At the end of January, I joined colleagues and product providers at our annual conference in Monaco. We heard a range of insightful presentations from companies including Evelyn Partners, iPensions, Momentum, New Horizon, VAM Alquity, LGT Wealth Management, Novia Global, Rathbones, Utmost, Prudential and RBC Brewin Dolphin.

There is often a difference between what dominates the headlines and what investment managers focus on. While it has become increasingly difficult to ignore what is happening in America, it is important to remember that we maintain a long-term focus for our clients’ investments.

As outlined by the fund managers, markets remain heavily tech-focused. However, although stocks from the companies known as the “Magnificent Seven” dominated markets in 2023 and 2024, there has been some broadening in 2025. Nvidia shares have recently flatlined and Microsoft was down 20%. Even though European stock markets are performing better, fund managers are not yet ready to abandon US equities in favour of European ones.

Unfortunately, the UK economic outlook remains gloomy. For several years now, fund managers have highlighted how little exposure they have to UK stocks within their portfolios. However, the FTSE 100 performed well in 2025, largely because many UK companies generate profits outside the UK.

AI also requires significant infrastructure, including large data centres and substantial energy supply. Its influence is now extending into emerging markets as well.

Fund managers have reduced their oil exposure as energy prices continue to decline. Sovereign bonds, however, are becoming more attractive, with yields of between 1% and 3%, particularly Norwegian, Australian, New Zealand and Japanese bonds.

Novia announced its new GIA product which, like its SIPP, can hold funds denominated in HKD and Australian dollars, as well as GBP, EUR, CHF and USD. Currently, UK SIPPs sit outside a deceased person’s estate for inheritance tax purposes. However, proposals from the UK Chancellor will bring defined contribution pensions into the inheritance tax net from 6 April 2027.

Evelyn spoke about the digital data boom, describing it not as a fad but as a generational shift (anyone with teenagers will relate). Their aim is to “turn data into dollars” in 2026, and they continue to see opportunities, particularly among companies utilising AI. Stronger earnings and a weaker dollar are also supporting emerging market equities.

In French financial news, from 1 February 2026 the interest rates on French savings accounts have been reduced as follows:
Livret A: 1.50%
Livret de développement durable (LDDS): 1.50%
Livret Jeune: 1.50%
Compte Épargne Logement (CEL): 1.00%

Local taxes, in particular taxe foncière, are not expected to increase by more than 0.80% in 2026, due to the increase in the rental value of properties.

Other key changes from 1 January 2026 include:

• The annual social security ceiling is set at €48,060 (€4,005 per month).
• The legal interest rate is set at 6.67% for loans between individuals (for example, late custody payments) and 2.62% for loans between professionals.
• The maximum amount that can be withdrawn from a deceased person’s bank account to cover funeral costs is €5,965.
• Medication, treatment or services provided by non-contracted doctors (those who set their own fees) will no longer be covered by social security from January 2027.
• Fees for certain medical specialists have increased (€40 for a gynaecologist, €42 for a geriatrician and €57 for a neurologist).
• Stamp prices have increased, as they do each year, to €1.52 from €1.39. Postal costs for other services have also risen.
• Interest earned on PEL savings accounts is subject to income tax (12.8%) and social charges (18.6%), bringing the flat tax rate to 31.40%. Holding a PEL allows access to a mortgage at 3.2%.
• If you are expecting a baby in 2026, you may be entitled to an additional two months of maternity, paternity or adoption leave.

In January, if you benefited from specified tax credits or reductions (for example, home help), you will have received a payment equal to 60% of the total amount. The remaining balance will be reconciled through your 2025 tax return in September 2026.

After catching up with work following the conference, I will be spending time with my family from 16 to 20 February during the half-term holidays. If you have any questions about the information above, or would like to arrange a time to discuss your financial matters, please do get in touch.

Happy New Year!! I wish you all the very best for 2026. I hope that you had an enjoyable festive season. We spent Christmas at home, which was very nice and relaxing, so now I am well rested, ready for the new year and looking forward to seeing all my clients. 

