Auto-Entrepreneur in France: The 2026 Guide for English Speakers

GME Audit l Votre expert-comptable

6 days ago

7 min read

The auto-entrepreneur scheme is France's simplest way to run a business as a solo founder. One online registration, no separate company to incorporate, and social contributions calculated as a flat percentage of what you actually invoice. For English speakers launching or running an activity in France, it is usually the first status to evaluate, and the numbers are worth understanding before you register.

This guide explains what the status covers, the turnover ceilings, the 2026 contribution rates, how income tax works, the VAT exemption thresholds, the ACRE start-up relief and the registration process. All figures come from the official URSSAF auto-entrepreneur site and the French tax authorities.

What the auto-entrepreneur status actually is

An auto-entrepreneur runs an entreprise individuelle, a sole proprietorship. There is no separate legal entity: you and your business are one and the same for tax and liability purposes. The scheme combines three simplified regimes:

the micro-fiscal regime for income tax,
the micro-social regime for social security contributions,
simplified accounting: no balance sheet, no complex bookkeeping, just your invoices tracked.

You can work as an artisan, a trader or a liberal profession (professions libérales, meaning independent professionals such as consultants, translators or developers). The status works as your main activity or as a side activity alongside a salaried job, studies or retirement.

In exchange for this simplicity, you accept two constraints: an annual turnover ceiling, and no deduction of real business expenses from your taxable income.

Turnover ceilings you cannot ignore

The ceilings depend on what you sell, and they apply to a full calendar year of activity:

Activity type	Annual ceiling
Sale of goods, objects, supplies, food to take away or consume on site	EUR 203,100
Services (BIC industrial and commercial profits, BNC non-commercial profits, or furnished accommodation)	EUR 83,600

BIC (bénéfices industriels et commerciaux) covers craft and commercial services; BNC (bénéfices non commerciaux) covers most liberal professions.

If you mix both, two conditions apply: your total turnover must stay at or below EUR 203,100, and the services portion at or below EUR 83,600. Liberal professions registered with the Cipav retirement fund follow the EUR 83,600 ceiling across all their activity.

Start mid-year and the ceiling is prorated by days of activity. The official URSSAF example: an activity starting on 1 March 2026 in services gives a ceiling of EUR 83,600 x 306/365, that is EUR 70,087 for 2026.

Exceed a ceiling and nothing happens the first year. Exceed it two consecutive calendar years and you leave the micro regime entirely: you move to standard real accounting (régime du réel) and can no longer bill as an auto-entrepreneur.

Social contributions: a percentage of turnover

You pay URSSAF (the French social security collection body) a percentage of your turnover excluding VAT, not of your profit. If you invoice nothing in a quarter, you pay nothing that quarter. The full rates in force from 1 January 2026:

Activity	Rate on turnover
Sale of goods (BIC)	12.3%
Commercial and craft services (BIC)	21.2%
Other services, liberal professions (BNC)	25.6%
Rental of furnished tourist accommodation (classified)	6%
Liberal professions under Cipav (BNC)	23.2%

These percentages cover health insurance, family allowances, basic and supplementary retirement pensions, and disability-death cover. Tips are part of turnover and contribute too.

You declare and pay monthly or quarterly on autoentrepreneur.urssaf.fr. If a deadline falls on a weekend or public holiday, it shifts to the next working day. One rule to know: at least 90 days must separate your start date from your first declaration.

Income tax: the micro abatements

For income tax, the tax office does not look at your real costs. It applies a standard abatement, a flat deduction for professional expenses, to your turnover. The remainder is then taxed like any other income, under the scale described in our income tax in France guide.

Activity	Abatement	Taxable share
Sale of goods (BIC)	71%	29%
Commercial and craft services (BIC)	50%	50%
Other services, liberal professions (BNC)	34%	66%

Each year you report turnover on form 2042 C PRO, without deducting real expenses or depreciation.

The flat abatement is the trade-off at the heart of the regime. If your real costs are low, say a consultant with a laptop, the standard deduction is generous. If your costs eat most of your revenue, say an e-commerce seller buying stock, the same abatement overstates your profit, and the micro regime can cost more tax than real accounting. That comparison is exactly what to run before registering.

The optional versement libératoire

You can also opt for the versement libératoire de l'impôt sur le revenu. Under this option, income tax is paid as a fixed percentage of turnover, at the same time as your social contributions, instead of through the annual return.

Activity	Income tax rate on turnover
Purchase-resale, food, accommodation (BIC)	1%
Commercial and craft services (BIC)	1.7%
Other services, liberal professions (BNC)	2.2%

Eligibility depends on your household's reference income two years before, measured against a ceiling set each year according to family size. The option is not locked in: you can join or leave once a year, with a request before 30 September taking effect the following 1 January.

Whether the option saves money depends on your marginal tax rate. At the French top rates, paying 2.2% of turnover as final tax is cheap; if you would otherwise pay little or no income tax, the option just adds cost. This is a calculation to redo each year, not a one-time choice.

