This January 15, almost 9 million homes will receive a transfer from the tax administration to their bank account. This is an advance corresponding to 60% of tax reductions and credits to which they are entitled, calculated on the basis of their last declaration. Good news for the budget, but it is not necessarily definitively acquired money.
In place since 2023, this measure aims to reduce the cash flow gap between the time you incur your expenses and the time you are reimbursed for them. But be careful: this payment is only an estimate based on your past situation. And everything can change if your eligible expenses change from one year to the next. In this case, the advance received in January may result in a refund of the overpayment a few months later.
How advance works
This automatic mechanism concerns taxpayers who repeatedly request tax credits or reductions: childcare costs, employment of an employee at home, donations to associations, Pinel rental investment or accommodation costs in nursing homes.
In January 2026, the tax authorities will pay you an advance based on the expenses indicated in your last income tax return for the year 2024. In fact, he does not yet know your expenses incurred in 2025, since you will declare them in spring 2026, during your next declaration. Using this information, the tax authorities will automatically recalculate the tax reductions or credits to which you will be entitled and regularize them, if necessary, in September. This is when the advance can turn into a bill to be repaid.
Repay the overpayment… in the middle of the school year
Imagine that you declared 2,000 euros of expenses for an employee at home in 2024, which gave you the right to a tax credit of 1,000 euros in 2025. In January 2026, you therefore receive a advance of 600 euros. But if, in 2025, your expenses were only 500 euros, your real tax credit will only be 250 euros.
Result: you will have to refund the overpayment of 350 euros to the tax authorities in September 2026. An unpleasant surprise which comes at the worst time, between a budget well dented by the holidays and back-to-school expenses.
More generally, you will have to return part of the advance if your eligible expenses fell by more than 40% between 2024 and 2025. A threshold to monitor, especially if your situation has changed. For example, your children have grown up and no longer need care, or you have stopped employing a live-in employee. In these cases, you should expect to have to return the advance in September and provide the necessary cash.
To avoid this type of unpleasant surprise, the tax administration allows you to adjust, or even cancel, the January deposit. This process is done from your personal space on the impots.gouv.fr website until mid-December of the previous year.
For the January 2026 advance, it is too late. But if you anticipate a drop in your eligible expenses in 2026, consider reviewing the January 2027 advance before next December to avoid an unwelcome refund in the middle of the school year.
