Forgive me if this question has been asked before but has anyone recently started declaring previously undeclared foreign bank accounts and, if so, how did the French tax authorities react?

I am worried that when the "fisc" sees the "date d'ouverture" of the accounts, they'll realise I didn't declare the accounts before.

I suspect it will depend on the circumstances. We discovered that several accounts we had closed in various countries had not in fact been closed, and something we did not realise was a bank account (although fortunately we had declared the income from it).
We had a decent expert comptable, who wrote an explanatory letter, (enclosing copies of the letters we had sent to the individual banks). The fisc accepted that, and we have heard no more. I might be wrong, but I think it may come down to intent. It was pretty obvious in our case that we had not been trying to hide anything, in fact we had declared all the income we had received.
If you are concerend I would get in touch with a good expert comptable. (Personal recommendations are probably the best way). And come clean.
IME, the fisc are not monsters here, but you do need to follow the rules, or have a good explanation for why you have not.
Good luck.

Addition. I believe you have to declare all your bank accounts anew every year.

You certainly do.
A friend of mine in a similar position just consulted a big international accountancy firm and was quoted 5,000 euros to sort out the situation for her.

I am very tempted to just start quietly declaring everything from my next tax return and keep my fingers crossed.

I, too, enclosed a letter with our Déclaration this year to indicate that, in all innocence, I only discovered this requirement in 2015. I know that ignorance of the law is no excuse, but fingers are crossed that the Fisc will treat me kindly, esp. as I've only kept my long-standing current account without interest open. OH says that they can take years to study that section of every one's declarations, but, as you say, you have to declare all bank accounts anew, every year, and each time it might just attract some pen-pusher's attention....

I take it you've had no negative feedback from the tax office as yet?

It's strange, because I have an Irish friend (living in France) who was caught out recently when the Irish tax authorities notifed the "fisc" about some accounts she had in Ireland, yet I've never personally encountered any UK nationals who have had problems. Maybe the Irish have been more diligent in terms of sharing information?

Tax Information Exchange should be incorporated into each EU countries national laws by 2017 (2018 in the case of Austria). Not all countries are at the same stage and some information was exchanged between countries as early as 2013. I assume Ireland is more advanced in this process than the UK.

It was announced a few days ago that the 2016 Finance Act in France will terminate the period for voluntary disclosure and introduce heavy sanctions for new offenders. This is because far fewer voluntary disclosures have been made than were expected.

Presumbly this is to encourage more people to come forward. In any case, it hasn't been voted yet.

There was some negative feedback from the Fisc, in that our Income Tax was much higher this year! But no mention of my interest-free UK bank account on the Avis d'Imposition.
@IVV - Ouf, I became an honest woman just in time....

this was brought to my attention by my halle d'impots three years ago - I explained like you that this was new info to me and all went swimmingly

Just déclare next year and add a little note if you wish saying that you have just realised this is an obligation ... as our accounts are always at 0 they didnt look any further

That's what I did a few years ago, having not realised I had to for a couple of years before that. In fact for the first couple of years I got the tax office to help me with the forms and they never mentioned it, it was only when I started completing them on my own and actually read the guidelines that I realised. So far so good

Hi there

I had a discussion about this with my French banker last week and she said she had many customers with the same problem (a lot of customers work in Switzerland in her branch and are not aware of this), all you do is declare it asap and you'll have no problem.

Don't worry, be happy!

I think it's true that accounts having small balances and little activity will not attract too much attention from the Fisc even though, technically there is a fine every year for each undeclared account (the amount varies depending on the country where it is held.

If it is an account with a sizeable balance or with significant activity then it is a whole different kettle of fish as the Fisc will want to be sure that the account has not been used to dissimulate undeclared revenue.

If the account has a large balance, well they are going to investigate it. The thing is they have a lot to be getting on with at the moment and they make take years before they get round to this.

Yes, they want to catch the big fishes!

I suspect I'm a medium fish. Somewhere between a barracuda and a stickleback.

This is all quite heartening. Thank you very much everybody for your comments.

So long as the accounts do not show any undeclared income and their balances do not tip you into wealth tax and you make sure to include them in your next declaration then I don't expect you would have a problem.