The Australia-France tax convention defines France as the European and Overseas Departments of the French Republic. New Caledonia, French Polynesia and Wallis and Futuna are collectivities rather than departments, so they fall outside it, and the convention in force contains no article allowing extension to them.
Australia has a comprehensive tax convention with France, and it does not reach the part of France closest to Australia. Article 3(1)(b) of the convention, in the synthesised text the Australian Taxation Office publishes, defines the term France as the European and Overseas Departments of the French Republic, together with the territorial sea and the maritime areas beyond it. New Caledonia, French Polynesia and Wallis and Futuna are overseas collectivities rather than departments, and so are outside the definition.
Key Takeaways
- The convention covers France's European and Overseas Departments; the three CFP franc collectivities are neither.
- The terminated 1976 agreement had a mechanism to extend the treaty to overseas territories, and it was never used.
- None of the thirty-one article headings in the 2006 convention that replaced it is an extension article.
- New Caledonia and French Polynesia each legislate for and administer their own taxes; nothing here was read for Wallis and Futuna.
- New Caledonia states a commitment to OECD Global Forum transparency standards, and its own code carries trust declarations with their own deadlines and penalty.
Departments and collectivities are not a wording preference
The treaty names a class rather than a list of places, and the class is the departments. Examining the earlier agreement's definition, the Australian Taxation Office identified the Overseas Departments as French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique and Reunion, and put New Caledonia, French Polynesia and Wallis and Futuna among the territories the definition did not reach.
A treaty that names departments does not pick the Pacific three up by proximity or by flag. What can be shown for two of them, from the sources below, is that they legislate for and administer their own taxes: New Caledonia through a loi du pays and its own Code des impots, French Polynesia through a separate code and its own tax administration.
Nothing about that prohibits anything. What is absent is the framework people assume sits behind a payment from a European country: no treaty tie-breaker deciding which side may tax what, no reduced rates on dividends, interest or royalties, and no mutual agreement procedure.
The extension mechanism that was dropped
This has not always been a closed question, and the history is easy to cite in the wrong direction.
The convention now in force was signed on 20 June 2006 and entered into force on 1 June 2009. The agreement it replaced dated from 1976 and, with its 1989 amending protocol, was terminated on that same date. The definitions the two carried are close enough to compare directly:
| Instrument | How it defines France |
|---|---|
| The 1976 agreement, as amended by its protocol | "the European and Overseas Departments of the French Republic and includes the territorial sea", plus the maritime areas beyond it |
| The 2006 convention, Article 3(1)(b) | "the European and Overseas Departments of the French Republic including the territorial sea", plus the maritime areas beyond it |
Taxation Determination TD 93/220 dealt with the older of the two. It confirmed the definition there did not reach the overseas territories, and noted that Article 27 of that agreement let letters be exchanged through diplomatic channels to extend it to an overseas territory imposing substantially similar taxes, with none exchanged.
The determination construes an agreement that is no longer in force, and the extension route it points at belongs to that agreement. In the 2006 convention, Article 27 is Diplomatic and Consular Privileges. Reading the thirty-one article headings in the text the Taxation Office publishes, from Article 1 on persons covered to Article 31 on termination, none is an extension article. That is a reading of the headings rather than of every paragraph, and it takes in no protocol or exchange of notes outside that text.
| Instrument | Status | Extension route |
|---|---|---|
| 1976 agreement and 1989 protocol | Terminated 1 June 2009 | Article 27, exchange of letters, never used |
| 2006 convention, in force 1 June 2009 | In force | None in the text |
What each collectivity taxes on its own account
Being outside the treaty does not mean being outside tax. New Caledonia and French Polynesia each legislate for themselves and each publishes a code; what follows is confined to those two, because nothing was read for Wallis and Futuna.