VAT: the franchise en base

Below certain thresholds you operate under the franchise en base de TVA, the VAT exemption for small businesses. You charge no VAT to clients and you recover none on your purchases. The rules in force since 1 January 2025:

Your previous calendar year's turnover was below EUR 85,000 (goods) or EUR 37,500 (services): you stay exempt for the current year.
If turnover exceeds the raised thresholds of EUR 93,500 (goods) or EUR 41,250 (services) during the year, VAT becomes due from the first day of the month of the overrun. All subsequent sales are then taxed.

While exempt, your invoices must carry the mention 'TVA non applicable, article 293 B du CGI' (VAT not applicable, Article 293 B of the French Tax Code). Losing the VAT exemption does not push you out of the micro regime itself: the two ceiling systems are separate. Once you become VAT-liable, you request an intra-community VAT number from your business tax office (SIE, service des impôts des entreprises) and start charging and declaring VAT. Our guides on VAT in France and getting a VAT number cover what happens next.

ACRE: reduced rates at start-up

ACRE (aide aux créateurs et repreneurs d'entreprise, the start-up relief) cuts your social contribution rates during the launch phase, until the end of the third civil quarter after your registration. For a goods seller, that means 6.2% instead of 12.3% of turnover. Rates differ by activity and by start date, so check the current table on the URSSAF site.

Not everyone qualifies. Eligibility follows Article L5141-1 of the French Labour Code. Eligible groups include job seekers, whether receiving benefits or not, RSA or ASS benefit recipients, and people aged 18 to 25. Several other categories also qualify, such as businesses set up in priority urban districts or rural revitalisation zones.

Timing is strict: you must send the ACRE request to URSSAF within 60 days of your registered start date, and you cannot have used ACRE in the previous three years.

How to register

Registration goes through the Guichet unique, the one-stop shop for business formalities run by INPI (the French intellectual property and business registry). The filing is done online, in French. After registration you receive your SIRET business number, typically within days to a few weeks, and you then activate your personal space on autoentrepreneur.urssaf.fr to declare and pay contributions.

Two practical points for English speakers:

The entire workflow is in French. Business activity descriptions, the NAF/APE activity code you pick, and declarations are all French-only.
Choose monthly or quarterly declarations when you activate. Quarterly is the default and simpler for a small start.

Since 1 October 2026, digital platforms that collect payments for auto-entrepreneurs withhold social contributions at source on the income earned through them, a change being rolled out by URSSAF.

When the status stops working

Three situations signal that the regime has run its course:

You exceed a turnover ceiling two consecutive years, which forces the move to real accounting.

Your costs are high relative to revenue. With no real expenses deductible and abatements fixed at 71/50/34%, a business with thin margins pays tax and contributions on income it does not keep.

You need to recover VAT on significant purchases, which the exemption makes impossible.

Each has a different remedy: switching to a different regime, or incorporating a company such as an EURL or SASU, changes both the tax mechanics and the compliance load. That is a comparison a chartered accountant can run with your actual numbers, and it is cheaper to make it before a threshold is crossed than after.

How a chartered accountant helps

GME Audit is a chartered accountancy firm serving small businesses, independents and liberal professionals, with support in French and English. The firm is led by Steeve Elharrar, a qualified chartered accountant (expert-comptable) and statutory auditor (commissaire aux comptes). The team has more than 10 years of combined experience in accounting, audit and advisory, including Big Four backgrounds at KPMG and Deloitte.

For an auto-entrepreneur, the useful moments are concrete. They include deciding whether the micro regime still beats real accounting as turnover grows, and checking whether the versement libératoire pays off given your household rate. The same review covers VAT registration when you cross a threshold, and a possible move to a company structure. Bookkeeping runs on Pennylane, so your invoices and bank transactions update in real time rather than waiting for the annual accounts.

If you want that review done on your own figures, ask for a quote through the English-speaking accountant page. You will get a specific answer, not a standard brochure.

Key takeaways

The auto-entrepreneur status is a sole proprietorship with simplified tax and social regimes, capped at EUR 203,100 (goods) or EUR 83,600 (services) of annual turnover.
Social contributions range from 6% to 25.6% of turnover depending on activity, with ACRE reductions at start-up.
Income tax applies after a flat abatement of 71%, 50% or 34%, unless you opt for the 1%/1.7%/2.2% versement libératoire.
Below EUR 85,000/37,500 of turnover you charge no VAT; above EUR 93,500/41,250 you must.
Registration is a single online filing on the Guichet unique, and leaving the regime is automatic after two consecutive years above a ceiling.

This article is general information on French tax and social security rules as of October 2026, not tax advice for your specific situation. Thresholds and rates change; check impots.gouv.fr and autoentrepreneur.urssaf.fr before acting, or ask a professional.