Do I need to declare foreign bank accounts to the French tax authority?

Yes. French tax residents must declare all foreign bank and financial accounts opened, used, or closed during the tax year, even if the account held no taxable income during that year. The obligation is set out in Article 1649 A of the Code Général des Impôts.

Foreign accounts are declared using Formulaire 3916 (or 3916-bis for foreign life insurance contracts), submitted with your annual income return. You must provide the account number, the name of the foreign bank, the country, and the date opened or closed. Any interest, dividends, or other income from those accounts must also be declared on your main tax return.

Failure to declare carries a penalty of €1,500 per undeclared account per year (raised to €10,000 per account per year if the account is held in a non-cooperative jurisdiction, as defined by France). These penalties apply per account, not per taxpayer, and can accumulate quickly.

The DGFiP receives information about foreign accounts held by French residents through automatic exchange of information agreements (CRS/DAC2) with over 100 countries. Non-declaration is therefore increasingly easy to detect.