Litigation practice — Wealth regularisation

Regularising foreign accounts

Q: Why regularise a foreign account now?

Because the automatic exchange of information (CRS, completed for crypto-assets by DAC8 and CARF on data collected from 2026) transmits every year to the French tax authorities the accounts, policies and wallets held abroad by residents. Once an audit has started, the filing is no longer voluntary: the rectified tax bears the 80% surcharge (CGI, art. 1729-0 A) and, above €100,000 of tax so increased, the tax authorities must report the facts to the prosecutor (LPF, art. L. 228). The mandatory referral does not apply to taxpayers who have spontaneously filed an amended return (LPF, art. L. 228, I).

Q: What penalties apply for failing to declare a foreign account?

In addition to the tax evaded and late-payment interest (0.20% per month): (i) a fine of €1,500 per undeclared account and per year, raised to €10,000 for a State without an administrative-assistance convention (CGI, art. 1736, IV, 2); (ii) where the tax authorities rectify tax in respect of the sums held in that account, an 80% surcharge (CGI, art. 1729-0 A), which cannot be lower than the fine and replaces it; (iii) the criminal risk of tax fraud (CGI, art. 1741: up to seven years' imprisonment and a €3m fine in aggravated cases, including the use of foreign accounts).

Q: Who must declare a trust?

The trustee, where the settlor or a beneficiary is domiciled in France, the trust holds an asset located in France or the trustee is itself domiciled there (CGI, art. 1649 AB). The trustee declares the creation, amendment or termination of the trust, the beneficial owners and the market value of the assets at 1 January. A failure to declare is punishable by a fine of €20,000 (art. 1736, IV bis), which the settlor and the beneficiaries within the scope of the levy of article 990 J are jointly liable to pay, and opens the ten-year limitation.

Q: How does a regularisation work today?

The STDR (service for processing amended returns) closed on 31 December 2017. Regularisation now falls under ordinary law: (i) review and reconstruction of the assets and their origin; (ii) calculation of the tax, late-payment interest and fines; (iii) filing of the missing forms 3916 and of the amended returns (income tax, IFI or ISF, inheritance duties) with the competent office; (iv) payment of the tax. There is neither a negotiated scale nor a reduction as of right; the halving of late-payment interest (CGI, art. 1727, V) requires in particular a spontaneous amended return filed before the reassessment period expires, with payment of the basic tax, and is excluded for an offence that excludes good faith. In its doctrine, the administration further limits the reduction to taxpayers who filed their original return and paid the tax on time (BOI-DAE-20-10, § 10).

Q: Should an inherited foreign account be regularised?

Yes. An heir who discovers an account not declared by the deceased must in practice: (i) file an amended inheritance return including the assets; (ii) declare the account (form 3916) for the years after the death if the heir holds or uses it; (iii) regularise the deceased's income for the years not time-barred, tax debts that weigh on the estate. The period for reassessing inheritance duties on these assets is ten years (LPF, art. L. 181-0 A).

Q: Must crypto-assets held on a foreign platform be declared?

Yes. Crypto-asset wallets opened, held, used or closed with entities established abroad, and since 1 July 2026 unique and non-fungible crypto-assets held abroad, are declared on form 3916-bis (CGI, art. 1649 bis C); the fine is €750 per undeclared wallet or asset, raised to €1,500 where the value exceeds €50,000, and €125 per omission or inaccuracy, raised to €250 above that value, capped at €10,000 per return (art. 1736, X). Capital gains on disposal fall under article 150 VH bis. See our DAC8 and CARF analysis.

A tax law firm in Paris and Geneva, BENSAID Avocats advises individuals, executives, expatriates and heirs on the voluntary regularisation of their assets held abroad: undeclared bank accounts, foreign life-insurance policies, trusts, intermediate companies and crypto-assets. Review of the limitation period, calculation of tax and penalties, filing of the amended returns and defence in an audit, in the era of automatic exchange of information (CRS, DAC8, CARF).

