France
France taxes the household, not the individual. Your income is divided by a number of parts (the family quotient), the scale is applied to one part, and the result is multiplied back up. A married or PACS couple has two parts, each of the first two children adds half a part and each further child adds a full part. The tax saved for each extra half part is capped at €1,807.
The scale below comes from the 2026 finance law. It applies to 2025 income declared in 2026, and to the withholding rate you pay from September 2026. The scale for 2026 income will be set by the 2027 finance law, which hadn't been adopted at the time of writing.
France income tax rates for one part (2026 finance law)
Taxable income per part | Rate |
|---|---|
Up to €11,600 | 0% |
€11,601 to €29,579 | 11% |
€29,580 to €84,577 | 30% |
€84,578 to €181,917 | 41% |
Over €181,917 | 45% |
Source: Code général des impôts, article 197, as amended by the 2026 finance law.
High earners pay more. The high-income contribution (CEHR) adds 3% on household income from €250,000 to €500,000 for a single person and 4% above (double for a couple). The differential contribution (CDHR) tops tax up to an effective 20% above €250,000, or €500,000 for a couple. It applies from 2025 income until the year the state budget deficit falls below 3% of GDP.
👉 Service-Public.fr: the 2026 income tax scale (in French)
👉 Service-Public.fr: number of parts for couples and children (in French)
👉 Légifrance: article 224 of the tax code, the 20% differential contribution (in French)
Worked example
You're single, with no children, and earn a gross salary of €87,000 (about US$100k) as a manager.
Your employee contributions come to about €17,810, or 20.5% of your salary. After the deductible part, your net taxable salary is about €71,669.
The automatic 10% deduction for work expenses takes off €7,167, leaving €64,502 taxable. Income tax on one part is about €12,454.
Your all-in bill is about €30,265, or 35% of your salary. With the impatriate regime's flat 30% exemption, income tax falls to about €6,649 and the all-in bill to about €24,460, or 28%.
The example leaves out compulsory company health cover, which varies by employer.
Freelancing in France
Most freelancers start as micro-entrepreneurs, paying contributions as a flat percentage of takings and income tax on takings after a fixed allowance for expenses.
Turnover limits for 2026: €83,600 for services and liberal professions, €203,100 for sales of goods. You leave the regime only after going over the limit two years in a row.
Social contributions: 25.6% of takings for most liberal professions, 23.2% for those in the CIPAV pension fund, 21.2% for commercial services and 12.3% for sales.
Income tax: liberal professions are taxed on 66% of their takings (a 34% allowance) at the normal scale.
Flat income tax option: if your household income two years earlier was low enough, you can pay 2.2% of takings instead (1.7% for commercial services, 1% for sales).
On takings of €87,000 in a liberal profession, contributions are €22,272 and income tax about €10,330: about 37% all-in. The 2.2% option would bring that to about 28%, but at this income you won't pass its household income test for long. €87,000 is also over the €83,600 limit, so after two years you'd move to the full regime, with contributions based on actual profit.
👉 Service-Public.fr: micro-enterprise turnover limits (in French)
👉 Légifrance: article 151-0 of the tax code, the flat income tax option (in French)
Crypto, investments and pensions
Dividends, interest and gains on shares are taxed by default at the flat tax (PFU) of 31.4%: 12.8% income tax plus 18.6% social charges. Before the rise, the total was 30%. The 18.6% rate already applies to share and crypto gains made in 2025, and to dividends and interest paid from 1 January 2026. Unfurnished rental income, gains on property, life insurance and home savings plans stay at 17.2% social charges.
If you live in France but work and are insured in another EU or EEA country or Switzerland, you pay only the 7.5% solidarity levy instead of the full social charges.
How is crypto taxed in France? Occasional investors pay the same 12.8% income tax plus social charges, 31.4% in total, or can opt for the progressive scale. Gains are tax free if your disposals total €305 or less in the year. You report gains on form 2086 and must declare crypto accounts held abroad.
Foreign pensions are generally taxed on the normal scale after a 10% deduction (at least €454 per pensioner, at most €4,439 per household). Some, such as government service pensions, may be taxable only in the paying country under the treaty. Social charges may also apply, depending on which country's health system covers you.
France has two taxes that matter if you have wealth. The property wealth tax (IFI) applies if your net real estate is worth more than €1.3 million on 1 January, at rates from 0.5% to 1.5%, with 30% off your main home. It covers property and shares in property companies, not an ordinary portfolio of listed shares and bonds, so a US$1m investment portfolio isn't caught. Inheritance tax is steep: children get €100,000 each tax free and then pay 5% to 45%, while a spouse or PACS partner is exempt and unrelated heirs pay 60%.
👉 Service-Public.fr: the flat tax rises to 31.4%
👉 Service-Public.fr: social charges on investment income, including the 7.5% levy (in French)
👉 impots.gouv.fr: declaring crypto gains, the 31.4% flat tax and the €305 threshold (in French)
👉 Service-Public.fr: income tax on pensions (in French)
👉 Service-Public.fr: the property wealth tax, IFI (in French)
👉 Service-Public.fr: inheritance tax allowances and rates (in French)
Social security
Employees pay about 20% of a typical professional salary in contributions: 6.9% state pension on pay up to €4,005 a month plus 0.4% on all pay, 3.15% complementary pension (Agirc-Arrco) up to €4,005 a month and 8.64% above, plus balancing contributions of 0.86% and 1.08% on the same two bands, and 9.2% CSG plus 0.5% CRDS on 98.25% of your salary. There's no employee contribution for unemployment insurance, and your employer pays much more on top. Micro-entrepreneurs pay the flat percentages shown above instead.
👉 Service-Public.fr: employee contribution rates in the private sector (in French)
Double tax treaties
Does France have double tax treaties? Yes, one of the largest networks in the world. The tax authority's official list covers agreements with 129 countries and territories, including the UK, the United States, Germany, Spain, Italy, Belgium, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Portugal, Canada, Japan, Australia and the UAE.
👉 impots.gouv.fr: international tax treaties by country (in French)
Living in France without a nomad visa
France has no digital nomad visa. There are two practical routes for non-EU movers instead.
The long-stay visitor visa is for people who can live on their own resources, such as retirees and people living on investments. It lasts up to 12 months and doesn't allow you to work in France. The talent passport is a multi-year permit of up to four years for skilled employees, founders, investors and some others. Highly qualified employees on the EU Blue Card route need a gross salary of at least €59,373 a year (1.5 times the reference salary, since 21 August 2025), and company founders need to invest at least €30,000. Your spouse and children can join you, and your spouse can work.
Neither route changes your tax position: once your household or main stay is in France, you're tax resident.
👉 France-Visas: the talent passport
👉 Service-Public.fr: long-stay visas, including the visitor visa
Who is France good for?
How does France compare for different kinds of mover? Ratings are relative to the 150+ countries TaxPilot covers, based on 2026 rules and the all-in cost including social contributions.
☑️ Who is France good for? Tax ratings for expats in 2026
Expat profile | France rating | Why |
|---|---|---|
Employees | Moderate | About 28% all-in on a US$100k salary with the impatriate regime, which most people recruited from abroad can use for up to nine years. About 35% without it, which would rate Poor. |
Freelancers (self-employed) | Poor | About 37% all-in on US$100k in the micro-entrepreneur regime. US$100k (about €87,000) is also over the €83,600 micro limit, so after two years you would move to the full regime. |
Retirees | Poor | About 15% tax on a US$40k foreign pension plus US$20k of investment income. The property wealth tax (IFI) and inheritance tax of up to 45% for children pull the rating down to Poor. |
Crypto gains | Poor | 31.4% flat on gains (12.8% income tax plus 18.6% social charges), just over the 30% line. It was 30% before the social charges rise in the 2026 social security financing law. Small disposals of €305 a year or less are tax free. |
Investment income | Poor | 31.4% flat on dividends, interest and share gains. A US$1m portfolio of shares and funds is outside IFI, but France still counts as a wealth tax country in our ratings. |
Digital nomad visa | Moderate | No digital nomad visa. The visitor visa suits people living on their own resources; the talent passport covers skilled employees, founders and investors. |
Filing and deadlines
Income tax is withheld at source from salaries and pensions, but you still file a return every spring for the previous year's income. For 2025 income, the online deadlines in 2026 depended on your department number:
departments 01 to 19, and non-residents: 21 May 2026
departments 20 to 54: 28 May 2026
departments 55 to 976: 4 June 2026
paper returns: 19 May 2026
Your tax notice arrives in the summer and your new withholding rate applies from September. Impatriates show the exempt amounts on forms 2042 and 2042 C. The return for 2026 income is due in spring 2027.
👉 Service-Public.fr: 2026 income tax return deadlines by department
Frequently asked questions
What is the impatriate regime in France?
It's a regime under article 155 B of the tax code for employees recruited from abroad who weren't French tax resident in the previous five years. The impatriation bonus, or a flat 30% of pay, is free of income tax until 31 December of the eighth year after you start, and half of foreign investment income is exempt.
When do you become tax resident in France?
You're French tax resident if your household or main stay is in France, your main professional activity is there, or your centre of economic interests is there. Any one test is enough. There is no 183-day rule in French law.
What are the income tax rates in France in 2026?
The scale in the 2026 finance law is 0% up to €11,600 per part, then 11%, 30%, 41% and 45% above €181,917. Couples and families divide their income by a number of parts before the scale is applied.
How is crypto taxed in France?
Occasional investors pay 12.8% income tax plus social charges on gains, 31.4% in total, or can opt for the progressive scale. Gains are tax free if total disposals in the year are €305 or less.
Does France have a wealth tax?
Only on property. The IFI applies when your net real estate is worth more than €1.3 million, at 0.5% to 1.5%. New arrivals pay it only on French property for their first five years.
Important information
This article is general information and does not constitute tax, legal, immigration or financial advice, and does not create a client relationship. Tax outcomes depend on travel history, income sources, treaty status and the law applying to the relevant year. Rates, thresholds and regimes change, and some measures described may be proposed rather than enacted; this article reflects our understanding as at the date of publication. Obtain advice from a suitably qualified professional before acting or refraining from action.
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