Regularising Undeclared Assets: France Announces a New Voluntary Disclosure Window in 2027
Foreign bank accounts, real estate located abroad and undeclared crypto-assets
Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu has announced that a new tax regularisation window for "repentant" taxpayers will open in 2027. The measure is to be included in the 2027 Finance Bill, which will be presented to the Council of Ministers on 30 September 2026. Pending the text and the penalty scale, it is useful to recall the precedents (the "Woerth" unit and the STDR), the current legal framework for voluntary disclosure, the taxes concerned and the limitation periods, before examining two further situations that come on top of the regularisation of foreign accounts: real estate held abroad and undeclared crypto-assets.
Since the closure of the Service de traitement des déclarations rectificatives (STDR) on 31 December 2017, no special scheme has governed the regularisation of undeclared assets. Taxpayers concerned could still bring their affairs into compliance, but under ordinary law, without a penalty scale known in advance. The "regularisation unit" was closed.
The government announcement of September 2026 changes the outlook: a new era of tax regularisation of foreign assets should begin. It does not, however, change the law currently applicable: until the Finance Act is passed and the tax authorities have clarified how the new window will operate, only the current rules apply. This note reviews those rules and how to usefully prepare a tax regularisation file. The limitation rules and the tax method remain the same for regularisation; only the terms of the new unit will adjust the penalties in particular.
I. The announcement of a new tax regularisation unit in 2027
A. What Sébastien Lecornu announced
The Prime Minister announced that taxpayers holding undeclared assets, particularly abroad, will be able to regularise their situation voluntarily during 2027. This measure forms part of the 2027 Finance Bill, which is to be presented to the Council of Ministers on 30 September 2026 and provides for a budgetary effort of €54 billion. The fight against fraud is expected to contribute around €1 billion, through two levers: better targeting of audits using artificial intelligence, and the opening of a regularisation window.
At this stage, three points remain unknown:
the penalty scale applicable to files submitted, which alone will determine whether the scheme is worthwhile;
the scope: the 2013 precedent covered only assets held abroad; the current wording does not rule out a broader scope (crypto-assets, real estate abroad, foreign rental income);
the precise timetable and the competent department, since the terms must be debated and voted on by Parliament.
B. The precedents: the "Woerth" unit (2009) and the STDR (2013-2017)
The 2009 regularisation unit. Opened on 20 April 2009 by Budget Minister Éric Woerth, it allowed taxpayers, through their adviser, to present their file anonymously before deciding whether to lift anonymity. It officially closed on 31 December 2009, having processed around 4,700 files, covering €7 billion of assets and €1.2 billion in tax and penalties.
The STDR and the "Cazeneuve" circular of 21 June 2013. The Service de traitement des déclarations rectificatives, attached to the DNVSF and later relayed by regional regularisation units, removed anonymity but introduced a scale known in advance:
for so-called "passive" evaders (assets inherited or built up while resident abroad): surcharge reduced to 15% and the fine for failure to declare accounts capped at 1.5% of the value of the assets;
for so-called "active" evaders (assets built up while the taxpayer was resident in France): surcharge reduced to 30% and fine capped at 3% of the assets;
the evaded tax for non-time-barred years and late-payment interest remained due in full.
More than 50,000 files were submitted, covering over €32 billion of assets and yielding more than €8 billion in revenue. The scheme ended on 31 December 2017, the Government considering that the automatic exchange of bank information, in force since September 2017, made concealing foreign accounts increasingly difficult. Since 1 January 2018, amended returns have been processed under ordinary law, with no automatic reduction of penalties.
II. Voluntary disclosure under ordinary law, possible today
The absence of a dedicated window does not prevent regularisation. Any taxpayer may voluntarily file amended returns. It is still necessary to identify the taxes concerned, the non-time-barred period and the real cost of the exercise.
The 2027 version of the regularisation unit, like its predecessors, will very naturally take over the taxes concerned and the limitation periods, the ordinary rules on inheritance and the fines for failure to declare. Only the surcharges could be revised downwards.
