Taxation for non-French residents

The French tax rules are not simple for authors who are non-French residents. This page will help you understand and prepare everything in just a few clicks.

If you are an author or an author’s heir whose tax residency is in a country that has signed a tax treaty with France (you can find this information by consulting the tax authorities of your country of residence), you can ask to be partially or totally exempt from the French withholding tax on your royalties (25%) according to the tax treaty conditions. To do this, you need to prepare two forms. Please note that both forms are necessary in order to be successful in your tax exemption request.

What do I need to complete?

Form 5000 (Certificate of Residence) AND form 5003 (Application for a Reduction of Withholding Tax on Royalties): complete them in the language of your choice. You can do it directly online (if the fields to fill in are clickable), or after printing them out. To access the forms, please click on the links below. An explanatory notice is made available by the French tax authorities in order to help you.

• Chinese: forms 5000 and 5003 - explanatory notice
• Dutch: forms 5000 and 5003 - explanatory notice
• English: forms 5000 and 5003 - explanatory notice
• French: forms 5000 and 5003 - explanatory notice
• German: forms 5000 and 5003 - explanatory notice
• Italian: forms 5000 and 5003 - explanatory notice
• Spanish: forms 5000 and 5003 - explanatory notice
• Portuguese: forms 5000 and 5003 - explanatory notice

Download the specimen

How to proceed?

Step 1

1. Complete form 5000 and form 5003 online (* If the form that you need cannot be completed online, print it out before filling it in manually). Each form is in 3 copies. By filling in the first copy, the other two will be filled in automatically.
2. Print the forms out, each of them will automatically come out in three copies.
3. Date and sign each copy.
4. Send the three copies of form 5000 to the tax authorities of your country of residence.
5. Keep for the time being 3 completed copies of form 5003.

Step 2

1. The tax authorities of your country of residence will certify and send you back two hard copies of form 5000.
2. Keep two copies: one copy of 5000 and two copies of 5003.
3. Upon receipt of your certified forms, send us one original form 5000 and one original form 5003 to the following address:

You are a US resident…

Several options are available to you:

• Option 1: An identical procedure with forms 5000 and 5003: follow the above steps
• Option 2 : If you prefer to request form 6166 from the US tax authorities (please note, the procedure may not be free of charge and takes a few weeks), follow the above steps, fill in form 5000 but leave part IV empty and enclose form 6166 for the current tax year. Don’t forget to prepare your form 5003 as well.

Consult the leaflet which will help you in your proceedings: click here

You will find more information on their website.

What are the deadlines?

With French tax authorities: You can start preparing your forms from the 1st of January for the current year. Please note that these forms must be renewed every year.

With SACD: We should receive your forms at the beginning of each year (from the month of January) to allow you to take advantage of the partial or total tax exemption.

If on the 1st of April we still haven’t received your tax exemption forms, we will process the payment of your royalties after deducting the French withholding tax of 25%, which will be paid to the French tax authorities.

Upon receipt of the completed forms, anytime between the 1st of April and 15th of December of each year, we will totally or partially reimburse the tax deducted earlier on, according to the tax treaty between your country of tax residency and France, bearing in mind that these measures apply only to the current tax year.