On 9th December the Law for the Financing of the Social Security was adopted by the National Assembly and, pending any issues with the Constitutional Court, it is now enacted into law. Under this law, the official retirement age is now 62 years and 9 months, with a required contribution of at least 170 semesters set until 1st January 2028 for pensions taking effect from 1st September 2026. As a result, anyone born between 1964 and 1968 may retire 3 months earlier than previously expected. Furthermore, as from 1st January 2026, the French state pension increased by 0.9%.

This law also increased the CSG social charges on interest, dividends and capital gains from 9.2% to 10.6%. The flat tax (PFU) on this income has therefore risen from 30% to 31.4%. However, withdrawals from assurance vie policies, PEL and PEP (plan épargne populaires) accounts, rental income and capital gains on property are not affected. So for people with money in UK saving accounts, the interest will now be taxed more heavily in France. It is worth considering whether it remains appropriate to keep such accounts, or whether it would be more tax-efficient to move funds into French savings vehicles such as a Livret A or LDDS, or into an assurance vie for longer-term planning.

If you have up to €61,200 that you need to put away for a year or two, a PEL account opened from 1st January 2026 now offers an interest rate of 2% compared with 1.75% for PELs opened after 1st January 2025. The interest rate for a PEL is determined at the time the account is opened.

From 1st January 2026, cash gifts now need to be declared online via your account on the impots.gouv.fr website. This applies to gifts of money, shares or valuable items such as a car. You will be asked to declare any money or gifts of value and state whether they fall under the €100,000 allowance between parents and children or the €31,865 made by a relative under 80 years old to a recipient who is over 18 years old. If the recipient is a minor, their parents should do the declaration for them on their online account. Christmas gifts remain exempt and do not need to be declared.

Since 1st December 2025, parents who are divorced or separated, will now both receive childcare benefit (complement de libre choix de garde) provided the child is cared for by a registered childminder either at the childminder’s home or at the child’s home.

For those looking for a bargain or waiting to buy something special, the sales in France will begin on Wednesday 7th January at 8am and will continue until Tuesday 3rd February.

Furthermore the thresholds for what is considered a low income and middle income households have been increased.

Later this month, I will be attending our annual conference in Monaco with colleagues and meeting with our product providers to review the past year and discuss the factors likely to influence investment strategies in 2026. I will share key insights from our conference in the next Ezine.

In the meantime, if you have any questions about the topics above or would like to discuss your personal financial situation, please do not hesitate to get in touch to arrange a free phone call or meeting.

Autumn has officially arrived in France. The clocks have gone back, the air is cooler, and whilst grey, rainy days have set in, we can still look forward to the occasional burst of sunshine. November may be one of the shorter months, but before preparations for the end-of-year festivities begin, there are several important matters to keep in mind

Although the taxe d’habitation has become a thing of the past for most French residents, it still applies to owners of second homes in France. Over four million households are liable for either the Taxe d’Habitation sur les Résidences Secondaires (THRS), the Taxe sur les Logements Vacants (TLV), or the Taxe d’Habitation sur les Logements Vacants(THLV).

The Taxe d’Habiation statements should now be available in your online account on impots.gouv.fr, where you will also find the payment details and deadlines.

On 25th October, the French deputies voted to amend the draft finance bill that was proposing to freeze the income tax rates, instead voting in favour of re-establishing indexation in line with inflation which increases current tax bands by 1.1%. Below is a table showing the 2025 thresholds compared with the proposed thresholds for 2026.

Once the finance law is officially adopted at the end of the year, I will confirm these thresholds.

If you are subject to Wealth Tax on Property (IFI) and the amount due is €300 or less, this must be paid by 17th November by cheque, cash or bank card or by the 22nd November if you pay online. If the amount is more than €300, it must be paid online via the impots.gouv.fr website.