A. The taxes concerned and the limitation periods
1. Income tax and social contributions
The ordinary reassessment period runs until the end of the third year following the year for which the tax is due (Article L169 of the French Tax Procedure Code, LPF). A regularisation filed in 2026 therefore covers, in principle, income for 2023, 2024 and 2025.
This period is extended to ten years where the reporting obligations relating to foreign bank accounts (Article 1649 A of the French Tax Code, CGI), life insurance and capitalisation contracts taken out abroad (Article 1649 AA), trusts (Article 1649 AB) and, since the 2025 Finance Act, digital-asset accounts opened abroad (Article 1649 bis C) have not been complied with. Three points must be made:
the extension applies only to income relating to the undeclared accounts or contracts;
for bank accounts, it does not apply if the taxpayer proves that the total credit balances did not exceed €50,000 at any time during the year;
the ten-year period also applies in the case of an undisclosed activity, for example undeclared furnished lettings.
For a regularisation filed in 2026 in respect of a foreign account exceeding this threshold, income for 2016 to 2025 may thus be reassessed.
2. The real estate wealth tax (IFI)
The reassessment period is three years where the tax liability was sufficiently disclosed by the return (Article L180 LPF). Otherwise, in particular where real estate or shares in real estate companies held abroad were omitted, it is extended to six years (Article L186 LPF). Only real estate assets fall within the IFI base: bank accounts and crypto-assets are not subject to it.
3. Inheritance and gift tax
A French tax resident is taxable in France on assets received by inheritance or gift, including where they are located abroad (Article 750 ter CGI), subject to tax treaties and the credit for foreign tax. Where an omission appears in an inheritance tax return, the authorities have six years (Article L186 LPF), which may exempt assets received on death more than six years ago. An undisclosed manual gift is not time-barred until it has been brought to the authorities' attention (Article 757 CGI).
Mention must also be made of the procedure under Article L23 C LPF: where the origin of undeclared assets is not justified, they are deemed to constitute assets acquired free of charge and subject to transfer duties at the highest rate, namely 60% (Article 755 CGI). Proof of the origin of funds is therefore a central element of any regularisation file.
It is notably on this point that the authorities might be able to grant tolerances under the new tax regularisation unit.
4. Fines for failure to declare
Independently of the evaded tax, the following fines are incurred, with a limitation period of five years (Article L188 LPF), per year and per account or contract:
undeclared foreign bank account (form 3916): €1,500, increased to €10,000 where the account is located in a non-cooperative State (Article 1736, IV CGI);
life insurance contract taken out abroad or QROPS: €1,500 or €10,000 depending on the State concerned (Article 1766 CGI);
undeclared trust: €20,000 (Article 1736, IV bis CGI);
digital-asset account abroad (form 3916-bis): €750, increased to €1,500 where the value of the account exceeded €50,000 during the year (Article 1736, X CGI).
B. Penalties incurred and levers for mitigation
Tax reassessments carry late-payment interest at 0.20% per month (Article 1727 CGI) and, where applicable, a surcharge:
40% for deliberate breach and 80% for fraudulent manoeuvres (Article 1729 CGI);
80% for reassessments relating to assets held in undeclared foreign accounts, contracts, trusts or digital-asset accounts (Article 1729-0 A CGI).
A voluntary approach opens up several levers, which must be carefully distinguished:
the statutory reduction of late-payment interest: it is reduced by 50% where an amended return is filed voluntarily, before any audit procedure (Article 1727 CGI, as amended by the ESSOC Act of 10 August 2018);
settlement (transaction): as long as the assessments are not final, the authorities may reduce surcharges and fines (Article L247 LPF). This is the framework within which the level of penalties is negotiated in practice;
discretionary remission: once the assessments are final, a full or partial remission of penalties may still be requested.
Contrary to a widespread belief, coming forward voluntarily does not automatically remove the 40% or 80% surcharges. Their reduction is a matter of negotiation. This is precisely what the future window could secure by setting a scale known in advance, as in 2013 with the STDR.
C. The criminal risk
Tax fraud is punishable by five years' imprisonment and a €500,000 fine, increased to seven years and €3,000,000 where the offence was committed by means of accounts opened or contracts taken out abroad or through the interposition of a foreign structure (Article 1741 CGI).
