News Digest: Are You Among the 9 Million French Households to Get a Tax Pay-Out This Week?

MPs headed back to the Assemblée Nationale (AN) yesterday (Monday, January 13th) for the first parliamentary sessions of 2025, and this afternoon (Tuesday, January 14th), Prime Minister François Bayrou is set to deliver his first general policy statement. The road forward for Bayrou isn’t an obvious one, with the country still undecided on a 2025 Budget and the need to find a compromise between France’s highly divided left and right parties even more crucial.

Bayrou finds himself in the unenviable position of balancing the left’s push for concessions over Macron’s controversial pension reforms with the need to address the country’s spiralling deficit and maintain the support of the right. With the pressure on for Bayrou to find a solution that appeases both sides – lest he face the same fate as predecessor Barnier – negotiations are expected to continue right up until the PM’s address. We’ll keep you updated as we learn more.

There’s good news for up to nine million French households this week, as tax credits are due to be paid out from tomorrow – Wednesday, January 15th. These payments are not rebates; instead, they are advance payments to cover the tax credits allowed for certain types of tax-deductible expenses, such as hiring a gardener, clearing, or childminder. These expenses can be declared on your annual tax return, and a tax credit can be issued to allow for the deductible percentage of these expenses. If you have previously declared such expenses, then this figure will be used to estimate your tax credit for 2025, and an advance payment will be issued.

The payments are typically paid directly into the bank account associated with your online French tax account, and the average amount is €639, which is sure to be a welcome addition to your post-Christmas bank balance.

Hot on the heels of RyanAir’s announcement that it’s closing its base at Bordeaux, rival low-cost airline Easyjet has confirmed that it will close its base at Toulouse airport this year. From April 2025, more than half of the EasyJet flight routes from Toulouse-Blagnac airport will be stopped, with the remaining routes subject to reductions in flights per week.

However, the airline has insisted that it will continue to fly to and from Toulouse, with 10 flight routes still set to run throughout summer 2025. These include domestic flights to Nantes, Lyon, Nice, and Paris-Orly, as well as UK flights to London Gatwick and Bristol. The full timetables haven’t yet been released, so if you do plan to fly to Toulouse using EasyJet, it’s a good idea to keep a close eye on the schedules.

If you’ve spent 2024 dreaming of buying a French property or one day making the move to France, and you’re ready to take those dreams to the next step, don’t miss out on our French Property Exhibition in London this January. Packed with expert stands, live seminars and free goodies, it’s the place to get inspired and put your questions to the experts.

 The French Property Exhibition, London, will be held on the 25th and 26th of January at the Novotel London West in Hammersmith. It’s our longest-established property show and has been running for over 30 years. Of course, I’ll be there along with the whole team from FrenchEntrée, French Property News, and France Media Group, and I’ll also be hosting our first-ever FrenchEntrée Members panel interview featuring a hand-picked selection of experts to answer your frequently asked questions LIVE!

Send me your questions!

We’ll be covering topics including buying property, tax, mortgages, and moving to France, and if you want our panellists to answer your question, you can send me an email at [email protected] (note: this is a live seminar, so please try to keep questions as concise and to the point as possible!)

Don’t forget to sign up for your free tickets here or by clicking the button below.