Contact a tax lawyer See the worked cases

Paris · Geneva · Marseille · Cannes · Lisbon

How do you regularise an undeclared foreign account?

There is no dedicated unit any more: the service for processing amended returns (STDR) closed on 31 December 2017. Regularisation is now carried out under ordinary law, voluntarily and before any audit: filing of the missing forms 3916, amended income tax returns (and, where relevant, IFI or inheritance tax returns) for all years not time-barred, and payment of the tax and late-payment interest. The tax authorities may look back ten years (Book of Tax Procedures, art. L. 169, para. 5), unless you prove that the total of your foreign balances never exceeded €50,000 during the year.

A voluntary filing has three practical effects. The 80% surcharge of article 1729-0 A applies to tax assessed on rectification: tax declared voluntarily and accepted without rectification should not bear it, although voluntariness is not a statutory immunity. The fine of €1,500 per account and per year remains due. The mandatory referral to the prosecutor under article L. 228 of the Book of Tax Procedures, which requires duties above €100,000 to which in particular the 80% surcharge has been applied, does not apply, according to the text of that article, to taxpayers who have spontaneously filed an amended return. No reduction is due as of right: each case is calculated on its own figures.

Sources: French Tax Code (CGI), art. 1649 A, 1727, 1729-0 A, 1736; Book of Tax Procedures (LPF), art. L. 169, L. 181-0 A, L. 228 (Légifrance, read on 6 October 2026); BOI-CF-INF-20-10-50.

— In brief

Limitation: 10 years (LPF art. L. 169, para. 5; L. 181-0 A), unless total balances never exceeded €50,000
Fine: €1,500 per account and per year; €10,000 if the State gives no administrative assistance (CGI art. 1736, IV, 2)
Surcharge: 80% of the rectified tax, at least the amount of the fine, which it replaces (CGI art. 1729-0 A)
Presumption: Transfers through an undeclared account presumed taxable income (CGI art. 1649 A, para. 3)
Trusts: €20,000 fine (CGI art. 1736, IV bis); filing by the trustee (art. 1649 AB)

— 01

Regularising today: the ordinary-law route

The STDR, opened in 2013, stopped receiving files on 31 December 2017. Since then no negotiated scale exists: regularisation means putting yourself in compliance, with the competent tax office, before the tax authorities start a procedure. The firm proceeds in this order:

Review and limitation: list of accounts, contracts and structures; day-by-day balances to test the €50,000 threshold; years still open for income tax (LPF, art. L. 169) and for registration duties and IFI (LPF, art. L. 181-0 A).
Origin of the funds: inheritance, gift, savings already taxed, sale. This is the key document: if the tax authorities use the procedure of article L. 23 C of the LPF and the origin is not justified, article 755 of the CGI deems the assets acquired free of charge and subjects them to gift and inheritance duties at 60%, calculated on their highest value over the last ten years, less the amounts justified.
Calculation: tax evaded (income tax, social levies, IFI or ISF for years before 2018, inheritance duties), late-payment interest at 0.20% per month (CGI, art. 1727), fine of €1,500 per account and per year not declared (CGI, art. 1736, IV, 2).
Filing: missing forms 3916, amended income tax returns, amended IFI or inheritance returns, with a note setting out the facts and the documents.
Payment of the basic tax, on filing or, for taxes assessed by roll, at the latest by the date shown on the notice (or under an accepted payment plan): this is one of the conditions for the halving of late-payment interest provided by article 1727, V of the CGI, which also requires that the amended return be filed spontaneously before the reassessment period expires; it is excluded where the regularisation concerns an offence that excludes good faith. In its doctrine, the administration further limits the reduction to taxpayers who filed their original return and paid the tax on time (BOI-DAE-20-10, § 10). This point is argued case by case.

Once an audit has started, the filing is no longer voluntary. What remains is the regularisation procedure during an audit (LPF, art. L. 62: late-payment interest reduced to 70% of its amount, on request made within 30 days and under the other conditions of that article, excluding an offence that excludes good faith) and the discussion of penalties. For the text of the reporting obligation and the fine, see our analysis of article 1649 A of the Tax Code and form 3916.

