Know what you owe before the penalty tells you.
A US citizen living in France files in two countries, with thresholds that do not match. An account missing from the French return costs €1,500, and a missing Form 8938 starts at $10,000. This checklist puts the forms, the dates and the accounts on one list, for the tax year 2026.
A PDF of 15 pages. It downloads as soon as you have paid.
Written by Maxime and Aurelio, the two French nationals behind EasyFranceNow.
The kind of thing it catches
Your US accounts go on the French return.
France asks for every account opened, used or closed abroad during the tax year, whether you hold it or only have a power of attorney. The fine is €1,500 per account left out, €10,000 where the country has no tax information exchange agreement with France.
impots.gouv.fr, read on 20 October 2026. One of the eight traps on page 7.
What is in the 15 pages
- Your tax year in one table2
- Who files what3
- Three reports for your accounts4
- The US return, from France5
- The French return, for your US income6
- Eight traps the official pages warn about7
- Worksheet A, your accounts register8
- Worksheet B, your year with your dates9
- Worksheets C and D, the forms and the records to keep10
- The words you will meet11
- Our guides, the two of us, and every source12
Why it exists
The IRS and the French tax office each publish their own pages. Nobody puts them side by side: which form, which threshold, which date, for someone who lives in France and keeps accounts in the United States.
We did. Every line of the checklist names the official page it comes from, and the figures are the ones in force for the tax year 2026.
What is not in it
Nothing we could not read. So no reading of the tax treaty between the two countries, no advice on your own numbers, and no line numbers for the French forms of 2027, which change every year.
Where it matters the checklist says so and sends you to the form's own instructions. It is general information, not tax advice.
Dates and figures are those of the tax year 2026, read on 20 October 2026. Check each one on the instructions of the form for the year you file.