myPOS and the French Tax Office: The Automatic Exchange of Foreign Accounts

"myPOS" is not a system of the tax authorities: it is the name of a payment institution. The mechanism that informs the French tax authorities of your foreign accounts is the automatic exchange of information, described below.

What is myPOS, and where is it established?

myPOS is a payment solution for merchants and self-employed people: card terminal, electronic money account and linked card. The group, founded in Bulgaria, has the accounts of its European Union customers held by myPOS Limited, an electronic money institution authorised by the Central Bank of Ireland since 2022 (IBAN starting with IE). Depending on when it was opened, an account may have been held by another entity of the group: the IBAN and the terms and conditions show which one.

Must a myPOS account be declared to the French tax authorities?

In principle, yes. For a French tax resident, a myPOS account is, as a general rule, an account opened abroad: it is in principle declared every year on form 3916, attached to the income tax return, with box 8UU ticked, even if it is used only for business. Failing to do so exposes you in principle to a €1,500 fine per account and per year. Like any financial institution in the European Union, myPOS generally passes information on the account to the French tax authorities through the automatic exchange described below. See which foreign accounts must be declared.

myPOS and URSSAF: what to declare?

The sums collected with myPOS are in principle business receipts. A micro-entrepreneur, as a general rule, includes them in the turnover declared to URSSAF each month or each quarter; a company records them in its accounts. The fact that the funds arrive in an account abroad in principle changes nothing. Declared turnover lower than the sums collected is generally one of the first anomalies spotted in an audit, whether by URSSAF or by the tax authorities.

myPOS and money laundering: can an account be blocked?

Like any electronic money institution, myPOS is subject to anti-money laundering rules: it checks its customers’ identity, may ask about the origin of funds or the nature of the business, suspend transactions or close an account, and must report suspicious transactions to the financial intelligence unit of its country, which cooperates with its French counterpart, Tracfin. Consistency between receipts and the declared activity, and keeping supporting documents, generally make it easier to respond to such requests.

How are the French tax authorities informed of your account?

Most financial institutions (traditional banks, online banks, life insurance companies, trading platforms, savings institutions, private pension providers, etc.) in developed countries classify their clients according to their tax residence, in order to automatically transmit their clients' banking information to the country concerned: this is the automatic exchange of information under the Common Reporting Standard (CRS; in French, norme commune de déclaration, NCD).

Example: you are a French tax resident and you decide to open a bank account abroad, for instance in Hong Kong. When your account is opened, the Hong Kong bank will classify you in its internal records as a French tax resident. Consequence: every year, the bank will, as a general rule, transmit a wide range of information about you to the French tax authorities (fisc).

The information automatically transmitted to the French tax authorities each year is in principle as follows:

• Your name;
• Your address;
• Your country of tax residence (even if merely presumed);
• Your tax identification number(s) issued by your country or countries of tax residence;
• Your place and date of birth;
• Your account number (or substitute account number, identifying the funds you hold);
• The balance of your account or its value as at 31 December of each year during which the account is held;

The bank does not need a statement from you in order to classify you as a French tax resident. It is in principle sufficient for it to have information allowing it to presume this: an address in France or French identity documents are the typical indicators used to presume your tax residence in France.

Banks transmit to the tax authorities of their own country the information relating to the previous calendar year, which is then in principle exchanged between authorities no later than 30 September.

This means that every year, no later than 30 September, the information for the previous year is, as a general rule, automatically transmitted to the French tax authorities.

Which accounts do the tax authorities look at first?

Based on situations observed in practice, the French tax authorities’ attention appears to focus primarily on accounts with large transactions or balances, often in the order of €100,000 or more.

And what generally interests the tax authorities even more are significant changes in the balance from one year to the next.

Example: you hold an account in the United Kingdom, and last year you sold a property in the United Kingdom. The sale price of 500,000 pounds sterling was paid into your UK account. The French tax authorities in principle receive this information: the balance has increased significantly. Depending on the case, this may lead to an audit into the origin of these funds.

Another typical case may be a foreign gift, a foreign inheritance, the sale of a foreign business, significant capital gains on the sale of foreign shares, etc.

FAQ

Official sources

• BOFiP - BOI-INT-AEA-20-40: Common Reporting Standard, reporting obligations of financial institutions (in French)
• BOFiP - BOI-INT-AEA-20: Agreements and automatic exchange of information, Common Reporting Standard (in French)

Read more

• The Automatic Exchange of Bank Account Information (CRS)
• Can the French Tax Authorities See Your Foreign Bank Accounts?
• Which Foreign Bank Accounts Must Be Declared in France?
• Form 3916: how to declare a foreign account, step by step
• Regularising an Undeclared Foreign Account: What to Do If You Forgot to Declare It?