Declare your capital gains, losses, and investment income from stocks, bonds, ETFs, and other traditional financial instruments in your French annual tax return. This article explains which forms to complete and what data to enter in each section.
The Finbooks precompiled report provides all the pre-calculated figures you need, along with a step-by-step guide to filling out each box.
The Finbooks Precompiled Report
The report you receive from Finbooks is designed to help you file your French tax return correctly. It provides both pre-calculated figures and clear instructions on where to enter them in the official forms.
The report is divided into three main documents:
capital gain and income declaration: a step-by-step guide to completing Forms 2074 and 2042-C, including all pre-calculated figures for capital gains, losses, dividends, and bond coupons
foreign exchange declaration: a guide to declaring each foreign brokerage account using Form 3916, including all account data available to Finbooks
ℹ️ Complete guide inside the report
This article provides an overview of the most important sections and the data required in each. For a complete, transaction-level guide with all figures ready to enter, download your precompiled report from Finbooks.
Overview of forms to complete
Before getting started, here is a summary of the forms you will need to fill out:
Form 2074: detail all capital gains and losses from stocks, bonds, ETFs, funds, options, and derivatives
Form 2042 / 2042-C: transfer the final figures from Form 2074 and declare dividends and bond coupons
Form 3916: declare each foreign brokerage account held outside France
Form 2074
Form 2074 is used to declare and detail all capital gains and losses from transactions involving stocks, bonds, ETFs, mutual funds, options, futures, and other derivatives. It is mandatory if you calculate your gains independently, for example if you use a foreign broker rather than a French bank.
The sections you will primarily need to complete are Cadre 3, Cadre 5, Cadre 9, and Cadre 11.
Cadre 3: Capital gain distributions from funds
This section is used to declare distributions paid out by mutual funds or collective investment vehicles. Enter the total amount of capital gain distributions received during the year from funds such as OPC, FPI, placement collectif, or SCR.
Cadre 5: Sales of stocks, bonds, ETFs, funds, and options
This is where you detail each individual sale. For each transaction, enter the sale proceeds, the acquisition cost, any fees, and the resulting gain or loss. Calculations are based on the PMP (Weighted Average Purchase Price) method, which Finbooks applies automatically. Your report provides a pre-filled table with all these values, ready to be copied directly into the form.
Cadre 9: Summary of all capital gains and losses
Cadre 9 consolidates the results from all previous sections into a single overview. Enter the totals from Cadre 3 and Cadre 5, separating gains from losses, then calculate the overall totals for gains and losses across all fields.
Cadre 11: Offsetting gains against losses
This is the final step of Form 2074 and is mandatory if you have entered any amount in the gains column in Cadre 9. Enter your net gains and losses to calculate the final taxable figure to carry over to Form 2042.
⚠️ Prior-year losses
Column D in Cadre 11 is not provided by Finbooks, as the platform does not have access to your historical tax filings. If you have losses to carry forward from previous years, you must enter them manually. For guidance on how to apply them correctly, please refer to the dedicated article.
Form 2042 and 2042-C
Once Form 2074 is complete, transfer the final figures to your main tax return.
Dividends and bond coupons
In the section Revenus des valeurs et capitaux mobiliers, enter the total dividends received from French, EU, or treaty-country companies, and the total interest and fixed-income proceeds such as bond coupons, government bonds, and taxable savings.
ℹ️ Progressive tax scale If you opt for the progressive tax scale, you may be eligible for a 40% tax allowance on dividends declared in this section.
Capital gains and losses
In the section Plus-values et gains divers, enter the net taxable gain if your overall result for the year is positive. If you have unused losses from previous years (up to the last 10 years), you may offset them before entering the final figure. If your overall result is a loss, enter the net loss amount without applying prior-year losses. If there is no taxable result, both fields can be left empty.
Form 3916: Declaring foreign brokerage accounts
If you hold any financial accounts with brokers or platforms located outside France, you must declare each one using Form 3916. This obligation applies to all accounts used for stocks, ETFs, CFDs, and other financial instruments.
For each foreign brokerage account, you will need to provide:
your personal details (full name, date of birth, place of birth, and residential address)
the account type (select "Compte bancaire" for all foreign brokerage accounts and trading platforms)
the account details, including the account number, opening date, and closing date if applicable
the full legal name and postal address of the broker or institution
the ownership type (direct owner or power of attorney)
the account usage (select "Usage personnel" for private investment accounts)