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Financial income generates income tax. The French IFU is a document that assists taxpayers and the tax administration during the annual declaration.
The Single Tax Statement, also known as the STS in common language (IFU in french), is a tax document received annually by taxpayers who hold securities. In practical terms, it's about financial investments that generate taxable income in the category of income from movable capital (ICM), regardless of the underlying assets and the method of holding. The individuals who hold the following products are therefore concerned: - Life insurance contracts or retirement savings plans, - Company shares or social shares, whether they are listed or not, - Bonds (stock exchange, crowdfunding...) - PEA (Equity Savings Plan) or ordinary securities accounts (OSA), - Non-exempt savings accounts : bank savings books, home savings plans, home savings accounts... - Listed or unlisted investment funds (OEICs, UCITS, innovation mutual funds, local investment funds...) - Interest-generating current accounts (bank accounts or company current accounts)... The A booklets, Popular Savings Books (PSB) and LDDS are not subject to the issuance of a STS, as they are regulated and their gains are exempt from income tax and social contributions. The single tax statement isn't a document to be filled out by individuals. It's an informational element issued by financial institutions and/or companies, which summarizes the income received by the taxpayer from the financial product concerned during the tax year. It's the institution paying the gains that issues it. The STS is then sent in duplicate, generally a few weeks before the launch of the income tax declaration campaign. One is intended for the tax administration, which will use it to pre-fill the taxpayers' income statement. The other is given to the taxpayer, who will have the task of checking the information recorded on the STS and those reported on their income tax return pre-filled by the tax services.
The unique tax voucher must be issued by the entity that pays the financial gains. This could be dividends (for shares or units), coupons (for bonds), or capital gains (in the case of profits from a resale). In any case, it is therefore the financial institution or the company that is responsible for issuing and sending the document. However, the taxpayer must remain vigilant. Because they remain liable for taxes on the amounts actually received, even if the institution has neglected to send the UTI or has made an error! Complications can occur when the taxpayer has foreign securities, as institutions located outside of France are not required to issue a unique tax voucher. Individuals then must calculate and declare the taxable amounts themselves. In this case, they must fill out and submit the UTI to the tax administration digitally through impots.gouv.fr, by clicking on « Declare » then « Income from Securities. » The UTI applies to each financial product and institution, and each taxpayer who earns income from securities. Thus, the concerned companies and financial institutions must send as many UTIs as they have investors. Likewise, each taxpayer will receive as many UTIs as there are institutions in which they hold values. For instance, a company that distributed dividends for the previous year will send a UTI to each of its shareholders. Hence, each one will receive a UTI that corresponds to their own gains. But they will also receive other UTIs from the other institutions in which they hold values: life insurance, bank...
The single tax form takes the shape of a Cerfa form under number 2561 : - The CERFA 2561 mainly concerns income from standard savings and investment products, as well as fixed income investments (bonds for example), capital gains from the sale of securities, PEA, PER, PEP..., - The CERFA 2561-BIS includes gains from the term contracts, the PEA-PME, private equity and venture capital investments, cash vouchers, capitalization contracts and collective investment funds such as FPCI, FCPR and real estate investment funds (FPI), - The CERFA 2561-TER includes any tax credits related to securities, - The CERFA 2561-QUATER is intended for people whose tax residence is located in one of the European States other than France. The taxpayers concerned may receive these IFUs by mail or in a dematerialized manner, generally in their customer area on the banks and insurers' websites from which they can be downloaded. The single tax summary is, for the taxpayer, an informative document. But it may sometimes contain errors. Individuals are thus encouraged to verify the concurrence between the prefilled amount on their income tax return. If the document was not received or the amount was not prefilled, taxpayers are required to declare the data themselves.