By now, you should have received your income tax statement and paid tax due. If you have discovered any errors or miscalculations, please correct them as soon as possible as after 3rd December 2025 you will no longer be able to submit an amended tax return on the impots.gouv.fr website; any corrections after this date must be submitted in paper form.

If you have a PEL account which was opened between 2011 and 2015, your bank will automatically close it and transfer the funds to another savings account. PELs opened since 1st March 2011 can be held for a maximum of 15 years, whereas the PELs opened before this date can remain open indefinitely. According to the Banque de France, the average balance of a PEL account is €25,017, with around 12% of such accounts exceeding the maximum capital limit of €61,200. These accounts are not term accounts and should only be used if you plan to purchase a property or carry out renovations to your property.

If you do seasonal lettings, you will have received an email from the tax office reminding you that the tax rules have changed in 2025. For “meubles de tourisme non classés” if your income in 2023 and 2024 was more than €15,000 you can no longer stay as micro-BIC. The income that you received will be under the “régime réel” and will require the assistance of an accountant. You should contact your tax office for more information.

Urssaf also sent an email to remind those who earned over €23,000 from their season lettings that they have to pay social security contributions on this income and not social charges like other landlords. Depending on your turnover, you can opt for the micro-social regime at either 21.2% (for meublés de tourisme non classés) or 6% (for meublés de tourisme classés). From 2027, website-based business as Airbnb and Arbitel will take the social contributions directly at source.

If you have any questions on the above or any other matters, please do get in touch. I am available for online meetings or face to face meetings throughout November, so if you have any questions about your finances, please do contact me to arrange a free, no obligation, meeting.

France has a new prime minister (again), actually – no we don’t – another one gone! However, time is of the essence to ensure that the Finance Law is approved and passed into law by the end of the year. Prior to the government reshuffle, there was a plan to freeze the tax rates at their current level and not adjust them in line with inflation as has been done in the past few years.

There was also a plan to set the 10% abatement on pensions at a maximum of €2000 per pensioner rather than the current maximum of €4399. Whether these measures will be adopted into law by the end of year, only time will tell.

According to a study published by the French National Statistics Body (INSEE, Focus 354), in 2024, 78% of French residents have a Livret A Savings account, compared with 42% who have an assurance vie and 27% that have a property savings plan (PEL/CEL). Only 19% of French residents have a retirement account (PER) and only 16.5% are part of an employer’s savings plan. Clearly the French prefer to keep their investments in assurance vies rather than in share accounts since only 9.8% of French residents have PEAs and only 9.6% have ordinary share accounts (compte titres). With the interest rate for the Livret A now at only 1.7%, this means that a large amount of French savings is not protected from inflation. Since money in an ordinary share account is subject to both tax and social charges, it is more tax efficient to invest in either an assurance vie or a PEA.

This autumn child care benefits (“complement de libre choix du mode de garde” or CMG) are changing. The CMG is a family benefit which covers part of the costs of a child being looked after by a carer (assistante maternelle) or at home by a nanny employed directly by the parents. This benefit is being amended in order to better assist families in certain situations. From 1st September 2025, the amount of this benefit will also change. In particular, single parents can now receive CMG until their child is 12 years old instead of 6 years old previously. From 1st December 2025, for parents with shared custody of their child, each parent can receive CMG under certain conditions. The calculation of the amount of benefits will be done automatically by Urssaf on the Pajemploi website and families will be informed of the new amount of benefits they will receive in the September 2025 declaration.

Most people will have noticed an increase in their tax foncière of 1.7% due to the annual revaluation of the rental value which is the basis on which this tax is calculated.

There may also be an additional increase if your local council has voted for one. Other subsidiary taxes such as the tax to manage aquatic areas and the prevention of flooding may also have increased in certain areas. As for the tax for the refuse collection, a table produced by the Environmental and Energy efficiency (Agence de l’environnement et de la mâitrise de l’energy) published in Le Monde newspaper on 25th August showed that more than half of local authorities charge more than what it actually costs them to collect and treat the rubbish. If your tax foncière seems excessively high this year, it may be worth raising this issue with your local council.