New Caledonia's Direction des services fiscaux administers a Code des impots of its own, and one of its provisions is the charge an Australian recipient is most likely to meet. The impot sur le revenu des valeurs mobilieres, at articles 528 to 553 bis, applies to income distributed by companies or bodies liable to company tax whose registered office is in New Caledonia. That is the charge that meets a distribution before it leaves the territory.
French Polynesia's Direction des impots et des contributions publiques publishes its own list of the main taxes an individual meets, and the absence from that list is the notable part. It covers a vehicle registration tax, an environment tax for vehicle recycling, a tax on built property, stamp duties from 500 XPF to 20,000 XPF by document type, a regime for rental income, and the contribution de solidarite territoriale on salaries, wages, pensions, annuities and assorted allowances. A general personal income tax is not among them. The code itself sits on the territory's own legal publication service rather than in the French national code.
New Caledonia's own transparency and trust reporting rules
Sitting outside a treaty is not sitting outside international tax practice, and New Caledonia is the case this guide can document. Its tax service states that the territory has for several years been committed to fiscal transparency and international cooperation in line with the standards of the Global Forum at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, and that loi du pays n° 2025-16 strengthens that and adds reporting obligations aimed at preventing fraud and evasion.
Separately from that law, and published by the same service, the trust rules at article Lp. 920.20 of the Code des impots de la Nouvelle-Caledonie show how far the territory's own reporting reaches. Nothing in the record establishes when they commenced or that the loi du pays introduced them; what follows is the service's description of them as they stand. The duty falls on the trust's administrator, an individual or a company, wherever a link of territoriality exists, and the service gives three ways one can: the settlor or a beneficiary is fiscally domiciled there, the trust holds an asset situated in New Caledonia, or the administrator is domiciled there or enters into a business relationship there.
Two declarations follow. An event declaration reports a trust's creation, modification or extinction, with the terms of the instrument and a detailed inventory, within one month. An annual declaration reports the market value at 1 January of what the trust holds, by 15 June; its scope is worldwide where a party is a Caledonian tax resident and confined to assets situated in New Caledonia where none is. Non-compliance carries a fine of 2,400,000 XPF.
So a trust with a Caledonian connection can carry declaration duties even where a beneficiary is in Australia, and on the service's account those duties fall on the administrator rather than on the beneficiary. They are the collectivity's own, made under its own code, on standards it states a commitment to.
Where to look next
- Receiving money from the French Pacific - the live CFP franc to Australian dollar rate page for this corridor.
- AUD to XPF - the convert page for the pair, with the franc's fixed parity to the euro behind it.
- How international transfers work - the sequence a payment moves through once the Pacific end is settled.
- Who maintains the codes on a transfer - what the account number and the bank identifier each address, and who registers them.
- Understanding transfer fees - what a one-off sum costs to move.
Sources
- Synthesised text of the Multilateral Instrument and the Convention between Australia and France, Australian Taxation Office - Article 3(1)(b) defining the term France as the European and Overseas Departments of the French Republic including the territorial sea, and the maritime areas beyond it where the Republic has sovereign rights over seabed resources; and the article sequence, Article 1 Persons Covered to Article 31 Termination, in which Article 27 is Diplomatic and Consular Privileges and no heading is an extension article.
- Taxation Determination TD 93/220, Australian Taxation Office - the definition of France in the earlier agreement as amended by its protocol; the four Overseas Departments; the finding that the definition did not reach the overseas territories, New Caledonia, French Polynesia and Wallis and Futuna among them; and the old Article 27 extension mechanism, with no letters exchanged to that date.
- Income tax treaties table, Australian Treasury - the 2006 convention with France in force from 1 June 2009, and the 1976 agreement with its 1989 amending protocol terminated on the same date.
- L'impot sur le revenu des valeurs mobilieres, Direction des services fiscaux de la Nouvelle-Caledonie - the tax on income from securities at articles 528 to 553 bis of the Code des impots de Nouvelle-Caledonie, applying to income distributed by companies or bodies liable to company tax whose registered office is in New Caledonia.
