Taxation: can spouses or PACS partners be taxed separately?

Question to an expert

Can I continue to be taxed alone if I join a PACS or get married?

Spouses and PACS partners are in principle subject to single taxation within the same tax household.

However, the law derogates from this rule in three cases of termination of cohabitation: if they are married or in a PACS under the regime of separation of property and do not live together; whether they are permitted to reside separately as part of legal separation or divorce proceedings; or if they have separate incomes and one of them has left the marital home.

Attention, spouses under a community regime and simply de facto separated remain taxable together.

In these three scenarios where the household has actually disappeared, the taxation again becomes separate as of right for all income for the year, as in the event of divorce or dissolution of the PACS.

If the tax has been established wrongly on the basis of a joint declaration, it must be recalculated, whether at the initiative of the taxpayers or the administration.

Finally, there is a situation in which spouses and PACS partners can freely choose separate taxation: the year of the marriage or the year of the conclusion of the PACS. But this option must be exercised with discernment, because it is irrevocable: a prior simulation of the amount of income tax (which can be done on Impots.gouv.fr) will undoubtedly avoid disappointment.