If you have any questions on your financial situation in France, or know someone who does, please do get in touch and I would be happy to arrange a free, no obligation, phone or video call.

After a long sunny summer it is nice to get properly back to work now that my children have returned to school. It is also nice to have had some days of rain since the garden was in desperate need of it.

Over the summer you should have been notified that your tax statements are available online. If you paid too much tax this was reimbursed on 25th July. If you are not paying your tax by direct debit from your account, you must pay your tax by 20th September. If you have provided your bank details to the tax office and you have more tax to pay, your monthly payments will increase from 15th September and, if you have more than €300 to pay, you will have to pay off this amount over the next four months on 25th September, 25th October, 25th November and 29th December. If you have less than €300 to pay, it will be taken out in one payment on 25th September. Please do check your tax return as mistakes often occur.

Most people don’t notice the mistake until they are asked to pay an unusually high amount of tax and then they realise that other mistakes were made in previous years. If you do notice something wrong, you must first pay the tax that is requested on the statement and then submit an amended return. Any tax overpaid will be repaid once the new statement is produced.

As announced in my previous Ezine, the interest rates for the Livret A and LDDS savings accounts fell from 2.4% to 1.7%, the LEP interest rate fell from 3.5% to 2.7% and the interest rate for the CEL account fell from 1.5% to 1.25% as from 1st August 2025.

The markets continued to perform well in July and August, with US equities hitting record highs. This was in part due to concerns over tariffs diminishing, as numerous trade deals were signed leading up to the Trump administration’s 1st August deadline. Although the Trump administration considered these deals frameworks, including deals with Japan, the European Union (EU) and South Korea, as a political victory, they were vague on details and lacked clarity. However the markets appear to be less reactive over such tariffs, at least for the moment, which may indicate that volatility will not be as severe as it was in April. Strong corporate earnings and solid jobs data also buoyed equities.

UK inflation accelerated to 3.8% in July, the highest level since January 2024, while Eurozone inflation held steady at just 2%. This marks the widest gap between the UK and its European peers in nearly two years. Meanwhile the US dollar rose 3.2% in July, its best month since 2022, as the Fed indicated it was still in no rush to cut rates. With inflation above the Fed’s 2% target, and the full impact of tariffs on inflation unknown, the Fed seems to be taking a ‘wait and see’ approach.

The Expected Growth Rate (EGR) is the forward looking element of the Prufund smoothing process. Pru announced that the EGRs for the GBP versions of Prufund were increased by 0.1%. So the Prufund Growth GBP is now 7.4% and the Prufund Cautious GBP is now 6.7%. The EGRs for all the Euro and USD versions of the Prufund remain unchanged. The Unit Price Adjustment (UPA) part of the smoothing process, which is a backward looking element, and which is formulaic and non-discretionary, is also reviewed quarterly. This quarter there was an upward UPA for the Prufund Growth USD version of 3.55%. There were no Unit Price Adjustments in the other PruFunds.

If you have any questions on the above or any other matters, please do get in touch to arrange a time to discuss your personal financial situation.

Although the official beginning of Summer is not for a few weeks, these last few weeks of lovely sunny weather already makes it feel like summer is here.
Tax season is almost at a close. Those in departments numbered over 55 have until Thursday 5th June to finalise their tax declarations. I hope you managed to submit your returns in time.

If you now realise that you missed out some income or misdeclared income, you can still amend your tax return on the online webpage. Please note however that as the return has been filed by the deadline, this will generate a tax statement and any tax due on this first statement must be paid promptly. If you amend your return on the website now, this will generate a second statement which may request more tax from you and therefore adjust your monthly payments or will result in a tax rebate. Whichever the case, you must pay the first tax statement first and wait until the second statement is issued.

In June there is still one more declaration to complete if you are a trustee of a trust for which one of the beneficiaries, settlors or trustees are French resident. A trust must also be declared if it contains French based assets.

