P2P Lending Tax Guide for French Investors 2026

Avertissement / Disclaimer: Pas un conseil fiscal. Consultez un expert-comptable.

This guide is for educational purposes only. French tax rules change frequently and individual situations vary. Always consult a qualified expert-comptable (chartered accountant) or conseiller fiscal before filing your tax return.

TL;DR

If you’re a French tax resident earning interest from P2P lending platforms (Maclear, Mintos, PeerBerry, EstateGuru, etc.), here is what you need to know for the 2026 filing season:

P2P interest = revenus de capitaux mobiliers (investment income), not professional income.
Default rate: Prélèvement Forfaitaire Unique (PFU) 30% = 12.8% income tax + 17.2% social contributions (prélèvements sociaux). Also called flat tax.
Alternative: barème progressif (progressive scale) — option you can elect at filing time. Worth it only if your marginal income tax rate is below 12.8% (typically low-income households).
Required forms: 2042 (main return) + 2042-C (additional income, including foreign-source interest) + 3916 (declaration of foreign accounts, including P2P platform accounts held outside France).
Failure to declare a foreign P2P account = €1,500 fine per account per year(€10,000 if held in a non-cooperative jurisdiction).
Default losses on P2P loans have limited deductibility in France — much less favorable than dividends or listed bond losses.
Platforms regulated in France must hold ECSP (European Crowdfunding Service Provider) authorization from AMF or, for legacy products, PSAN/CIP/IFP status.

Disclaimer / Avertissement: Pas un conseil fiscal. Consultez un expert-comptable. This article does not constitute tax, legal, or financial advice. Rules summarized here reflect our understanding of French tax law as of early 2026 and may be incomplete or out of date. Verify all figures against impots.gouv.fr and your accountant before filing.

Editor’s Pick — Maclear (Switzerland)

Among the 19 EU and Swiss P2P platforms we track at CrowdIndex, Maclear (#1) is our top pick for French investors in 2026. Swiss SRO-supervised (VQF), real-economy SME and real-estate projects across Europe, and clear annual interest reporting that makes French tax filing straightforward. French interface, EUR-denominated investments, and a published recovery track record. Not a banking license, not an investor compensation scheme — see the full platform card for risks.

See also: CrowdIndex 2026 rankings · Mintos #2 · PeerBerry #3

PFU Flat Tax vs Barème Progressif

Since 2018, France applies a unified flat tax — the Prélèvement Forfaitaire Unique (PFU), often called the flat tax — to most investment income, including P2P lending interest.

How the PFU breaks down

The 30% PFU is not a single tax; it is two layers stacked:

Component	Rate	What it is
`Impôt sur le revenu` (income tax)	12.8%	Forfaitaire (fixed) portion
`Prélèvements sociaux` (social contributions)	17.2%	CSG, CRDS, solidarity levy combined
Total PFU	30.0%	Applied to gross P2P interest received

So if you earned €1,000 of interest from Maclear, Mintos, and PeerBerry combined in 2025, you owe €300 in tax under PFU — €128 income tax and €172 social contributions.

When to choose `barème progressif` instead

You can opt to be taxed at the progressive income tax scale (barème progressif) instead of PFU. This option is global — it applies to all your investment income for the year, not just P2P. You elect it by ticking box 2OPon form 2042.

The progressive scale brackets for 2026 (income year 2025) are approximately:

0% up to ~€11,294
11% from ~€11,294 to ~€28,797
30% from ~€28,797 to ~€82,341
41% from ~€82,341 to ~€177,106
45% above ~€177,106

The 17.2% social contributions still apply on top when you choose the barème — they are not optional.

Which option is better?

Marginal income tax rate ≥ 30%: PFU is always better or equal. Stick with the flat tax (the default).
Marginal rate 11%: PFU 12.8% income portion vs. 11% under barème — the barème saves you 1.8 percentage points on the income tax portion (you still pay 17.2% social). Possibly worth the option.
Marginal rate 0%: PFU 12.8% vs. 0% under barème — the barème can save you the full 12.8% income portion. Worth it for low-income households.
Mixed portfolio: remember the option applies to all your investment income (dividends, bond interest, etc.) — model both scenarios with your accountant.

Practical default for most French P2P investors: leave the PFU 30% in place.

Déclaration des Revenus — Forms 2042 and 2042-C

P2P platforms operating outside France (which is most of them — Maclear is Swiss, Mintos is Latvian, PeerBerry and Crowdpear are Lithuanian, etc.) do not transmit your interest data to the French tax authority automatically through the pre-filled return. You must declare it yourself.

