Behind on returns or FBARs? The eligibility check is free. Filing this year? Start the case — free to an on-screen summary, you pay only to generate the package.
Catch-up · France
A US citizen or green-card holder living in France who has not filed US returns or FBARs can usually come current through a published IRS route rather than a penalty case. Which route depends on whether returns were filed at all, whether the failure was non-willful, and what French accounts and investments the open years contain. Nothing is counting down — no IRS-announced end date is currently published.
What changes a submission from France
French current accounts, the livrets, a PEA and an assurance-vie (a cash-value contract is an FBAR account) all count toward the FBAR aggregate; the funds inside a PEA or an assurance-vie are commonly PFICs, which adds a Form 8621 to every open year.
Accounts readers here usually have to count: Compte courant · Livret A / LDDS · PEA · Assurance-vie.
Programme status
Active — no announced end date
Verified against the IRS instructions and the IRM on October 6, 2026. Is the Streamlined procedure ending?
The eligibility check is free and screens the published gates; the case assessment is the paid, per-year review that names the forms and deadlines for your own years.
Check the common France products
Pick every one that applies. Each gets its own read — what the US sees inside the wrapper, and which form it points at.
Free, no account, nothing you answer leaves this page. Open the full portfolio scanner
A screen from the product type. Whether a specific fund is a PFIC turns on its own annual facts; whether a wrapper is a trust or a pension for US purposes turns on its documents.
What actually applies
| Form | What it is | What makes it bite in France |
|---|---|---|
| Form 1040 | The US federal return, on worldwide income. | Filed regardless of French residence. Euro converts at the IRS yearly-average rate; the French and US tax years both run calendar-year, so the periods align. |
| Form 1116 | Foreign Tax Credit for foreign income tax paid. | Impôt sur le revenu on salary usually exceeds US tax on the same income. Since 2019 IRS guidance, CSG/CRDS feed the same credit — a real addition to the credit base, not a separate question. |
| FinCEN 114 (FBAR) | Report of non-US financial accounts once the combined peak exceeds $10,000. | Compte courant, livret, PEA, brokerage accounts, and commonly the assurance-vie contract itself. French banking spreads you across accounts, and they aggregate. |
| Form 8938 | FATCA reporting of specified foreign financial assets, filed with the return. | Higher thresholds than the FBAR — from $200,000 year-end for a single filer abroad — but a broader class of assets, which reaches insurance-wrapped contracts like assurance-vie. |
| Form 8621 | One per PFIC per year, subject to the form's own triggers. | PEA and assurance-vie fund allocations. A diversified PEA is several forms a year, indefinitely — this is where a French return stops being routine. |
| Form 3520 / 3520-A | Foreign trust reporting, when the arrangement is classified as one. | Whether a specific assurance-vie contract triggers this depends on its structure and insurer — a genuine classification question, not a routine filing. |
| Form 8833 | Disclosure of a treaty-based return position that overrides the default treatment. | Not needed for the ordinary Form 1116 credit, including the CSG/CRDS credit. A pension-article override is the usual reason it comes up. |
| Streamlined (Form 14653) | The catch-up route for non-willful taxpayers living abroad. | A common path for the long-settled American population across Paris, Lyon and the south of France. |
A form listed here does not mean it applies to you. Which of these your return needs depends on your accounts, holdings and income.
Salary and accounts
Impôt sur le revenu withheld at source (prélèvement à la source), plus CSG and CRDS social charges, generally exceeds the US tax on the same income. Since 2019 IRS guidance treats CSG/CRDS as creditable, both flow into the same Form 1116 credit.
Your avis d'impôt is the cleanest evidence of French tax actually assessed, year by year — exactly what the credit needs.
A compte courant, a livret, a PEA, a brokerage account — each is a non-US financial account. The FBAR adds their peaks together, so accounts that each look small can cross $10,000 between them.
An assurance-vie contract is not a French tax filing shortcut here either — it typically counts toward the same reporting, on top of its own possible Form 3520 question.
If you have an assurance-vie or PEA
Assurance-vie and the PEA are the two products almost every French saver holds, and their fund allocations are almost always non-US SICAV or FCP shares — French, Irish or Luxembourg domiciled, and generally PFICs. Generally one Form 8621 per fund per year, and a diversified contract can hold several.
The euro-fund (fonds en euros) portion of an assurance-vie and direct shares in LVMH or TotalEnergies held outside a wrapper are not PFICs.
Investment income · the 3.8%
French tax on dividends and gains credits against your regular US tax on Form 1116 — and, since the Federal Circuit's Christensen decision of August 31, 2026, against nothing else. Above $200,000 of MAGI (single) or $250,000 (joint), the net investment income tax reaches the same income with no credit at all — including the PEA and Livret A income France exempts.
Check it for your own income
Four banded answers, no figures typed, no email. The read says which side of the threshold you sit on and — if you paid tax abroad — what that credit can and cannot do.
