The tax return can very quickly turn into a puzzle, and even more so this year when the coronavirus crisis and the economic measures deployed have been able to shake up your professional situation.
Europe 1 answers ten questions that you might run into.
DECRYPTION
You don't have much time left.
French taxpayers still have one to three weeks, depending on their department of residence, to file their income tax returns for 2020. A stressful and sometimes complex exercise - especially if we have seen their professional situation turned upside down by the crisis health of Covid-19 -, and that we have the unfortunate tendency to want to push back.
To finally get down to it a few hours before the deadline ... at the risk of tangling the brushes.
In order to see more clearly, Europe 1 mobilized the expertise of its journalists and interviewed accountants and tax specialists to answer all the questions you could be confronted with this year, in front of your screen.
What is the deadline for filing my income tax return online?
The deadline for filing your income tax return online varies depending on your department number.
You have until
May 26, 2021
if you live in one of the departments numbered 01 to 19, or if you are a non-resident taxpayer in France.
The inhabitants of departments n ° 20 to 54 (and of the two departments of Corsica), have until
June 1, 2021
, and until
June 8, 2021
for those of departments n ° 55 to 974/976.
Is online declaration compulsory?
How to get there?
The online tax declaration has been compulsory since 2019 for all tax households whose domicile is connected to the internet.
To access it, simply go to the tax administration website, impots.gouv.fr, click on the blue tab "Your private space" at the top right of the home page, then enter your tax identifiers, i.e. the tax number that appears on your last paper declaration and your password.
If this is a first connection, the interphase will give you the possibility to create your password.
Finally, click on the link "Declare my income" and let yourself be guided.
What if I can't file my return online?
Taxpayers who do not have internet access or who live in a "white zone" can continue to use the paper return.
This exception runs until 2024. A tolerance also applies for people who, although having access to the Internet, do not consider themselves able to make their declaration online, in particular the elderly, disabled or dependent.
However, they must specify in the paper declaration that they were not able to use the online form.
The paper declaration must be filed no later than
May 20, 2021
.
What are the advantages of online declaration?
Nearly 12 million tax households could benefit from the electronic income tax return in 2021. This solution represents above all a significant time saving, since the fields already known to the administration are pre-filled (family situation, known income, etc.). However, it is your responsibility to verify the accuracy of this various information, and to correct it if necessary. Any error in a figure reported by the administration on the online form, but which you would still have validated, will be considered to be your fault.
Finally, the pre-filled online declaration does not take into account the expenses giving the right to tax credits.
Taxpayers who, for example, have made donations, have childcare or home employment expenses, will have to specify this themselves in the fields concerned if they wish these expenses to be deducted from their taxes.
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Do I have to report in my income the allowances paid by the employer for the costs related to teleworking?
"You should not declare them. You have been able to receive compensation paid by your employer, with a maximum of 550 euros for the year 2020, but these sums are not taxable", indicates to Europe 1 Laurent Benoudiz , President of the Order of Chartered Accountants of Paris Île-de-France. "There is another option: to add them back to your income, but to declare your actual business expenses. Taxpayers are entitled to a standard deduction of 10% for business expenses. However, you can always waive to these 10%, to deduct instead the actual expenses that you have incurred as a result of your professional activity and in particular those related to teleworking. "
Teleworking resulted in a lot of overtime in 2021. Are they still tax exempt?
"You have the right to an annual ceiling of 5,000 euros. If you worked overtime between March 16 and July 10, 2020, you are entitled to an additional 2,500 euros over this period," explains Laurent Benoudiz.
You can therefore withdraw from your declaration up to 7,500 euros of net taxable income for overtime.
Normally, these amounts should already appear on your income tax return, in the section devoted to exempt income.
If this is not the case, it must be corrected, in the 1GH box.
My company gave me a bonus to offset the drop in pay linked to short-time work.
Should it be declared?
This premium is taxable, but again, it should already be included in the pre-filled return.
As a self-employed person, I received money through the solidarity fund set up to help companies get through the crisis.
Do I have to declare it in my income?
"The solidarity fund is a subsidy that is received in the context of a professional activity, it must appear in the balance sheet of the professional activity, it should not be reported in your income statement. Above all, the fund solidarity is exempt from tax, whether it is income tax or company tax ", replies Lionel Canesi, President of the Superior Council of the Order of Chartered Accountants.
New for the 2021 vintage, the removal of the system which allowed the spread of the taxation of retirement bonuses. What is it about ? What alternative?
"You previously had the possibility of spreading this income and paying tax over four years," recalls Laurent Benoudiz.
But in order to avoid too much taxation, you can still opt for the principle of the quotient.
"The objective is to avoid the progressivity of the tax, that is to say to change the tax bracket because, over a year, you had a large income", underlines our expert -accounting.
The quotient allows you to add only a quarter of the premiums received to your declared income.
Then, the amount of tax thus calculated is multiplied by four.
This device prevents landing in marginal tax brackets.
Attachment of a half share or deduction of alimony?
Which is the most advantageous?
You have the right to half shares or to additional shares per dependent child, these shares allow the administration to calculate your tax taking into account the family charge per household. Indeed, with equivalent incomes, two households will not have the same lifestyle if the number of dependent individuals varies. For the sake of fairness, the tax administration takes this factor into account. A first child gives the right to a half share, a second to another half share, a third to a full share, etc. Each half share will increase your family quotient. However, a half share of the family quotient brought by a child cannot exceed a maximum of 1,500 euros of deduction.
"The alternative that arises, rather than attaching his children to his declaration via additional half-shares, is to pay them alimony, to be deducted from your income," slips Laurent Benoudiz.
Only a simulation on the impots.gouv.fr site will allow you, depending on your situation, to establish whether this option is more advantageous or not.
Is there a deductibility limit for the payment of a pension to my children?
There are many factors that come into play, and again, it will all depend on your situation.
"The whole question is whether your children can be attached to your household, that is, if they are under 21 or under 25 if they are studying. Is it a support payment that you pay spontaneously or has it been ordered by a judge? Generally, in the latter type of case, there is no limit on deductibility ", indicates the president of the 'Order of Chartered Accountants of Paris Île-de-France.
I did energy renovation work in 2020, how do I know if I am entitled to a tax credit?
This credit is removed from this year, it is replaced by a bonus, called MaPrimeRénov '.
However, to benefit from it, it was necessary to make the request before the start of work, on the site maprimerenov.gouv.fr.
Eligibility for this bonus is determined in particular by the total amount of income declared for the year preceding the work, and by the nature of the work to be undertaken (insulation, heating, ventilation, etc.).
You must also be the owner of a home that has been built for more than two years.
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Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies, what should I declare?
New virtual currencies must appear in your tax return since 2019. But you must follow a specific calculation rule as to the amount to be declared. Indeed, you are not going to declare the total amount of cryptocurrencies that you own, insofar as only the profit that you have drawn from them is taxed by the State (with a single lump-sum levy of 30%). "The fact generator of the tax will be to convert a cryptocurrency against a monetary currency, euro or dollar, or to buy a real good or service, that is to say to pay with cryptocurrencies ", specifies to Europe 1 Pierre Morizot, founder of the cryptocurrency tax software Waltio.
The amount obtained after calculating the gains should be reported under the entry "capital gains or losses on digital assets" in your return. At the same time, you will also need to complete the specific form n ° 2086, dedicated to the disposal of digital assets. If the accounts or wallets in which your cryptocurrency is stored are domiciled abroad, which is often the case, you are also required to report this to the administration, by completing form no.3916 for each account.