You still have a little time left to complete or validate your income tax return for the year 2023. If you are a couple, perhaps you are used to only completing one for two. In several cases, however, it is indeed a double declaration that is necessary, as the MoneyVox site points out.
First possible case: you are in a cohabitation situation (in a common-law union). In this case, there are two declarations which must be transmitted to the General Directorate of Public Finances.
If you are married or in a civil partnership, you do not live with your spouse and you live under the “separation of property” regime, you will also have to complete your declaration. Please note, this is not the case if this dual residence is due to a professional reason.
For those who are entitled to it, the “joint declaration” is not always advantageous. This is what an INSEE study published in 2019 showed. If a large part of the households concerned, rather well-off, where one member earns much more than the other, finds their benefit, according to the institute of statistics “2.5 million households lose out, which are among the median or rather well-off households.” If you got married or entered into a civil partnership during 2023, you will have the choice between a single declaration or a double declaration.
In the event of divorce or separation, your situation also changes. If the divorce or separation has not yet been officially declared, you must file two declarations “when you have been authorized to have separate residences”, indicates the tax administration in an article updated in March 2024. It is the same in the event of abandonment of home and if each has separate professional and/or property income – from which possible alimony within the couple is excluded. Proof of this separation then comes from a court decision, a handout of abandonment of the common domicile or even proof of the existence of two separate domiciles. Please note: “the temporary and accidental removal of those concerned” is not concerned by this case.
After a breakup, determining the income that each person must declare is not always easy, especially if the two members have or had joint income (rental income for example). “Each of the spouses, partners, former spouses or former partners linked by a PACS is then personally taxable for the income they had during the year as well as for the share of the joint income accruing to them,” specifies the tax authorities. If it is not possible to justify each person’s share, the joint income is shared in two equal parts between the two people.
Another change in situation with tax implications: the disappearance of a spouse. If you were able to report this death to the tax administration within 60 days following it, your new withholding tax rate could have been calculated. Whatever happens, you will have to complete two declarations: one corresponds to the period before the disappearance of your spouse, the other to the period following this death.
Finally, as a reminder, if your adult children can request to continue to be attached to your household, there are several situations concerning them which may involve one or more income tax declarations.