Tick-tock, tick-tock… The countdown is on for the Corsicans, the Girondins or the Meurthois. Taxpayers from the 36 departments numbered 20 to 54 only have a few hours left to complete and validate their income tax return.
Like every year, the declaration campaign opened since April 9 is divided into several stages. Bercy has in fact planned deadlines spread out according to the departments. A necessity to smooth out the connection peaks of the French who tend to complete their declaration in the last days and even often in the last hours before the fateful deadline.
This year, it is already too late for taxpayers who still use the paper form. For them, the deadline was set for May 19. Taxpayers who file online always benefit from a longer deadline. But this has already passed for zone 1. For departments numbered 01 (Ain) to 19 (Corrèze), the deadline was Thursday May 21 at 11:59 p.m.
A week later, it is therefore for households in the departments ranging from Corsica (2A and 2B) to Meurthe-et-Moselle (54) that time is running out. They only have a few hours left to complete, check and validate their declaration on the tax website or via the application. For them, the ax falls this Thursday, May 28 at 11:59 p.m. The last households, those in departments ranging from 55 (Meuse) to 976 (Mayotte) still have one week before the deadline. For them, the limit is set for next Thursday, June 4 at 11:59 p.m.
A five-tier scale
If since 2019 the payment of tax has been radically modified by the transition to withholding tax, this has not eliminated the income declaration stage. Indeed, Bercy does not know all the income received by a household, nor all its expenses which entitle it to a tax boost, nor the possible evolution of the composition of the tax household (birth, death, departure of a child, etc.).
The declaration will therefore make it possible to take into account the situation of a household and all of its income to determine whether or not it is subject to income tax. And, if this is the case, how much he must pay according to the progressive scale, which itself changes every year, in particular to take into account inflation. For this year, a single person will only be taxable if they declare an annual income of more than €11,600, double that for a couple.
With the various additional mechanisms (discount, minimum collection, etc.), the tax entry threshold corresponds to a net salary of just over €1,600 per month. Below this amount (and also taking into account the number of children or deductible expenses) a household remains in the 0% bracket and therefore has no tax to pay. This is the case for more than half of households in France, since 19 million were taxable in 2025 out of a total of more than 41 million tax households.
The scale is then made up of four other brackets. The tax rate thus starts at 11% between €11,601 and €29,579, the maximum bracket for around half of taxable households. The State levy reaches 30% on income between €29,580 and €84,577 then rises to 41 between €84,578 and €181,917. It peaks at 45% beyond this amount. A slice which obviously only concerns a tiny minority of taxpayers, barely 0.1% of households.
