The tax authorities have sent an alert to millions of French people that should not be ignored.
“Hello, consider declaring your income on impots.gouv.fr. Need help? Call 0809401402 (non-premium rate call). General Directorate of Public Finances.” Thousands of French people have received this SMS in recent days. But at a time when text messages of all kinds are arriving without being able to certify their origin, a legitimate question arises: is this a real message sent by the tax authorities to taxpayers or is it yet another well-established scam? to extract money from the less informed?
For once, this communication is official, the tax authorities confirmed to Linternaute. In fact, the DGFiP has been sending messages for several days to once again tell the French that they must file their income tax returns online. A welcome reminder as deadlines are fast approaching. “It is sent to taxpayers who have not yet validated their declaration,” says Bercy, who is therefore urging some of them to complete the process.
Because soon, it will be too late for 6 million French people. All residents of departments no. 1 (Ain) to 19 (Corrèze), as well as those living abroad, only have until Thursday May 23 at 11:59 p.m. to sign their tax return online. Afterwards, it will still be possible, but a fine will be imposed, increasing the amount of tax you will have to pay. All people residing in these territories and having received this SMS from the DGFiP must therefore hurry to send their declaration to the tax authorities.
Failure to comply with this obligation may result in financial sanctions imposed by the DGFiP. In the event of a late declaration but made spontaneously within a reasonable time after the deadline, an increase of 10% will be applied to the amount of tax due. If the tax authorities have to send you a formal notice, this increase will increase to 20 or 40% depending on the deadline within which you regularize your situation. In addition, late payment interest of 0.2% per month will be added.
For example, if a person declares a few days late and owes 1000 euros in taxes, they will ultimately have to pay 1102 euros due to their delay. If this same person makes their declaration two months after the deadline following a formal notice, they will have to pay 1204 euros in total. Watch the calendar!