- Vos impots, Direction des impots et des contributions publiques de Polynesie francaise - the administration's own list of the main taxes applying to individuals: the vehicle registration tax, the environment tax for vehicle recycling, the tax on built property, the contribution de solidarite territoriale on salaries, wages, pensions, annuities and allowances, stamp duties of 500 XPF to 20,000 XPF by document type, and the rental income regime.
- Code des impots, Direction des impots et des contributions publiques de Polynesie francaise - that the code is updated regularly and published on French Polynesia's own Lexpol service.
- Loi du pays n° 2025-16, Direction des services fiscaux de la Nouvelle-Caledonie - the stated commitment over several years to fiscal transparency and international cooperation in line with the standards of the OECD Global Forum, and that the loi du pays strengthens that and introduces reporting obligations to prevent fraud and evasion.
- Declaration des trusts, Direction des services fiscaux de la Nouvelle-Caledonie - article Lp. 920.20; the event declaration within one month on constitution, modification or extinction, with the terms of the instrument and a detailed inventory; the annual declaration of market value at 1 January due by 15 June; the worldwide-versus-local scope turning on whether a party is a Caledonian tax resident; the duty falling on the administrator wherever a link of territoriality exists, with its three limbs; and the 2,400,000 XPF fine.
General information about the territorial scope of the Australia-France tax convention, and about what New Caledonia and French Polynesia tax under their own codes. How a particular payment is taxed at either end is a question for a registered tax agent. Not financial advice, not tax advice, and not a recommendation of any product or institution. Reviewed by the Tradergy editorial team, September 2026.
Common questions
Does the Australia-France tax treaty cover New Caledonia and French Polynesia?
No. Article 3(1)(b) of the convention defines the term France as the European and Overseas Departments of the French Republic, including the territorial sea and the areas beyond it where the Republic has sovereign rights over seabed resources. The Australian Taxation Office, considering the materially identical definition in the earlier agreement, listed the Overseas Departments as French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique and Reunion, and put New Caledonia, French Polynesia and Wallis and Futuna among the territories the definition did not reach.
Could the treaty be extended to them?
Not by the route the earlier agreement provided. That agreement carried an article letting letters be exchanged through diplomatic channels to extend it to an overseas territory imposing substantially similar taxes, and the Australian Taxation Office recorded in 1993 that none had been. It was terminated on 1 June 2009. Reading the thirty-one article headings of the convention that replaced it, none is an extension article; that is a reading of the headings rather than of every paragraph, and it takes in no protocol or exchange of notes outside the text the Taxation Office publishes.
Do the collectivities levy their own taxes?
New Caledonia and French Polynesia each do, and this guide is confined to those two because nothing was read for Wallis and Futuna. New Caledonia's Direction des services fiscaux administers a Code des impots that includes the tax on income from securities at articles 528 to 553 bis, charged on income distributed by companies liable to company tax whose registered office is in the territory. French Polynesia's Direction des impots et des contributions publiques administers a separate code, maintained on the territory's own legal publication service.
Does French Polynesia have an income tax?
Its tax administration's own list of the main taxes for individuals does not include one. That list covers a vehicle registration tax, an environment tax for vehicle recycling, a tax on built property, stamp duties, a regime for rental income and the contribution de solidarite territoriale, which applies to salaries, wages, pensions, annuities and various allowances. This guide reports the absence from that published list rather than asserting that no such tax exists anywhere in the code.
What trust declarations does New Caledonia require?
Two, under article Lp. 920.20 of its own Code des impots. The administrator of a trust must file an event declaration within one month of the trust's creation, modification or extinction, and an annual declaration by 15 June of the market value at 1 January of what the trust holds. The obligation arises wherever a link of territoriality exists, including where a beneficiary is fiscally domiciled in the territory. The tax service puts the fine for non-compliance at 2,400,000 CFP francs.