Since the Act of 23 October 2018 on combating fraud, which ended the so-called "verrou de Bercy", the authorities are required to refer to the public prosecutor files that have led, on tax exceeding €100,000, to the application of an 80% surcharge, notably that of Article 1729-0 A CGI (Article L228 LPF). The text nevertheless carves out the situation of a taxpayer who has voluntarily filed an amended return. The Cour de cassation has clarified that a rejected amended return does not prevent referral (Cass. crim., 23 May 2024, No 23-80.025). Hence the importance of a complete, sincere file submitted before any contact with the authorities.
D. The regularisation procedure in practice
A tax regularisation file is prepared in the following stages:
Step 1: Diagnosis: identification of the assets, holding structures, open years and taxes concerned (income tax, social contributions, IFI, transfer duties, reporting fines).
Step 2: Gathering supporting documents: annual bank statements for the non-time-barred period, purchase deeds, foreign tax returns, inheritance or gift deeds establishing the origin of funds.
Step 3: Quantification: year-by-year calculation of omitted income, tax due, treaty tax credits, late-payment interest and penalties, under several negotiation scenarios.
Step 4: Filing: amended returns (forms 2042, 2047, 3916, 3916-bis, 2086, IFI, amended inheritance tax return) accompanied by a cover letter setting out the history and origin of the assets, sent to the competent tax office.
Step 5: Negotiation and payment: discussion of penalties on the basis of Article L247 LPF, payment of the tax or request for a payment plan.
Should you wait until 2027? The answer depends on the risk of detection. A taxpayer who receives a request for information or a reassessment notice, or whose data is about to be transmitted under automatic exchange, loses the benefit of voluntariness. The prudent course is therefore to prepare the file now, so that it can be submitted without delay either under ordinary law or under the future window if its scale proves more favourable.
III. Two specific situations that could be included in the future regularisation window: foreign real estate and crypto-assets
A. Regularising real estate held abroad
Real estate located outside France has until now been the last blind spot of tax transparency, for lack of automatic exchange of information. That "secrecy" is set to disappear. In December 2025, 25 States and one territory, including France, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Germany and the United Kingdom, announced their support for a multilateral competent authority agreement on the exchange of information relating to real estate (AMAC RBI). Its entry into force is envisaged around 2029-2030. The following would be exchanged each year: the address and value of the property, the identity of the owners and beneficial owners, rental income, sales and gifts.
For a French tax resident, the regularisation points are as follows:
rental income: reported on form 2047 and carried over to form 2042. Depending on the applicable tax treaty, the income is taxed in France with a tax credit or taken into account for the effective-rate calculation, which often reduces the real cost of income tax regularisation. Reassessment period of three years in principle, ten years for an undisclosed activity (undeclared seasonal furnished lettings), and possible extension where international administrative assistance is used (Article L188 A LPF);
associated bank account: rent collected in an undeclared foreign account moves the file into the foreign-accounts regime (ten-year period, 80% surcharge, fines under Article 1736);
capital gain on sale: in principle taxable in the State where the property is located, but some treaties also give France a right to tax, with a credit for the foreign tax (this is notably the case with Switzerland);
IFI: reinstatement of the value of the property or of the shares in the foreign company holding it, over six years where no return was filed;
inheritance and gifts: the transfer of an undeclared foreign property is, in our view, the heaviest risk. An amended inheritance tax return must be filed if the death occurred less than six years ago, and a gift made abroad remains taxable until it has been disclosed.
Holding through a foreign company offers no protection: the envisaged exchange targets the beneficial owner. The benefit of voluntary regularisation is also very concrete: regaining free disposal of the property, in order to sell or pass it on without fear of a tax audit.
B. Regularising crypto-assets ahead of DAC 8
The European DAC 8 directive, transposed into French law, has required crypto-asset service providers since 1 January 2026 to collect their users' tax identity, balances and transaction history. Platforms will report this data to the tax authorities in 2027, for a first automatic exchange between Member States by 30 September 2027 at the latest, covering 2026 transactions. The OECD's CARF framework extends this mechanism to platforms established outside the European Union.