— 02

What the tax authorities can recover

Rule	Content	Text
Ten-year limitation	Reassessment until the end of the tenth year following the year of taxation, for the income relating to the undeclared accounts only. Exception: proof, which the taxpayer must provide, that the total of the credit balances of the foreign accounts did not exceed €50,000 at any time during the year.	LPF, art. L. 169, para. 5
Registration duties and IFI	Reassessment until the end of the tenth year following the taxable event for taxes and duties based on assets referred to in articles 1649 A, 1649 AA, 1649 AB and 1649 bis C of the CGI, and in the cases of the third paragraph of article L. 169 (false tax domicile abroad), unless their chargeability was sufficiently disclosed by the deed, the document produced or the IFI return.	LPF, art. L. 181-0 A
Presumption of income	Sums transferred to or from abroad through an undeclared account are, unless proved otherwise, taxable income; tax increased by 40%.	CGI, art. 1649 A, para. 3; art. 1758
Assets of unjustified origin (accounts, policies, crypto-asset wallets)	Request for justification within 60 days, then a 30-day formal notice; failing proof, gift and inheritance duties at 60% on the highest value over the last ten years, less the amounts justified; no 80% surcharge on these duties.	LPF, art. L. 23 C; CGI, art. 755
Specific surcharge	80% of the tax rectified in respect of sums held in an undeclared account, contract or trust, or of crypto-assets that should have been declared under article 1649 bis C (since 1 July 2026); never lower than the fine, which it replaces; excludes the surcharges of articles 1728, 1729 and 1758.	CGI, art. 1729-0 A
Fine per account	€1,500 per undeclared account and per year not time-barred; €10,000 if the State has not concluded with France an administrative-assistance convention giving access to banking information.	CGI, art. 1736, IV, 2
Criminal aspect	Mandatory referral to the prosecutor if duties above €100,000 are subject in particular to the 80% surcharge; does not apply to taxpayers who have spontaneously filed an amended return.	LPF, art. L. 228, I

— 03

Accounts in Switzerland: the end of tax banking secrecy

The agreement between Switzerland and the European Union on the automatic exchange of financial account information has applied since 1 January 2017: Swiss banks have collected the data of account holders resident in the Union since that date, and the first exchanges took place in autumn 2018. The French tax authorities receive every year the holder's identity, the balance and the income of the account.

For earlier years or closed accounts, a request for information remains open under the France-Switzerland income tax treaty of 9 September 1966, which remains in force: see the Switzerland entry of our tax treaty atlas and our page on the France-Switzerland tax treaty. On the Swiss side, what remains of banking secrecy is analysed by our Geneva office: Swiss banking secrecy and automatic exchange (in French).

An inherited Swiss account calls for particular care: the France-Switzerland estate tax treaty, terminated by France in 2014, no longer applies to estates opened since 1 January 2015.

— 04

Trusts: an obligation on the trustee, risks for the family

Article 1649 AB of the CGI requires the trustee of a trust whose settlor or a beneficiary is domiciled in France, or which holds an asset located in France, to declare the creation, amendment or termination of the trust, its beneficial owners and the market value of its assets at 1 January. A breach is punishable by a fine of €20,000 (CGI, art. 1736, IV bis), which the settlor and the beneficiaries within the scope of the levy of article 990 J are jointly liable to pay with the trustee (BOI-CF-INF-20-10-50, § 80).

To this are added the ten-year limitation (LPF, art. L. 169 and L. 181-0 A), the 80% surcharge on rectified tax (CGI, art. 1729-0 A, c), which cannot be lower than €20,000, and the levy of article 990 J of the CGI, at the highest IFI rate, on the real-estate assets placed in the trust, under the conditions and exceptions of that article (IFI base, rates of article 977), the settlor and certain beneficiaries being jointly liable if the trustee does not pay. Regularisation goes through the trustee, but also, depending on the case, through amended personal returns of the settlor or the beneficiaries (income, IFI, inheritance). See also our study of the tax pitfalls of offshore trusts (in French).

