You need to declare the income you received in 2017 before May 17th 2018. Declaring your income does not mean you will necessarily have to pay the income tax.

You can download the declaration form on impots.gouv.fr or get it in your local tax office (service des impôts des particuliers, also called SIP).

After you filled in the form you will have to send it back to your local tax office or to the service des impôts des particuliers non-résidents if you left France.

Address: Service des impôts des particuliers non-résidents 10, rue du Centre TSA 10010 93465 NOISY-LE-GRAND Cedex Tel: 01 57 33 83 00 Email: sip.nonresidents@dgfip.finances.gouv.fr

For any question (which revenues to declare, which fields to fill in) you can:

Contact your local tax office (https://lannuaire.service-public.fr/recherche?whoWhat=Service+des+imp%C3%B4ts+des+particuliers+SIP&where=Paris+75) or the service des impôts des particuliers non-résidents

Call Impôts Service from Monday till Friday from 8AM till 10PM and on Saturdays from 9AM till 7PM: +33 (0)8 10 46 76 87

Meet a certified public accountant from May 22nd to May 25th at Ordre des experts-comptables de Paris (free of charge service, no appointment required): http://www.oec-paris.fr/qui-sommes-nous/contact-et-acces/contact-et-acces---2281

Meet a lawyer on Thursday, May 3rd in your local city hall (free of charge service, no appointment required): https://www.paris.fr/actualites/stresse-par-votre-declaration-de-revenus-un-avocat-vous-aide-4725

Good to know:

If you declared your income last year and you received your numéro de déclarant en ligne then you can declare online here: https://cfspart.impots.gouv.fr/LoginMDP?op=c&url=aHR0cHM6Ly9jZnNwYXJ0LmltcG90cy5nb3V2LmZyLw==

You may be income tax exempt thanks to some tax agreements between France and other countries. You can find a list of these tax agreements here: https://www.impots.gouv.fr/portail/les-conventions-internationales

G. Dealing with taxes

Income tax (http://www.french-property.com/guides/france/finance-taxation/taxation/local-property-taxes/) and council tax are separate, and are paid annually, by declaration. Total earnings, for the previous calendar year, should be declared by a certain date that falls in May. There is a surplus fine of 10% for not doing this. For your first year income should be declared using the paper form. The tax office will then send you online information to submit electronically for the second year. To find your local tax office to mail the form to, enter your address in the form at the top of this website (http://www.impots.gouv.fr/portal/dgi/public/contactspart) and choose ‘Besoin de plus d'informations, de nous contacter?’, and then 'Contacter votre service local' from the menu. The documents you have to fill can be found here http://www.impots.gouv.fr/ (identifier is N° Imprimé : 2042 (N° C.E.R.F.A : 10330*19) )

Deductions made from your payslip are social tax contributions. This includes things such as the contribution towards the Navigo card rebate (everyone pays the same the rate so this is not dependent on where you live), health insurance and the various retirement funds.

Probably the key figure on the form for most people is the question of your total earnings ('Revenus d'Activité connus'). If your only income is from LSCE, it’s not too difficult - you just give the total annual value which is included as an extra section in your December payslip for the year in question (which you have saved, of course, as this is France, remember?). There’s two figures on the payslip: 'BRUT. IMPOS' and 'NET IMPOS.' net imposable is the one you need to put on the tax declaration form.

Following declaration for the first time, you will receive in the mail a payment demand around August/September. You then have to pay the tax that corresponds to the previous calendar year in a lump sum, unless you contact the tax office and arrange to spread the payments. You can also request this online on their website.

The following year you receive tax payment demands in February, April and August. The first two demands are estimates (since you only declare your earnings in May). The August demand uses your tax declaration to calculate the remainder.

Most of this info is plagiarized straight from the guide 'How to complete French Tax Forms', published by 'The Connexion' newspaper, so check that out for more details

French tax year starts in January each year. Tax for residents involves a banding system, but a 'family quotient' system reduces the taxable rate of income.

Social charges are roughly the equivalent of National Insurance in the UK, and are collected from your payment at source. This is about 10% of total income.

The main tax form that everyone fills out is the 2042, although people who have made previous declarations may be sent the 2042K or 2042SK (there are other forms for declaring foreign income, income from personal businesses etc. etc.)

It is your responsibility to obtain the forms through correspondence with your local tax office or through their website. The legal date for forms being issued by the tax office each year is May 1st, and they should then be returned before a specific date towards the end of that same month.

You cannot complete your return on-line in the first year, as you need your 'revenu fiscal de reference', which is only provided on your previous tax form 'avis d'imposition'. You also need your 'numero fiscal' and 'numero de teleclarant' which is found on the first page of your revenue declaration form. If you suspect an error in your final tax demand, the on-line system has a process for resolving this.

After deduction of the social charges, the income tax bands for a single person are (for 2014):

0% < 6011 euros;

5.5% 6011-11991 euros;

14% 11991-26631 euros;

30% 26631 – 71397 euros;

and so on… if you are earning more than 71397 euros you can afford an accountant to do this

However, total earnings that fall below a certain annual level (about 12,000 euros) result in no tax at all for the year. This will be relevant if you commence employment towards the end of a particular tax year (but you still have to declare it to the authorities, regardless)

For the combined income of a married couple, the tax bands become more generous, and for a single person with children or married couple with children, better still

If you make contributions to certain charities 'd'interet general' or 'd'utilitie publique', such as Medicins sans Frontieres, for example, you can deduct 75% of your contribution from your annual tax declaration, which is nice as it effectively trebles your donation (the charity will email you a special certificate for this purpose, which you enclose with your tax return)

People residing in certain dedicated facilities, such as Cite Universitaire, pay no council tax, but are liable for other income tax, and so still need to declare

This video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CohisZBtT3k) (in French, but hopefully with an English version coming soon) relates a useful trick to reduce your French taxes if you are a student under 26 years old

How to fill out your tax declaration (in English): http://www.expatica.com/fr/finance_business/tax/how-to-fill-out-a-dclaration-des-revenus-40172_11924.html

List of frequently asked questions on tax (in French): http://www2.impots.gouv.fr/divers/q_r_cis/questions-frequentes.htm

Don’t forget to deduct your childcare / creche payments, if relevant.

There seems also to be a deduction in the form for relocation costs, so definitely claim for this if you are eligible (i.e. moved more than 100km?)

There is a minimum threshold for taxable earnings over the calendar year, so if you begin work towards the end of the calendar year you may have to pay little or nothing for that year, but you always need to declare.

Keep the tax form and all letters as landlords may ask to see it

Some countries (apparently Italy, Spain, Greece, China amongst others..) have reciprocal agreements with the French government, so that you may pay a reduced tax rate during your first years in France. Find a colleague from your country to ask about this!