Although Trusts do not exist under French law, the French courts have accepted that Trusts set up in other countries can have effects in France (Paris Court of Appeal decision, dated 10 January 1970, Epoux Courtois and others of Ganay) provided that they have been set up in compliance with the laws of the country in which it was set up and that they don’t contain any provisions that go against French public policy (ordre public) especially as regards the réserve heriditaire (mandatory heirs rights).

Although generally, if it says Trust in the document, then it needs to be declared, there are some exceptions such as Unit Trusts, a company trust, or an investment trust. Also pension trusts do not need to be declared in the annual trust declaration provided the trustees of these pension trusts are subject to the law of a State which has signed an agreement with the French state to provide administrative assistance in the prevention of fraud and tax evasion (https://bofip.impots.gouv.fr/bofip/7886-PGP.html/identifiant=BOI-DJC-TRUST-20220330). This includes pension trusts in Malta.

There are two declarations that need to be done, TRUST 1 (https://www.impots.gouv.fr/formulaire/2181-trust1/declaration-de-constitution-de-modification-ou-dextinction-dun-trust),  if you have never declared the trust before or it is a new trust and TRUST 2 (https://www.impots.gouv.fr/formulaire/2181-trust2/declaration-annuelle-de-la-valeur-venale-au-1er-janvier-des-biens-droits-et- ) which is the annual trust declaration which must be done every year. Unfortunately, you cannot submit these forms online like you can when you do your income tax return, they must be submitted in paper form and sent to the Non-Residents tax office in Noissy-le-Grand before 15th June every year.

For those with Pru Assurance Vies or those thinking of investing in a Pru Assurance Vie there is news as, on Tuesday 27th May 2025, the Prudential Assurance Company (PAC) board reviewed the Prufund Expected Growth Rates (EGR) as part of the quarterly review process. The Expected Growth Rate (EGR) is the forward looking element of the Prufund smoothing process. Pru announced that the EGRs for all the offshore versions of Prufund remain unchanged. The Unit Price Adjustment (UPA) part of the smoothing process, which is a backward looking element, and which is formulaic and non-discretionary are also reviewed quarterly. This quarter there is a negative UPA for the Prufund Cautious fund in GBP of – 2.3%.

At the beginning of June, I shall join some of my colleagues and some of our product providers for our adviser meeting in Paris. It will be interesting catching up with my colleagues and also hearing our providers views on the markets in what has been a very interesting first part of the year!

After all the May bank holidays, I am looking forward to having some normal working weeks and getting lots of work done before the summer holidays. If you have any questions or would like to organise a meeting to discuss your finances, please do get in touch.

May is when France comes out to play because the weather is warmer and the days are getting sunnier. However it is also the month when, if you haven’t already begun your tax declaration, you need to at least make a start on it over the next few weeks. The first deadline for filing the tax return is the 20th May for the paper returns which you will need to complete if this is the first year doing a tax return and you don’t have a tax number or login details to do it online.

The other deadlines for submitting both your income tax return and where applicable, your Wealth Tax return, are as follows:

If you do not at least attempt to get some sort of declaration submitted by these deadlines a 10% penalty will apply to the amount of taxed owed. Luckily, Spectrum has a free tax guide which you can find HERE. If you have any questions on this guide, please do get in touch.

I know that it may seem daunting and believe me, even though I was a tax adviser and used to do hundreds of declarations for my clients, I still find doing my own quite a challenge! So to help you, here are my ten top tips:

• HAVE YOUR FIGURES READY– Make sure that you know what kinds of income you need to declare and what the total annual figures are, whether they are taken off a bank statement or a tax certificate.
• KNOWING THE EXCHANGE RATE: The Banque de France average exchange rate for 2024 is €1.18 to £1. This is also the rate used by the Connexion newspaper. Make sure you have all your foreign income figures converted into Euros ready to input into the tax form.
• CHECK THE FIGURES ALREADY ENTERED ON THE TAX FORM – French source income (pensions, salaries, French bank income etc) should already be entered on the tax form. Whilst this information is generally correct, it is still worth checking these figures with any tax certificates issued by the relevant body or your December 2024 payslip.
• FOREIGN INCOME ANNEXE – I have noticed this year that whilst some annexe forms such as the 3916 are automatically ticked and carried over from the previous year, the 2047 for foreign income is not. You will therefore have to tick this box in the ANNEXE section of the online form to make this form appear. You must enter all foreign income received in 2024 on this form and then make sure that it is carried over or inputted again into the main 2042 tax form.
• CHECK THAT ALL THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF INCOME ARE TICKED – This applies on both the 2047 form and the main tax form (2042) as when you then click to the next page you will only be shown the boxes and pages that correspond to the income selected on the earlier page. So if you are only declaring pensions and bank interest, only those pages will appear. If you have other income like rental income or business income, you need to tick the relevant box for the page to appear. You can also look at the declaration that you did last year under the “documents” section on the main page and see what boxes you completed last year, then you can use the “search box” option.
• REMEMBER THE BANK ACCOUNTS AND UPDATE THE ASSURANCE VIE AMOUNTS – All non-French accounts must be declared on the 3916 form. This should automatically appear as a form if you declared accounts last year and boxes 8TT and 8UU were ticked. Any accounts you declared last year can be carried forward but if there are any changes, any new accounts or closed accounts, you must provide this information. Your assurance vie information will also be carried forward from last year but you will have to check the letter that was sent to you by the assurance vie provider in order to enter the value of the policy as at 1st January 2025.
• DON’T FORGET YOUR TAX CREDITS – If you have any domestic help or services paid via CESU, the amounts declared will be already entered on the tax form, you just need to check that these are correct. However if you have had any other home help (cleaners; gardeners, child care, after school lessons etc) from private companies or associations, these amounts are not always automatically entered. The company or association should have sent you a tax certificate for last year so you will need to enter that amount in the tax credit section. If you have a child in high school, sixth form or university, don’t forget to tick the box to get the (albeit small) tax reduction.
• RETIREMENT CONTRIBUTIONS – if you work in France and want to contribute to your pensions, it is a good idea to open a PER account. If you have already made contributions to a PER in 2024, you can deduct a percentage of these payments from your taxable income. The amount that can be deducted or carried over from previous years is shown on your tax statement. However to deduct these amounts from your tax you will need to reenter these amounts in the correct box.
• CHARITABLE DONATIONS – If you have made any charitable donations in 2024 you should have received a tax certificate from the charity with the amount to deduct. This may have been sent by email and fallen into your spam box so it is important to find the email or if it has been sent by post to keep the tax certificate in your tax file. If you still can’t find it you can contact the charity to send you another copy.
• NOBODY IS PERFECT (especially not me ;)) — you can start your declaration and go back to it later. You can do one version and then go back and change it. Once you get to the signature page which shows the tax due (this won’t appear if you have foreign income that will receive a tax credit) if something seems wrong you can go back and amend it. You can do this as many times as you like until the official deadline without it generating separate tax bills and even after the deadline provided you have submitted something before the deadline. If it gets close to the deadline it is better to declare something and sign the tax return and then correct it at a later date rather than incur a fine for late submission.

Until recently, couples were taxed at the same rate unless they opted for their individual rate which most people didn’t. The result of this was that, because women generally receive less than men when it comes to salaries and pensions, the woman was paying a disproportionate rate of tax. As from 1st September this will change and couples will automatically be taxed at their individual rate unless they opt to pay the same tax rate.

Unfortunately it is too late to contact tax advisers, tax lawyers or anyone else offering help with tax returns as they will be very busy completing the tax returns they already have, so don’t be surprised if they are not returning your calls or emails. However, with a bit of patience and perseverance it is possible to do your own tax return. If you have any questions please do get in touch and I will help as much as I can.