— Guide

Which page for which question

The firm devotes several analyses to accounts held outside France. This page deals with regularisation and audit. For the other questions:

What article 1649 A says, what an account "used" is, how much the fine is: article 1649 A of the Tax Code: form 3916 and fine.
How to fill in forms 3916 and 3916-bis each year, for an account, a life-insurance policy or a crypto-asset portfolio: reporting foreign bank accounts.
How the tax authorities learn that an account exists (automatic exchange, CRS, DAC): foreign bank accounts: obligations and automatic exchange.

— 05

Regularise in time, and in the right order

The regularisation of assets held abroad has to be prepared: reconstruction of the history, application of the ten-year limitation (LPF, art. L. 169, para. 5) and of its €50,000 exception, assessment of the tax evaded (income tax, social levies, inheritance duties, IFI), calculation of late-payment interest and of the fine per account (CGI, art. 1736, IV, 2), to be compared with the 80% surcharge (art. 1729-0 A) that the tax authorities would apply after an audit.

With the automatic exchange of information (CRS, then DAC8 and CARF for crypto-assets), bank accounts, life-insurance policies and accounts opened with foreign platforms are reported to the French tax authorities. A voluntary filing is the means of avoiding, in practice, the 80% surcharge and the mandatory referral to the prosecutor, without any statutory immunity; it does not guarantee the absence of prosecution, which remains a decision of the tax authorities and the prosecutor.

We conduct the preliminary analysis (review, limitation, characterisation), the presentation of the file to the tax authorities and, in an audit, the defence through to litigation, in coordination with foreign banks and counsel in the jurisdictions concerned (Switzerland, Luxembourg, Belgium, Israel, United States, Singapore).

— 07

Three worked cases

Textbook hypotheses, for illustration: overall rate of 30% (flat tax of 12.8% and social levies of 17.2% applicable to 2018 to 2024 income), audit opened in 2026, late-payment interest not calculated (0.20% per month).

Swiss account of €600,000: audit suffered or voluntary filing

French resident, account in Switzerland opened in 2017 with the proceeds, already taxed, of a sale; undeclared income of €20,000 a year from 2018 to 2024, account closed at the end of 2024. Balances above €50,000: all seven years are open. Tax: €6,000 a year, or €42,000. After an audit: 80% surcharge, or €33,600, which replaces the fine; total of €75,600 excluding interest. If the tax authorities use the procedure of article L. 23 C and the origin of the funds is not proved, article 755 may in addition lead to 60% gift and inheritance duties on the maximum value of the unjustified assets. Voluntary filing: €42,000 of tax and at most €10,500 of fines (€1,500 × 7), or €52,500 excluding interest. Without further rectification by the tax authorities, the 80% surcharge should not in principle apply, and the mandatory referral to the prosecutor is excluded; other penalties remain possible if initial returns were missing.

Swiss account kept under €50,000: the exception of article L. 169

Same situation, but the total of the foreign balances never exceeded €40,000; undeclared income of €600 a year, or €180 of tax. If the taxpayer proves the threshold by statements, the extension to ten years does not apply: in 2026 only 2023 and 2024 remain open. After an audit, each year bears €180 of tax and a surcharge raised to the floor of €1,500 (€3,000 of surcharges over the two years), or €3,360 in total excluding interest, instead of €11,760 over seven years.

Undeclared trust: the €20,000 fine

Resident beneficiary of a discretionary trust under foreign law whose trustee has filed no declaration since 2020. Each omitted declaration exposes to a fine of €20,000 (CGI, art. 1736, IV bis), for which the beneficiary within the scope of the levy of article 990 J is jointly liable; the rectified tax is increased by 80% with a floor of €20,000, and IFI or gift and inheritance duties remain open to rectification for ten years (LPF, art. L. 181-0 A). Regularisation goes through the trustee, who files, and through the beneficiary's amended personal returns (IFI, income).

