Withholding tax at source: “Many men will fall off their chairs at the end of September”

A salary that has clearly dropped, by a few dozen or even hundreds of euros; or, on the contrary, that has increased without a promotion or a change of job explaining this increase... This is the surprise that many taxpayers could have at the end of September when they receive the transfer from their employer, if they have not anticipated the impact of a measure that came into force on September ¹ : the default individualization of the income tax withholding rate.

From now on, taxpayers taxed as a couple because they are married or in a civil partnership will no longer be subject to the same rate if they do not have the same income... This individualization was already possible, upon request, for couples who wished to do so. But few took the step, as it was little known.

It is still possible to request the joint rate (the same for both members of the couple). The tax administration offered this option at the end of the income tax return in the spring: approximately 1.8 million households wished to retain this joint rate, according to the count it carried out on June 5 at the end of the declaration campaign (as an order of magnitude, 41 million households were concerned by the declaration in 2024 and 19 million of them were taxed).

This individualization does not concern rental income, which remains considered joint by the tax authorities, even if the property belongs to only one of them (they are allocated to each half in the calculation). And the measure does not change the total amount of income tax paid by the couple; it only concerns the distribution of the latter within the household.

The tax authorities give the following example on their website: " Julia and Karim, a couple without children, earn 1,600 and 3,500 euros per month respectively, meaning a tax payable of 3,574 euros." With their joint rate (5.8%), Julia would have 93 euros deducted each month, Karim 203 euros. " With the individualized rate taking into account each person's income, the deduction rate applied to Julia's pay slip will be 0.4%, or 6 euros of withholding tax per month, and 8.3% for Karim, or 290 euros of withholding tax."

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