New boxes dedicated to withholding tax appeared in the tax return three years ago. To make your job easier, the tax authorities have pre-filled them. But is it possible to correct the indicated amounts?
Introduced on January 1, 2019, withholding tax allows you to pay tax at the same time as you receive income. This method of payment takes two forms. If the deduction is made by a third party (employer, pension fund, employment center, etc.), we speak of withheld source. If the withdrawal is made from your bank account, we speak of a deposit. This is the case, for example, if you receive land income, if you are self-employed or even a farmer.
How to choose and change the tax rate deducted from your salary?
All these deductions are used to calculate the final tax to be paid in 2023 on 2022 income, taking into account what you have already paid to the Public Treasury in 2022.
The case of reimbursement already obtained
On lines 8HV, 8HW and following, we note that boxes are also provided to indicate reimbursements already obtained, in particular following a pre-tax claim. These sums will be taken into account when calculating the balance. To simplify, the balance corresponds to the amount of tax after deducting the amounts already deducted at source and after applying tax reductions and credits (RICI). It takes into account the reimbursements already obtained and the 60% RICI advance paid in January.
What if the amounts entered in these new boxes are incorrect?
The amounts are pre-filled by the tax authorities. However, the administration’s IT system does not prevail: it is the accounting documents, such as pay slips or pension slips, showing source deductions, which are retained. The pre-filled amounts can therefore be modified by the taxpayer when declaring. Please note that the administration has provided safeguards. Only deductions at source are modifiable and subject to conditions.
Changes that modify the balance in favor of the tax authorities are always possible, for example when you reduce the amount of withholding tax without changing the corresponding income. In this case, you will owe a larger sum on the balance. The tax authorities therefore cannot be the losers.
The situation becomes more complicated when your changes risk penalizing the tax authorities by creating a lower balance to be paid. In this case, messages to draw your attention are provided, to point out potential inconsistencies. Ditto if you increase the amount of the source deduction without modifying the corresponding income or if you lower the income without modifying the source deduction.
There is also an error message if you increase or decrease both the income and the associated withholding tax, message which can be blocking in the event of a really significant variation (eg huge increase in withholding tax with a more moderate increase in income, which will then seem inconsistent). By making this kind of change, you are likely to be contacted by the tax authorities to justify your changes.
Finally, it is impossible to decrease the income while increasing the associated withholding tax, because this situation seems particularly unlikely.
The ultimate solution
If you are unable to pass a modification which nevertheless seems necessary to you, the solution is to validate the declaration by adding an express mention, then to file a complaint by attaching the supporting documents.