Form 2042 — main return

Your main income tax return. P2P interest itself does not have its own dedicated line on 2042 — it goes on the complement form, 2042-C.

What you do on 2042:

Confirm your personal and household information.
Tick box 2OPif you want to opt for the progressive scale instead of PFU.

Form 2042-C — additional income

This is the “complement” form where foreign-source investment income goes. Key boxes for P2P investors:

Line 2TR — Intérêts et autres produits de placement à revenu fixe(interest and other fixed-income investment products). This is typically where P2P interest is declared.
Line 2CG — Revenus déjà soumis aux prélèvements sociaux — only if social contributions were already withheld at source (rare for foreign P2P platforms).
Line 8TK — Crédit d'impôt if there is a tax treaty credit (only relevant for platforms in jurisdictions with French withholding tax, which is unusual for the EU P2P platforms we cover).

Practical workflow:

At year-end (Dec 31, 2025), download the annual interest statement from each P2P platform. Maclear, Mintos, PeerBerry, and most ECSP-authorized platforms now provide a French-language or English Tax ReportPDF.
Sum the gross interest received (before any platform fees or non-French withholding).
Enter the total on line 2TR of form 2042-C.
Keep all platform statements for at least 3 years (general French tax statute of limitations; up to 10 years if there is suspected fraud).

Calendar

Mid-April 2026: online declaration opens.
End of May / early June 2026: filing deadlines (staggered by département).
September 2026: PFU is debited from your bank account if you owe (most P2P investors).

Compte à l’Étranger — Form 3916 obligation

This is the form most French P2P investors miss — and it is the one with the highest penalty exposure.

What 3916 covers

Article 1649 A of the Code général des impôts requires you to declare every account held outside France: bank accounts, payment accounts (e.g., Wise, Revolut Lithuania), digital asset accounts, and — critically for our readers — investor accounts held on foreign P2P lending platforms.

If you have an account on:

Maclear (Switzerland)
Mintos (Latvia)
PeerBerry, Crowdpear, Profitus, InRento (Lithuania)
EstateGuru, Twino (Estonia)
Capitalia (Latvia)
any other non-French P2P platform

…you must file form 3916 (or 3916-bis for digital asset accounts; the unified form is sometimes called 3916/3916-bis) for each platform account, each year you held it, even if there was no activity.

Information required

For each account:

Platform name and address
Account number (your investor ID on the platform)
Date opened
Date closed (if applicable)
Whether the account is used for professional or personal purposes

Penalties for non-declaration

€1,500 per undeclared account per year, baseline.
€10,000 per account per year if the account is held in a state or territory that has not signed an administrative assistance convention with France (État ou territoire non coopératif). Most EU/Swiss platforms are in cooperative jurisdictions, so the standard €1,500 typically applies.
80% surcharge on undeclared income if discovered during an audit, plus interest.

The penalty is per account, per year, even if the account holds zero balance. Five P2P platforms held over four years undeclared = €1,500 × 5 × 4 = €30,000 in potential fines before any income surcharge.

Practical tip

File 3916 the first year you open each P2P account, and continue filing each subsequent year you hold it. The form is online and free; takes about 5 minutes per platform.

French P2P Regulation — AMF, PSAN, and the ECSP Transition

Understanding the regulatory status of your platform affects investor protections, not directly the tax treatment — but the two are linked because regulatory status determines how reporting works.

The old French regime (pre-November 2023)

Before the EU’s ECSP regulation took effect, France had its own crowdfunding regimes supervised by the AMF (Autorité des marchés financiers):

CIP — Conseiller en Investissements Participatifs for equity and bond crowdfunding.
IFP — Intermédiaire en Financement Participatif for lending crowdfunding.

A few platforms also held PSAN (Prestataire de Services sur Actifs Numériques) status for digital-asset-adjacent activity. PSAN is not the right framework for traditional P2P lending; it covers crypto.

The ECSP transition (November 2023)

Since 10 November 2023, the EU European Crowdfunding Service Providers regulation (Regulation 2020/1503) applies across the EU. Existing CIP/IFP platforms had until that date to obtain ECSP authorization or wind down their EU-wide operations.

What this means for French investors:

ECSP-licensed platforms can passport their services across the EU — so a Lithuanian-licensed platform (PeerBerry, Crowdpear, Profitus, InRento, Hive5) or a Latvian one (Mintos, Capitalia) or an Estonian one (EstateGuru) can legally serve French investors.
ECSP brings standardized investor disclosures: Key Investment Information Sheet (KIIS), entry test for non-sophisticated investors, 4-day reflection period, and €1,000 / 5% net worth limits for non-sophisticated retail.
ECSP does not include an investor compensation scheme. There is no equivalent to the French Fonds de Garantie des Dépôts et de Résolution (FGDR) or the €100,000 deposit guarantee. If a platform fails, you can lose your invested capital.