Free, no account, nothing you answer leaves this page. Open the full NIIT Exposure Check
A banded screen for a US citizen or resident; Form 8960 settles the exact figure. Four answers give bands for net investment income and MAGI, and no read here nets a foreign tax credit against the 3.8% — the Code allows none.
Free tool · no account
Pick where you hold it — a French bank, Boursorama, Fortuneo, IBKR — and what you hold, or paste the ISINs from your relevé.
Result
Tell us what you hold
Pick the closest match on the left, or paste your ISINs below and we'll flag each one.
More for US taxpayers in France: The France treaty desk.
Educational estimate, not tax advice. Domicile is the fund's legal home, not the broker or exchange you used. Broker and provider policies change — confirm current terms with your provider before acting.
Behind on filings?
A qualifying taxpayer files the most recent 3 years of returns and the most recent 6 years of FBARs, with the offshore penalty at 0%. Two gates: non-willful conduct, and the non-residency test — no US abode and at least 330 full days outside the United States, in at least one of the last three years for which the return due date has passed.
On salary, the tax across those years is often little or nothing after the credit for French tax and social charges. The volume is in the information returns — a five-year-old PEA or assurance-vie produces one Form 8621 per fund per year across the whole window.
You certify non-willfulness on Form 14653, under penalty of perjury. Atamatax prepares the return side; you write the certification in your own words, assemble the mailing from the package's instructions, and file.
The treaty, in short
US–France Convention 1994
The convention allocates taxing rights and provides relief from double taxation — for a US citizen, almost always as a credit on Form 1116. The saving clause preserves US taxation of citizens subject to the exceptions listed in Article 1.
The France treaty desk does the article-level work, including the full CSG/CRDS credit position. This page exists for the broader question of what living in France does to a US return.
Paris has its own guide too, for city-level detail on finance, tech and academic employers and the dual-national community.
The France desk
Assurance-vie and US tax: France's default savings product, and its least settled US question
Almost every French adult is sold one. For a US citizen it raises two hard questions at once — what the contract is for US purposes, and what the unités de compte inside it are.
The PEA and US tax: a wrapper whose eligibility rules guarantee the problem
A PEA has to hold European securities. For a US citizen that is precisely the population most likely to be PFICs — the account's own rules push you into them.
Investment tax for Americans in France: the PEA, the assurance-vie, the ETFs and the 3.8%
One page for a US citizen in France who holds French products: which US forms each one raises, which funds are PFICs, what the French tax you paid does and does not offset, and how Atamatax prepares it.
Do Americans in France pay the net investment income tax?
Yes, once MAGI passes the threshold — and the French flat tax you already paid does not reduce it. The PEA, the assurance-vie, the CTO and the Livret A, one by one, against 3.8%.
PFICs in France: SICAV, FCP, UCITS ETF and the Form 8621 each one brings
Why nearly every fund a French bank or broker sells is a passive foreign investment company for a US person, which French products hold them, and how the regime you choose sets the income the NIIT reaches.
FBAR for Americans in France: which French accounts count, and the mirror rule France runs
The compte courant, the livrets, the PEA, the CTO, the assurance-vie, the PER — all of them toward the $10,000 combined peak, filed with FinCEN, separately from the return. And France asks the same question in reverse.
Capital gains for Americans in France: the flat tax, the PEA clock, the property abatements — and the US return
France taxes a gain one way and exempts it three ways; the United States taxes it in dollars, at its own rates, and adds 3.8% above the threshold. How the two systems meet on a sale of shares, funds or property.
Christensen v. United States: the France treaty and the NIIT
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, No. 24-1284, decided August 31, 2026. Two Americans in Paris sold French shares, paid both countries, and asked for their $3,851 of NIIT back under Article 24. What the court held, who it reaches, and what it did not change.
U.S. Tax Filing for Americans in Paris
Fixed-fee support for U.S. citizens and Green Card holders in Paris — French salary, assurance-vie and PEA, social charges, FBAR and FATCA reporting.
France · US treaty desk
The 1994 convention article by article, plus CSG/CRDS creditability.
FBAR & Form 8938 threshold checker
Test your French account balances against both thresholds.
All country desks
US filing abroad, adapted to where you live.
Guides for US taxpayers in FranceRelated
The layers a US return runs through don't change by country — what changes is which local accounts, funds and pensions actually trigger them. Here's how France compares.
Primary sources (Cornell Legal Information Institute for the US Code and CFR; IRS.gov for forms, procedures, and treaty documents). This page is general information, not individualized tax or legal advice.
Free to start · no card
Scan your PEA or assurance-vie, see your PFIC count, check your FBAR and Form 8938 thresholds, and get the forms your return needs. You pay only to generate the package.
Want to see one mapped first? American in France — a PEA and an assurance-vie — an illustrative case run through the same engine.