DAC 8 is not retroactive. But knowledge of a portfolio as at 1 January 2026 will naturally lead the authorities to enquire into how it was built up and into earlier non-time-barred years.
The points to regularise are as follows:
capital gains on disposals (Article 150 VH bis CGI): form 2086 and carry-over to form 2042-C. Gains are subject to the 30% flat tax up to 2025 income, rising to 31.4% in 2026 due to the CSG increase, with an option for the progressive scale. Reconstructing the total acquisition cost of the portfolio is often the most technical part of the file;
accounts opened on foreign platforms (Article 1649 bis C CGI): form 3916-bis for each account and each year, on pain of the €750 or €1,500 fine per account;
staking, mining or airdrop income: its characterisation (non-commercial profits or capital gain) must be examined case by case;
consequences of the 2025 Finance Act: failure to declare foreign digital-asset accounts now triggers the ten-year reassessment period, the 80% surcharge under Article 1729-0 A and the origin-of-assets justification procedure under Article L23 C LPF;
transfers: crypto-assets fall outside the IFI base, but they must appear in inheritance and gift tax returns.
The timetable here is tighter than for real estate "hidden abroad": the first reporting of information takes place in 2027, the very year the new window is due to open. A regularisation prepared from 2026 preserves the benefit of voluntariness.
Conclusion
The announcement of a new tax regularisation unit in 2027 confirms the authorities' strategy: strengthen detection through automatic exchange of information and artificial intelligence, while offering a way out to those who come forward themselves. Bank accounts, life insurance contracts, real estate located abroad and crypto-assets are now all concerned, on different timelines.
Pending the vote on the Finance Act and publication of the scale, taxpayers concerned would be well advised to have a precise diagnosis of their situation drawn up: non-time-barred period, taxes due, proof of the origin of funds and comparative cost of immediate regularisation versus regularisation in 2027. This preparatory work is indispensable, whichever route is ultimately chosen.
Frequently asked questions on tax regularisation
Should I wait for the 2027 window to open before regularising?
Not necessarily. Access to the future scheme will require a voluntary approach: a request for information, a reassessment notice or the transmission of data through automatic exchange removes that voluntariness. The prudent course is to prepare the file now, so that it can be submitted either under ordinary law or under the 2027 window if its scale proves more favourable.
How many years back can the tax authorities go?
Three years in principle for income tax (Article L169 LPF), but ten years where bank accounts, life insurance contracts, trusts or digital-asset accounts held abroad have not been declared. The period is six years for omitted IFI and for inheritance tax (Article L186 LPF), and an undisclosed manual gift is never time-barred until it has been brought to the authorities' attention.
How much does regularising undeclared assets cost?
Beyond the evaded tax, you must add late-payment interest at 0.20% per month, reduced by 50% for a voluntary amended return, a surcharge of up to 80% for undeclared foreign assets (Article 1729-0 A CGI), and fines per account and per year: €1,500 per bank account, €20,000 per trust, €750 or €1,500 per crypto-asset account.
Does voluntary regularisation protect against criminal prosecution?
It greatly reduces the risk. Since the Act of 23 October 2018, the authorities must refer to the prosecutor files exceeding €100,000 in tax with an 80% surcharge, but the text carves out the situation of a taxpayer who has voluntarily filed an amended return. The file must, however, be complete, sincere and submitted before any contact with the authorities.
Are undeclared crypto-assets concerned?
Yes. Since 1 January 2026, the DAC 8 directive requires platforms to collect their users' tax identity, balances and transactions, with a first automatic exchange between Member States by 30 September 2027 at the latest. Capital gains (form 2086) and accounts opened abroad (form 3916-bis) must be regularised.
Must real estate held abroad be regularised?
Yes, on several fronts: rental income (form 2047), the IFI, and inheritance or gift tax. The AMAC RBI agreement, announced in December 2025 by 25 States and one territory, provides for automatic exchange of real estate data around 2029-2030, covering in particular the beneficial owner, which neutralises the protection of an interposed company.
Eve d'Onorio di Méo
Partner, Certified Specialist in Tax Law
Marseille and Geneva Bars (EU/EFTA Lawyer)
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