Which form(s) do we need to fill out?

If you’re a client of a foreign broker (e.g. Interactive Brokers), here’s the list of forms that apply to you, when you need to fill them out, and in which cases you’re exempt.

Form 3916 / 3916-bis (Declaration of accounts held abroad)

This form covers all accounts held abroad (= outside France).

So, this includes for example:

• Bank accounts (like N26 or Bunq)

• Investment securities accounts (like Degiro, Interactive Brokers, or Swissquote)

You need to fill out as many 3916 forms as you have accounts.

Important: all accounts must be declared, even those with no balance or inactive inactive.

If you forget this form, you risk a fine of €1,500 per year and per undeclared account (up to €10,000 in some cases).

When are we exempt? If your foreign institution has opened a branch in France and migrated your account there (e.g. Revolut in 2023 or Trade Republic in 2025).

Form 2047 (Income received abroad)

You need to fill out this form if you received income from abroad, such as dividends or interest.

It is mainly used to declare your dividends by indicating the amounts you received, as well as the withholding taxes taken by the company’s country of origin (to calculate a tax credit).

Form 2074 (Declaration of capital gains and losses)

You have to use this form if you sold shares, ETFs, or received option premiums, and your financial institution doesn’t calculate your capital gains and losses for you (this is the case with Swissquote for example).

You then have to detail your transactions precisely, one by one.

You’re exempt from this form if your broker has already calculated the capital gains and losses for you.

For example, brokers like Degiro or Interactive Brokers provide annual reports with the total amounts already calculated.

Most foreign brokers use the FIFO method to calculate capital gains or losses. Our article on the topic: PMP or FIFO: which calculation method should we use?

Form 2074-CMV (Offsetting and tracking capital losses)

This form is used to:

• offset your capital gains and capital losses for the year

• track your "stock" of capital losses from previous years, which you can carry forward and deduct from your future capital gains for up to 10 years back

Main form (2042 / 2042 C)

This is your main tax return, which the tax authorities use to calculate the final amount of your taxes.
Form 2042 C is an additional schedule attached to form 2042; on it you’ll find, for example, box 3VG for capital gains or 3VH for capital losses.

Once the supplementary forms (2047, 2074, 2074-CMV, etc.) are ready, you absolutely must carry over the final results to your main tax return (form 2042) and its supplementary version (form 2042 C).