Maclear — a Swiss case

Maclear is not an ECSP platform because it operates from Switzerland, outside the EU. It is regulated by VQF, a Swiss Self-Regulatory Organization (SRO) supervised by FINMA. This is an AML/KYC supervision regime — not a banking license, not an investor compensation scheme. We disclose this transparently in the Maclear platform card; investors should weigh it against the platform’s track record and structural advantages.

Practical checks before investing

Verify the platform on the AMF GECO register for ECSP/CIP/IFP status (or the equivalent regulator’s register in the platform’s home jurisdiction).
Look for the KIIS (Key Investment Information Sheet) before investing in any deal — required under ECSP.
Check whether the platform publishes annual loan-book statistics and default/recovery data — this is regulatory best practice, not legal obligation.

See P2P-Regulation-Explained for the full breakdown.

Default Losses — pertes capitales et intérêts traitement

This is where French P2P taxation gets less favorable. Unlike Germany (where loan defaults are deductible up to €20,000/year for private investors) or Italy (where the cedolare secca regime simplifies things), France’s treatment of P2P default losses is restrictive.

The general rule

Unpaid interest that never reaches your account is simply not declared as income — you only declare interest actually received. So if a borrower defaults before paying interest, there is no “loss” to deduct because there was no income.
Capital loss on principal (the original money you lent that the borrower never repaid) is not deductible against your interest income under PFU.
There is a limited regime under articles 156 and 157 of the CGI for pertes en capital on certain SME loans — but the conditions are restrictive and typically apply to direct loans documented as such, not platform-intermediated P2P.

Practical implication

If you invested €10,000 on a P2P platform and earned €600 in interest but lost €500 in capital to a defaulted loan, you still owe PFU 30% on the full €600 = €180, even though your net return was only €100. The €500 capital loss is generally a sunk cost from a French tax perspective.

This makes default rate and recovery track record disproportionately important when choosing a French-investor-friendly platform. Platforms with strong underwriting and active recovery (Maclear, Capitalia, InRento for buy-to-let real estate) deliver better after-tax returns than platforms with high default rates, even at the same headline interest rate.

Recovery proceeds

When a defaulted loan is partially recovered (collateral sold, borrower assets seized), the recovered principal returns to your investor account untaxed (it is return of capital, not income). Any additional interest accrued during recovery is taxable as interest in the year it is paid.

Strong recommendation: consult an expert-comptable if you have material P2P default losses. There may be edge cases where they can be characterized as deductible business-type losses, but this requires professional analysis.

Resources

Official sources to bookmark:

impots.gouv.fr — French tax authority. Main filing portal.
impots.gouv.fr → particulier → déclarer mes revenus → comptes à l’étranger — direct path to 3916.
service-public.fr/particuliers/vosdroits/F22384— overview of foreign account declaration.
bofip.impots.gouv.fr — Bulletin officiel des Finances Publiques, the official tax doctrine. Search “revenus de capitaux mobiliers” and “comptes à l’étranger”.
AMF GECO register (geco.amf-france.org) — verify platform regulatory status.
L’Ordre des Experts-Comptables (experts-comptables.fr) — find a qualified accountant.

Documents to keep for each tax year

Annual interest statement (relevé annuel d'intérêts or Tax Report) from each P2P platform.
Screenshots of your platform account showing balances at year-end.
Copies of filed forms 2042, 2042-C, and 3916.
Records of all deposits and withdrawals to/from each platform (helps reconcile reported interest).

FAQ

Q1: Do I have to declare P2P interest if it’s less than €100?

Yes. There is no de minimis threshold for declaring foreign-source investment income. Even €1 of interest from a foreign P2P platform must appear on form 2042-C, and the platform account must be declared on form 3916 regardless of balance.

Q2: I reinvest all my interest automatically — do I still owe tax?

Yes. Under French tax law, interest is taxable when it is credited to your account (droit acquis), regardless of whether you withdraw it to your French bank or reinvest it on the platform. Auto-reinvest features do not defer the tax. The €300 of interest credited and immediately reinvested is taxed the same as €300 withdrawn.

Q3: What if I only have an account on Maclear (Switzerland) — does the EU’s DAC8 directive affect me?