— 06

Areas of practice

Bank accounts & safe-deposit boxes

Regularisation of accounts opened with foreign institutions: current accounts, securities accounts, discretionary mandates.

Reconstruction of the asset history and of the flows over the limitation period.
Tax characterisation of income: interest, dividends, capital gains, discretionary-mandate income.
Calculation of the tax evaded (income tax, social levies), late-payment interest and the fine of article 1736, IV of the CGI.
Filing of the missing forms 3916: see our analysis of article 1649 A of the Tax Code.
Coordination with the foreign bank to obtain statements and certificates.

Foreign life insurance

Regularisation of undeclared Luxembourg, British or Swiss life-insurance policies.

Late reporting of policies (CGI, art. 1649 AA); fine of €1,500 per policy, €10,000 for a non-cooperative State (art. 1766).
Characterisation of the products: partial or total surrenders.
Interaction with the CAA 26-1 circular (2026) on Luxembourg policies.
Inheritance consequences and amended IFI returns.
Compliance for the future.

Trusts & interposition structures

Regularisation of trusts (CGI, art. 792-0 bis) and of interposition structures (Panamanian and BVI companies, foundations).

Filings by the trustee (CGI, art. 1649 AB): declaration of the events of the trust and annual declaration of the value of the assets.
Omitted filings: fine of €20,000 (CGI, art. 1736, IV bis) and levy of article 990 J on real-estate assets.
Characterisation of distributions: income, capital, transfers free of charge.
Interaction with the 3% tax: see our 3% tax page.
Restructuring: termination of the trust, return to full ownership.

International estates & inheritances

Regularisation of foreign assets discovered during the settlement of an estate or a wealth audit.

Reconstruction of the inheritance duties evaded and of the interest.
Interaction with tax treaties on estates (the France-Switzerland treaty, terminated by France in 2014, has not applied since 2015).
Coordination with the notary in charge of the estate.
Reconstruction of the accounts for the civil-law settlement.
See our page on estate planning.

Crypto-assets & foreign platforms

Regularisation of assets held on platforms established abroad.

Obligation to report wallets opened abroad (CGI, art. 1649 bis C, form 3916-bis).
Reconstruction of the capital gains on disposal (CGI, art. 150 VH bis) over the period not time-barred.
Consequences of DAC8 and CARF: see our DAC8 and CARF 2026 analysis.
Interaction with the taxation of professional activities (mining, staking).
Obtaining the transaction history from the platforms.

Criminal dimension & tax fraud

Assessment of the criminal risk of the regularisation and coordination with a criminal lawyer if the matter is referred to the prosecutor.

Assessment of the risk of tax fraud (CGI, art. 1741) and of laundering of tax fraud.
Interaction with the mandatory referral and with the complaint filed after the opinion of the tax offences commission (LPF, art. L. 228).
Coordination with the National Financial Prosecutor's Office (PNF) on high-stakes matters.
Negotiated outcomes: CRPC and judicial public-interest agreement.
See our page on criminal tax law.

— 09

Lead counsel: Jonathan Bensaid

Founding partner, member of the Paris and Geneva Bars, Jonathan Bensaid coordinates high-stakes wealth regularisation matters, working with Swiss, Luxembourg and Israeli private banks and with foreign counsel. He also acts on the criminal aspects of regularisation in coordination with a partner criminal lawyer, and jointly with François Ouairy on the international and treaty taxation dimensions. The firm is ranked Best Lawyers 2026.

— 08

Recent publications

A selection of the firm's articles on reporting obligations, applicable penalties and the evolution of automatic exchange of information.

Foreign accounts · Detection

Foreign bank accounts: obligations and automatic exchange

Forms 3916 and 3916-bis, CRS and DAC automatic exchange: how the tax authorities learn that an account exists.

March 2026 Lire l'article DAC8 · CARF

DAC8 and CARF: automatic exchange 2026

New wave of automatic exchange of information applicable to crypto-assets: scope, timetable, practical consequences.

March 2026 Lire l'article Foreign accounts · 1649 A

Article 1649 A of the Tax Code: form 3916 and fine

The text, the notion of an account used, the fine per account and per year, the €50,000 threshold.

