Haven’t filed your tax return yet? Please note that while the tax authorities pre-populate most of your income, you still have some boxes to check manually. Likewise, the mechanisms which make it possible to reduce the tax base remain to be activated by yourself. Some are known: your payments into a retirement savings plan (PER) remain deductible up to the annual ceiling set at 10% of your professional incomeand your donations to associations entitle you to reductions of up to 75%.
Others, less obvious, can represent significant sums depending on your profile. Home employment is one of them. Cleaning, gardening, childcare at home, school support, help for the elderly: all these expenses entitle you to a tax credit of 50 % sums paid, within the limit of 12,000 euros of expenses per year (i.e. 6,000 euros maximum credit). This ceiling rises to 14,000 euros if you have a dependent child, and up to 20,000 euros for disabled people. If you have an employee declared via Pajemploi or Cesu, these amounts must be entered in box 7DB and following. And for retirees who finance accommodation in EHPADhousing and dependency costs entitle you to a 25% tax reduction, up to a limit of 10,000 euros of expenses per person accommodated, i.e. a maximum reduction of 2,500 euros.
Employees: when the real costs are worth it
By default, the administration automatically deducts 10 % of your gross salary for professional expenses. Practical, but capped at 14,555 euros for 2025 income. If your actual expenses exceed this standard deduction, it is in your interest to detail them. Maître Noël Dalus, lawyer at Avocats Picovschi, however, warns: “As long as we can justify them, it depends on the situation and income. If the actual costs are significanta lot of travel, teleworking expenses, they can wipe out the tax. » But when you are not sure, it is better to choose the legal scale.
Deductible expenses cover mileage allowances (calculated according to the administration’s tax scale), meals taken at the workplace when the canteen is impossible, costs of dual professional residence, or even equipment purchased for teleworking. Certain professions also benefit from a specific deduction which applies in line 1GA, after having applied the salary in line 1AJ: this is the case for childminders, journalists and approved family assistants. In all cases, each expense must be able to be justified if requested by the administration.
Landlord owners: the opportunity for renovation work
For an owner who rents a bare property in real regime, the deductible charges (loan interest, property tax, maintenance work) can generate a property deficit, i.e. charges that exceed the rents received. Maître Noël Dalus makes this a lever to monitor: this deficit is attributable to the overall income within the limit of 10,700 euros per year, the remainder being carried over to the property income of the following ten years.
Be careful though: the 2026 declaration is the last window for a rarer advantage: energy renovation work. If they were financed between January 1, 2023 and December 31, 2025, on a property classified E, F or G in the DPE, and made it possible to reach at least class D, they entitle you to a doubled ceiling of 21,400 euros. This device, intended to encourage to take out the thermal strainers of the rental stockexpires with the current declaration: work carried out in 2026 will return to the ordinary ceiling of 10,700 euros.
This mechanism is reserved for unfurnished rentals: furnished lessors (LMNP) follow separate rules and cannot deduct their BIC deficit from their overall income.
For investors holding an ordinary securities account excluding PEA, capital losses on the sale of transferable securities can be carried forward for ten years on future capital gains. Maître Noël Dalus insists on one point: “An undeclared capital loss is a lost capital loss. It must be entered on form 2074 each year, even if you have not made any capital gains that year.. If you closed out losing positions in 2025, don’t skip this step.