DAC8 expands automatic information exchange to crypto-asset service providers and certain other intermediaries. For traditional P2P platforms, the existing DAC2 / CRS framework already obliges most EU and Swiss platforms to report account information to the account holder’s tax authority of residence. Practical implication: French tax authorities likely receive your Maclear interest data automatically via CRS.Filing 3916 and declaring the interest on 2042-C is therefore not optional in practice — undeclared accounts can be cross-checked.

Q4: My platform deducted withholding tax at source — do I declare gross or net?

Declare gross interest on line 2TR. If a tax treaty entitles you to a foreign tax credit, claim it on line 8TK with supporting documentation. Most EU P2P platforms do not withhold at source for French residents (they rely on you to self-declare); but Latvian and Estonian platforms occasionally do. Check each platform’s annual tax report carefully.

Q5: I am a French tax resident but a non-French citizen — does this change anything?

No. French tax law applies to tax residents regardless of nationality. If you spend more than 183 days/year in France, have your foyer (household) in France, or have your main economic interests in France, you are a French tax resident and the rules in this guide apply to your worldwide P2P interest. Citizenship is irrelevant for income tax.

Looking for a French-investor-friendly P2P platform?

Maclear is our #1 pick at CrowdIndex 2026: Swiss SRO supervision, real-economy SME and real-estate projects, transparent annual interest reporting that simplifies your 2042-C filing, French-language interface, and a track record of capital protection through active recovery (including out-of-pocket CEO repayment on the Vibroedil default in 2025). Not perfect — see the full card for risks — but the strongest combination of transparency and structure we cover.

See the full ranking: CrowdIndex 2026 Top 19 · Read the deep dive: Maclear platform card

Final disclaimer: Pas un conseil fiscal. Consultez un expert-comptable. Cet article est fourni à titre informatif uniquement et ne constitue ni un conseil fiscal, ni un conseil juridique, ni un conseil financier. La réglementation fiscale française évolue régulièrement et chaque situation individuelle est différente. Vérifiez toujours auprès de impots.gouv.fr et d’un expert-comptable qualifié avant toute déclaration.

P2P Lending Tax Guide for French Investors 2026

P2P Lending Tax Guide for French Investors 2026

TL;DR

PFU Flat Tax vs Barème Progressif

How the PFU breaks down

When to choose `barème progressif` instead

Which option is better?

Déclaration des Revenus — Forms 2042 and 2042-C

Form 2042 — main return

Form 2042-C — additional income

Calendar

Compte à l’Étranger — Form 3916 obligation

What 3916 covers

Information required

Penalties for non-declaration

Practical tip

French P2P Regulation — AMF, PSAN, and the ECSP Transition

The old French regime (pre-November 2023)

The ECSP transition (November 2023)

Maclear — a Swiss case

Practical checks before investing

Default Losses — pertes capitales et intérêts traitement

The general rule

Practical implication

Recovery proceeds

Resources

Documents to keep for each tax year

FAQ

Q1: Do I have to declare P2P interest if it’s less than €100?

Q2: I reinvest all my interest automatically — do I still owe tax?

Q3: What if I only have an account on Maclear (Switzerland) — does the EU’s DAC8 directive affect me?

Q4: My platform deducted withholding tax at source — do I declare gross or net?

Q5: I am a French tax resident but a non-French citizen — does this change anything?

What to read next

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P2P Lending Tax Guide for French Investors 2026

TL;DR

PFU Flat Tax vs Barème Progressif

How the PFU breaks down

When to choose barème progressif instead

Which option is better?

Déclaration des Revenus — Forms 2042 and 2042-C

Form 2042 — main return

Form 2042-C — additional income

Calendar

Compte à l’Étranger — Form 3916 obligation

What 3916 covers

Information required

Penalties for non-declaration

Practical tip

French P2P Regulation — AMF, PSAN, and the ECSP Transition

The old French regime (pre-November 2023)

The ECSP transition (November 2023)

Maclear — a Swiss case

Practical checks before investing

Default Losses — pertes capitales et intérêts traitement

The general rule

Practical implication

Recovery proceeds

Resources

Documents to keep for each tax year

FAQ

Q1: Do I have to declare P2P interest if it’s less than €100?

Q2: I reinvest all my interest automatically — do I still owe tax?

Q3: What if I only have an account on Maclear (Switzerland) — does the EU’s DAC8 directive affect me?

Q4: My platform deducted withholding tax at source — do I declare gross or net?

Q5: I am a French tax resident but a non-French citizen — does this change anything?

What to read next

When to choose `barème progressif` instead