Impôts letters: avis, mise en recouvrement, and the taxe d'habitation surprise

Impôts — the French tax administration, run nationally by the DGFiP — sends a steady stream of letters in autumn and a few stragglers the rest of the year. Most are routine. A few demand a quick reply. This post walks through the four most common letters an expat household will see and what each one means.

Avis d'impôt sur le revenu

Your income-tax bill (or statement of refund) for the previous calendar year. Issued every summer, usually August. The line that matters: 'Montant restant à payer' or 'Montant à vous restituer'. If it's a payment, the deadline is on the avis and the schedule depends on the amount. If it's a refund, it lands in your bank account within a few weeks of the date on the avis.

Avis de taxe d'habitation (sur les résidences secondaires)

Since 2023, the taxe d'habitation on principal residences is fully abolished. But it still applies to secondary residences and to vacant homes. If you've recently moved and your old place hasn't been declared as vacated or your new place as principal, you might receive a taxe d'habitation bill for a property you no longer live in. This is the most common 'surprise' impôts letter expats get.

Avis de taxe foncière

Property tax. Only applies if you own. Sent in September, due in mid-October. If you rent, you'll never see one of these in your own name (your landlord pays it). If you've just bought, the seller and you split the year pro-rata at the notaire's closing — the avis still gets issued in the new owner's name, and you settle the seller's share through the notaire's escrow account.

Mise en recouvrement / mise en demeure

Sent when an avis has gone unpaid past its deadline. Listed amount = the original debt + a 10% majoration (the standard impôts late-payment penalty) + late interest at 0.2% per month. The letter gives 30 days to pay before the trésor public moves to recovery (avis à tiers détenteur, the same bank-freeze mechanism URSSAF uses).

Demande de pièces / contrôle

Less common but not rare. The agent processing your file wants extra documents (a bank statement, an attestation, proof of a deduction). The letter lists the documents and a deadline — usually 30 days, sometimes 60 for international documents. Reply via the secure messaging in your espace particulier. Email is faster than post and timestamped.

Three things to verify on any impôts letter

• The numéro fiscal (top-right of the letter) — confirms it's addressed to you, not a previous tenant.
• The année concernée (the tax year, not the year on the postmark) — impôts processes lag by 18-30 months sometimes.
• Whether the line asking for action ('à payer', 'à compléter', 'à justifier') has a deadline. If it does, that's your hard wall.

When in doubt

Impôts letters use numbered formulaires (2042, 2044, 2031, 3916…) that mean nothing unless you've been doing this a while. Photograph the letter into Mes Papiers and we'll surface the form type, the tax year, the deadline, and the one action it actually wants — refund, payment, declaration update, or document submission.