Does French IBAN makes life easier for tax returns?

Hey, my friends. First of all thank you for helping me out 2 times before in this very forum : )

Now I have another question. I have a Wise bank account (with a Belgium IBAN) and this is account I get my salary each month and use it on a daily basis as well. I am on a CDI contract in Paris, though.

My question is if I would be penalized somehow next year during tax returns for not having a French IBAN. Any tips?

Thank you!

Extremely doubtful you would be “penailised” for having a Belgian IBAN. Why would you begin to think so?

It’s just that I am new in Europe itself (not only in France) and everything seems to have a problem with this Belgian IBAN (I got this one through Wise.com). So if I am having problems for companies to accept my IBAN, I thought that maybe the government would be even worse.

I’m not sure you can get a carte vitale without an FR or MC IBAN. Others here may know better and whether if you contact the CPAM direct with a RIB they can to it, but I’m almost certain the AMELI online form pre-formats with only those two options available. I don’t know how far along you are with that side of things, maybe you already have it sorted and I’m not correct. That’s the only place government-wise where I’ve ever encountered a potential issue with not having a french IBAN, everything else is fine, no extra charges or such, after-all, it’s illegal not to take European IBANS so these agencies can only drag their feet for so long before it just looks embarrassing.

Hey @kirsteastevenson , thank you very much for your response. Got it. Ok, I am not near close to asking for a Carte Vitale, but I’ll try to open a French Bank account asap so I don’t encounter any issues in the future, Merci beaucoup!

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According to what I have read, whilst it is illegal to refuse a RIB simply because it is not a French bank, there are legitimate motives for which RIBs can be refused. Essentially these are to do with potential bad debts or money laundering and apparently one motive that is accepted as legitimate is if the country of the RIB does not correspond to the country the person is resident. So on those grounds it could be justifiable to refuse a Belgian RIB for a French resident or at least to not accept it automatically without carrying out additional checks.

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Getting back here to leave a follow up for future readers:

For tax returns I am not sure if it necessary to have a French IBAN, but to apply to the Social Security you either have to have a titre de séjour already OR an account in a French bank.

Cheers!

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