January 2026 Lire l'article Life insurance · Luxembourg

Circular CAA 26-1: Luxembourg life insurance (2026)

An annotated reading of the doctrine on Luxembourg policies and consequences for regularisations.

March 2026 Lire l'article Trusts · Proof

Foreign trust: the burden of proof before the Conseil d'État

Decision of 13 March 2026 and consequences for resident beneficiaries (in French).

March 2026 Lire l'article Exit tax

Exit tax in France: transfer of tax domicile and unrealised gains

Interaction between wealth regularisation and a change of tax residence.

April 2026 Lire l'article

On foreign accounts, the first calculation concerns the €50,000 threshold of article L. 169 of the Book of Tax Procedures: where the taxpayer proves that balances never exceeded it, the reassessment period returns to three years and the stakes change in scale.

— Jonathan Bensaid, founding partner, Paris and Geneva Bars

— 10

Frequently asked questions

Why regularise a foreign account now?

Because the automatic exchange of information (CRS, completed for crypto-assets by DAC8 and CARF on data collected from 2026) transmits every year to the French tax authorities the accounts, policies and wallets held abroad by residents. Once an audit has started, the filing is no longer voluntary: the rectified tax bears the 80% surcharge (CGI, art. 1729-0 A) and, above €100,000 of tax so increased, the tax authorities must report the facts to the prosecutor (LPF, art. L. 228). The mandatory referral does not apply to taxpayers who have spontaneously filed an amended return (LPF, art. L. 228, I).

What is the limitation period for an undeclared foreign account?

For income tax, the tax authorities may reassess until the end of the tenth year following the year for which the tax is due, for the income relating to undeclared accounts, contracts or trusts only (LPF, art. L. 169, para. 5). Exception: the period stays at three years if you prove that the total credit balances of your foreign accounts did not exceed €50,000 at any time during the year. For inheritance duties and IFI based on these assets, the period is also ten years (LPF, art. L. 181-0 A).

Can a request for assistance sent to a foreign tax authority extend the reassessment period?

Yes, and since the Act of 25 June 2026 until the end of the second year following the reply. Where the tax authorities, within the initial reassessment period, have asked the competent authority of another State or territory for information (Switzerland or Portugal, for instance), they may rectify the omissions or insufficiencies relating to that request until the end of the second year following the year in which the reply was received and, at the latest, until 31 December of the third year following the year in which the initial period expired (LPF, art. L. 188 A). Before Act no. 2026-534 of 25 June 2026 (art. 101), the period after the reply was one year; the ceiling of the third year is unchanged. The new rule applies to reassessment periods expiring on or after the publication of the Act, on 26 June 2026. The extension requires that you were told of the request within sixty days of its dispatch, and of the reply within sixty days of its receipt, and it covers only the omissions relating to the request. The tax authorities are not bound to use it (BOI-CF-PGR-10-60, para. 360, whose text of 16 January 2019 still describes the former one-year period). Example: for 2016 income of an undeclared foreign account, whose ten-year period (LPF, art. L. 169) expires on 31 December 2026, a request sent in 2026 and answered the same year allows reassessment until 31 December 2028 (31 December 2027 before the reform); a reply in 2027, or no reply, leads to 31 December 2029. Articles L. 188 B (complaint for tax fraud followed by a judicial investigation) and L. 188 C (omission revealed by judicial or court proceedings, or by a claim) were amended the same way: two years after the decision ending the proceedings, instead of one, under the same ten-year ceiling.

What penalties apply for failing to declare a foreign account?

In addition to the tax evaded and late-payment interest (0.20% per month): (i) a fine of €1,500 per undeclared account and per year, raised to €10,000 for a State without an administrative-assistance convention (CGI, art. 1736, IV, 2); (ii) where the tax authorities rectify tax in respect of the sums held in that account, an 80% surcharge (CGI, art. 1729-0 A), which cannot be lower than the fine and replaces it; (iii) the criminal risk of tax fraud (CGI, art. 1741: up to seven years' imprisonment and a €3m fine in aggravated cases, including the use of foreign accounts).