The clocks have gone forward, winter is officially over and the lovely sunny weather seems finally to have arrived. Spring has sprung but of course April also hails the beginning of tax season in France and the start of the new tax year in the UK, bringing with it new financial laws and measures.

The measure introducing the lower VAT threshold of €25,000 has been postponed until 1st June 2025. VAT will apply to auto entrepreneurs as soon as their turnover exceeds €27,500 (if their turnover was less than €25,000 in 2024). If their turnover is less than €27,500 in 2025, the VAT will be due from 1st January 2026.

As from 2nd April, those people with EU, EEA or Swiss citizenship, must have an Electronic Travel Authorization (ETA). This will cost approximately €12 and can be obtained from the UK ETA app or the GOV.UK website.

If you need to take a taxi or ambulance to go to the hospital or return home you may have to share your journey with another patient. The aim of this measure is to reduce costs for the health care service. Two patients may be required to share a taxi or ambulance for part or all of the journey if the prescription specifies that the health of the patient would not be jeopardized by sharing the transport with someone else. However this can only apply if the detour to collect the other patient is no more than 10 km per patient and up to 30km maximum. Also the waiting time for the taxi/ambulance before or after the appointment cannot be longer than 45 minutes. This only applies for medical visits to treat certain kinds of conditions such as cancer, chronic liver failure etc. The patient can refuse to share their taxi or ambulance but will not be covered by their mutuelle and will not be fully reimbursed.

After a busy March, I am set for an even busier April with plenty of appointments in my diary. I am looking forward to driving through the beautiful French countryside and catching up with my clients. If you have any questions and would like to make an appointment with me to discuss your financial situation, please do get in touch.

Even though Spring is officially a few weeks away, it certainly feels like it is in the air with the sunnier weather and flowers popping out. We have a large Mimosa tree in our garden which is full of bright yellow, fragrant flowers.

Although it’s ‘better late than never’, we now have a finance law and a budget as of 6th February. The income tax bands have been increased by 1.8% rather than the originally announced 2% as inflation is lower than anticipated.

The new tax bands are as follows:

A new tax; called the “contribution differentielle sur les hauts revenus” (CDHR), has been introduced, and will come into effect next year, for those who earn over €250,000 as an individual or €500,000 pa for couples. This is to guarantee a minimum tax of 20% on their income earned in 2025. Those tax payers who are subject to this tax (i.e. those whose income is largely exempt or subject to the flat tax of 12.8%) have to make an advanced payment of 95% between 1st and 15th December 2025. The exact amount of tax will be calculated in Summer 2026.

A parent, grandparent or great-grandparent can give €100,000 to a descendant without paying tax up until 31st December 2026, subject to certain conditions. The beneficiaries of this gift must use this money in the six months following the gift to buy a new property, or a property soon to be completed or for energy efficient renovation costs to an existing property. If the person does not have children, the money can be given to a niece or nephew. This is in addition to the usual gift allowances. The property purchased or renovated must become and remain their primary residence for the next five years. Since the gift would need to be declared through a notaire, it is important to ask them whether in your situation this allowance can be used.

You can give up to €1000 to charities which provide food, aid, or housing for people in need and get a tax reduction of 75%. Any amounts over this threshold are subject to a tax reduction of 66% up to 20% of the taxable income. The same allowance is granted for donations to charities that protect victims of domestic violence.

There has been much concern from small businesses about the lowering of the VAT threshold to €25,000. This has now been suspended whilst the tax authorities consult with professionals and the minister for the economy has said that for now micro entrepreneurs do not have to make any additional declarations. However the VAT thresholds have already been lowered in the 2024 finance law. In 2025 if your turnover exceeds €85,000 for sales/puchases or lettings or €37,500 for services, you have to charge VAT in 2026 or even in 2025 if you have gone over the threshold of €93,500 or €41,250 respectively.

If you have any questions on any of the matters mentioned above or would like to discuss your own financial situation please do get in touch.