Filing a tax return in France can be a complicated procedure – particularly when payslips are peppered with confusing acronyms like CSG, CRDS, APE and NAF. 

The French tax system is undergoing a change with the recent introduction of deduction at source (sometimes known as PAYE) for employees. 

However, for the moment most employees still have to file the annual tax declaration – even if all their taxes have already been deducted from their payslips and therefore their total tax bill is €0.

Now the French Government has passed a decree to simplify payslips and make it easier to work out how much of your income you need to declare. 

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From January 1st, all French payslips must contain the following details in an easily identifiable section:

• The amount deducted from the payment through prélèvement à la source (PAYE, or deduction at source);
• The amount of overtime pay which is exempt from taxation; 
• The amount of money you have earned which can still be taxed – or le montant du salaire net imposable

This last point is the most important because if you need to manually enter your earnings onto a tax return (which is the case for people declaring their earnings in France for the first time or filing their return in the post), this is the amount of taxable income you will have to declare.  

The new payslips will look something like this: