Three out of five households claim to complete their tax return online, on impots.gouv.fr, according to a study by INSEE. But who are those who remain faithful to the paper despite the obligation to complete the declaration on the internet?
Because you can still declare on paper? Upon discovering the announcement of the postponement of the deadline for paper declarations, many taxpayers must have asked themselves this question. A legitimate question since there has been an obligation to declare online for several years, and it applies to all households regardless of income. True: The declaration (…) and its annexes are subscribed electronically by taxpayers whose main residence has internet access, provided for in article 1649 quater B quinquies of the General Tax Code.
But… In the same article there are two exceptions. The first: Those of these taxpayers who indicate to the administration not to be able to subscribe to this declaration electronically. The second: households residing in areas where no mobile service is available. In short, declaring online is mandatory… unless you cannot. In other words, if you do not have internet access or if you are not able to carry out such a process online.
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3.8million paper declarations
According to figures released last summer by the Directorate General of Public Finances (DGFiP), 3.8million households sent a paper declaration to the Public Treasury. Add to it nearly 5 million automatic declarations in paper format, the document summarizing the charges and income known to the tax authorities having in their case been sent by post. A total of, nearly 9 million of paper declarants, out of nearly 40 million tax households in France.
INSEE has just unveiled a study on French people who refuse to carry out administrative procedures online. Statistics that allow us to better understand who these paper declarants are. Moreover, the INSEE figures do not exactly match the statistics of the DGFiP, which is probably explained by different methodologies, but also by the development of automatic reporting.
Many seniors… and young people
In 2021, according to INSEE, 60% of French households claim to have declared their income online. The percentage of people declaring their taxes online has more than doubled in 10 years, rising from 24% in 2011 to 60% in 2021, a logical consequence of the implementation of compulsory tele-declaration. This statistic can be read differently: 40% of French households would have chosen paper… or would not have completed the online form.
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Among them are unambiguously the 75 year old Frenchman and over who are the most in difficulty with computers: only 25.7% of seniors say INSEE have declared their income online. In all the other age categories, more than half of households fulfill this obligation on the Internet. Conversely, among 30-somethings and young 40-somethings, 74% of households declared online.
More surprising: the other age group declaring little of its income on the internet is… that of 18-29 years old. This is probably due to the fact that many young adults are attached to their parents’ household and, in fact, do not declare their income themselves. But this is not the only explanation: Young people aged 18 to 29 are overrepresented among people who have encountered difficulties in their online administrative procedures (taxes but also school registration, change of contact details, etc.), underlines INSEE : they represent 20% of them, whereas they are only 16% of the population.
Among the obstacles encountered, for all the administrative procedures online and for all the households renouncing to carry them out online, are the breakdown of the Internet, procedures deemed too complex, or the fact of feeling unable to succeed in these procedures on Internet.
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