TLDR: You must notify the financial institution of any change in circumstances that makes the previous self-certification inaccurate or unreliable. For an account held by a minor, you take this step as their legal representative. The institution may request a new self-certification or, depending on the applicable procedure, a plausible explanation accompanied by documents supporting the initial self-certification.
The steps to take
A change in the minor’s tax residence may call into question the validity of the self-certification already provided to the financial institution. You must then provide it with updated information concerning the minor’s tax residence or residences.
The financial institution may request a new self-certification. Depending on the case provided for by the applicable procedure, it may also accept a plausible explanation accompanied by documents attesting to the validity of the initial self-certification.
The sources consulted specify neither a mandatory form, nor an exclusively online or paper-based procedure, nor a defined list of documents to attach.
Who must sign the self-certification
When the account holder is a minor, you must complete the self-certification as their legal representative. The declaration concerns the minor’s tax situation, not that of the legal representative.
It must state the minor’s tax residence or residences and, where required, the corresponding tax identification numbers.
If the minor is included in their parents’ tax household, the parents’ self-certification may be used for the account opened in the minor’s name. This possibility depends on the actual inclusion in the relevant tax household and on whether the financial institution is aware of it.
The information to provide
The self-certification must make it possible to identify the minor’s tax residence or residences. It must be valid and plausible. In particular, it must be signed or authenticated by an authorized person and be dated no later than the date on which it is received by the financial institution.
The sources consulted do not make it possible to determine the minor’s own tax identification number or the specific procedures for obtaining it. Nor do they specify any particular supporting document to be produced to establish the new tax residence.
Applicable deadlines
For new accounts held by individuals, the financial institution requests the self-certification within thirty days of discovering the change in circumstances. After this request, the individual account holder has sixty days to respond.
For an account held by a minor, you respond to the request in your capacity as legal representative. The sources consulted do not make it possible to infer a general annual date or any other deadline independent of the financial institution’s request.
If the account has been closed
If the financial institution discovers, after the account has been closed, a change in circumstances that occurred before the closure, the obligation may continue to apply for the relevant period. You must then self-certify the minor’s tax residence or residences and tax identification numbers for that period.
A change in tax residence, on its own, does not make it possible to conclude that the account must automatically be closed.
In the event of no response or an implausible declaration
If you do not respond to the request concerning the minor’s account, the procedure provided for by Article L. 102 AG of the French Tax Procedures Code and specified by Article R. 102 AG-1 of the same Code may apply. The sources consulted do not provide details of its entire content or all its consequences.
If no plausible self-certification is available at the time of the declaration provided for in Article 1649 AC of the French General Tax Code, the financial institution treats the individual as a resident of the States or territories listed in the initial self-certification and of those resulting from the change in circumstances. This rule concerns the declaration provided for by that article and does not make it possible to infer other obligations directly incumbent on you or on the minor.