Who must declare a trust?

The trustee, where the settlor or a beneficiary is domiciled in France, the trust holds an asset located in France or the trustee is itself domiciled there (CGI, art. 1649 AB). The trustee declares the creation, amendment or termination of the trust, the beneficial owners and the market value of the assets at 1 January. A failure to declare is punishable by a fine of €20,000 (art. 1736, IV bis), which the settlor and the beneficiaries within the scope of the levy of article 990 J are jointly liable to pay, and opens the ten-year limitation.

How does a regularisation work today?

The STDR (service for processing amended returns) closed on 31 December 2017. Regularisation now falls under ordinary law: (i) review and reconstruction of the assets and their origin; (ii) calculation of the tax, late-payment interest and fines; (iii) filing of the missing forms 3916 and of the amended returns (income tax, IFI or ISF, inheritance duties) with the competent office; (iv) payment of the tax. There is neither a negotiated scale nor a reduction as of right; the halving of late-payment interest (CGI, art. 1727, V) requires in particular a spontaneous amended return filed before the reassessment period expires, with payment of the basic tax, and is excluded for an offence that excludes good faith. In its doctrine, the administration further limits the reduction to taxpayers who filed their original return and paid the tax on time (BOI-DAE-20-10, § 10).

Does regularisation expose to criminal prosecution?

Not automatically. The mandatory referral to the prosecutor under article L. 228, I of the LPF requires duties above €100,000 to which in particular the 80% surcharge has been applied, and does not apply to taxpayers who have spontaneously filed an amended return (same article). That is not a general immunity: the risk of prosecution on complaint remains. Outside the mandatory referral, prosecution remains possible on a complaint by the tax authorities after the binding opinion of the tax offences commission, and without that opinion where there are characterised presumptions involving foreign accounts with a risk of evidence being lost (LPF, art. L. 228, II). The risk is assessed before filing.

Should an inherited foreign account be regularised?

Yes. An heir who discovers an account not declared by the deceased must in practice: (i) file an amended inheritance return including the assets; (ii) declare the account (form 3916) for the years after the death if the heir holds or uses it; (iii) regularise the deceased's income for the years not time-barred, tax debts that weigh on the estate. The period for reassessing inheritance duties on these assets is ten years (LPF, art. L. 181-0 A).

Must crypto-assets held on a foreign platform be declared?

Yes. Crypto-asset wallets opened, held, used or closed with entities established abroad, and since 1 July 2026 unique and non-fungible crypto-assets held abroad, are declared on form 3916-bis (CGI, art. 1649 bis C); the fine is €750 per undeclared wallet or asset, raised to €1,500 where the value exceeds €50,000, and €125 per omission or inaccuracy, raised to €250 above that value, capped at €10,000 per return (art. 1736, X). Capital gains on disposal fall under article 150 VH bis. See our DAC8 and CARF analysis.

Cité par

A regularisation to structure or an audit to anticipate?

A confidential initial consultation, with no obligation. We reply within 48 business hours.

Request a consultation Meet the lead counsel

Updated: 12 October 2026

Sources

CGI, art. 1649 A, 1649 AA, 1649 AB, 1649 bis C, 755, 990 J, 1727, 1729-0 A, 1736 (IV, IV bis, X), 1758, 1766 (Légifrance, version in force at 6 October 2026).
LPF, art. L. 23 C, L. 62, L. 169, L. 181-0 A, L. 228.
BOFiP: BOI-CF-INF-20-10-50 (penalties for foreign accounts, contracts and trusts); BOI-CF-CPF-30-20 (declaration of foreign accounts).
Agreement between the European Union and the Swiss Confederation on the automatic exchange of financial account information (amending protocol of 27 May 2015, applicable since 1 January 2017).

Cette note présente l'état du droit à sa date de publication et ne constitue pas un avis juridique. Chaque situation appelle un examen particulier.