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TECHNOLOGY

What is France Connect and how could it make your life simpler?

If you get a shudder of horror every time you think about a French bureaucratic task, you may be surprised to hear that the country’s bureaucrats have set up something designed to make everyday tasks a little easier.

Published: 7 July 2021 15:56 CEST
What is France Connect and how could it make your life simpler?
Image: FranceConnect screengrab

More than 25 million people living and working in France can now access 900-plus public and other services online, using a single user ID and passcode combination.

Any website that has the above FranceConnect logo means you can log in using your existing accounts, rather than having to set up a new account with a new ID and password every time you want to use a different online service.

Who can use it?

You need a French social security number, so this isn’t for visitors or second home owners. However if you live here and are working or registered in the French healthcare system you can use it, it is not reserved for French citizens. This needs to be a permanent social security number, not a temporary one.

You will find your social security number on your carte vitale health card or on you payslip.

What you can do
Using FranceConnect, you can access your tax and medical information, open a bank account; renew ID cards, French passports or driving licences; register your new car, or deal with utility bills.

More than 900 services are available to access via the site, including the newly launched section to download a version of your French vaccination certificate that works with the EU vaccine passport. 

How it works
To access services via FranceConnect, you need to already have an online account for one of the following online services in France:

Once registered with one of these sites, you can login to any website displaying the FranceConnect logo using the same ID and password that you use for that site.

Here’s a video, in French, to explain how it works.

If you moved to France recently and do not yet have an account on the tax website, you can apply for a tax ID number, called a numéro fiscal, before you have made a declaration. To do this, visit your tax office, or fill in the form here

Additional security
Whenever you log in, you will receive an email informing you of a log-in to your account. This is to help stop criminals accessing your account. Even if you do not see the email until later, you can still report any unauthorised log-in.

Member comments

  1. Been using it ever since it kicked off but it helps to use a password manager such as “Roboform” to help remember the login details.

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For members

TAXES

Explained: France’s exit tax

Planning on leaving France? You may, depending on your circumstances, be charged the 'exit tax'.

Published: 11 April 2024 11:28 CEST
Explained: France's exit tax

Like some other European countries, France does have an exit tax for those (French or foreign) who are leaving the country. It’s known by the English name l’Exit tax.

However, it won’t affect most people.

Only those who have been tax resident for a minimum six years of the 10 years immediately before they permanently move out of the country are liable to pay an exit tax – if, that is, they own property, titles or rights worth a minimum of €800,000, or that represent 50 percent of a company’s social profits.

If that affects you, the best advice is to seek expert individual financial advice before moving out of France for good. The relevant page on the French government’s impot.gouv.fr website says it is possible to defer payments, and some relief is available.

Because of the relatively high figures involved, this tax is irrelevant for most people. That said, however, you will still have to inform tax authorities that you are moving out of the country because you may still have income, property and capital gains taxes to pay.

Income tax

You must inform the tax office that you are moving and give them your new address so that your tax declarations can be transferred to your new address.

You are liable for tax on everything you earned in France prior to your departure as well as on any French earnings that are taxable in France under international tax treaties that you earned after your departure.

The year of your departure, you declare your previous year’s earnings as normal – declarations in spring 2024 are for earnings in 2023.

A year later, you will have to declare any earnings taxable in France from January 1st up to the date of your departure, and any French-sourced income taxable source until December 31st of the year of your departure.

If you continue to have any French-sourced income – such as from renting out a French property – you will have to declare that income annually, using the non-residents declaration form.

Property taxes

You will have property taxes to pay if you own a French property on January 1st of any given year – whether it is occupied or not. 

Property tax bills come out in the autumn, but they refer to the situation on January 1st of that year, so even if you sell your property you will usually have the pay a final property tax bill the following year.

Moreover, if you receive income from property in France or have rights related to that property (such as shared ownership or stock in property companies), as well as any additional revenue connected to the property, during the year you leave France, you will be required to pay taxes on these earnings.

If any property assets in France exceed €1.3 million on January 1st of a given year, you may also have to pay the wealth tax (IFI).

READ ALSO What is France’s wealth tax and who pays it?

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Capital gains tax 

If you sell your French property or share of a French property, you may be liable for capital gains tax at a rate of 19 percent. It will also be subject to social security contributions at the overall rate of 17.2 percent.

Capital gains tax varies depending on how long you have owned the property and whether it was a second home or your main residence.

READ ALSO How much capital gains tax will I have to pay if I sell my French property?

The good news is, if you move to another EU country, or any country that has a specific tax agreement with France, you may be exempt from capital gains tax for non-resident sellers on the sale of a property that was your principal residence in France.

If you move elsewhere, you may be able to claim exemption on capital gains tax up to €150,000. As always, you should seek expert financial advice.

Tell Social Security

Inform social security that you are leaving France permanently – and return your carte vitale if you have one. If you do not, you may be liable for any benefits you receive to which you are no longer entitled.

More mundane tasks involve informing utility and water companies, your internet provider, if you have one, the phone company, your insurance companies, banks – and La Poste, who will be able to forward your mail for up to 12 months, for a fee…

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