How much does a micro-enterprise cost in 2026?

Social contributions (URSSAF)

Your contributions pay for your health cover, pension and family benefits. They are a percentage of the turnover you received, declared every month or quarter. There is no minimum: €0 of turnover means €0 of contributions.

• Sale of goods (BIC): 12.3%.
• Commercial or craft services (BIC): 21.2%. This covers delivery, cleaning, building work, hairdressing and most manual services.
• Liberal professions (BNC): 25.6%, or 23.2% for the professions affiliated to CIPAV (for example psychologists, osteopaths or ski instructors).

ACRE: a reduction when you start

ACRE (« aide à la création ou à la reprise d'une entreprise ») reduces your contributions during about your first year: until the end of the third calendar quarter after the one in which you start. For a business started since 1 July 2026, the reduction is 25% (it was 50% before). The rates become 9.3% for sales, 15.9% for commercial or craft services, 19.2% for liberal professions and 17.4% for the professions affiliated to CIPAV.

ACRE is not automatic. You must be in one of the situations listed by law, for example: you receive unemployment benefit (ARE or ASP), you have been a registered jobseeker without benefits for at least 6 of the last 18 months, you receive RSA or ASS, you are aged 18 to 25 (up to 29 with a recognised disability), or you start in a priority neighbourhood (QPV) or a rural revitalisation zone (ZFRR). You apply to URSSAF within 60 days after your start date.

Training contribution (CFP)

Paid with your contributions, it gives you rights to training: 0.1% of turnover for sales, 0.2% for services and liberal professions, 0.3% for craftspeople.

Chamber fee

If you are registered as a craftsperson or a trader, a small fee for the chamber of trades or of commerce is added to your URSSAF payments: 0.48% of turnover for craft services (more in Alsace-Moselle), 0.044% for commercial services and 0.015% for sales.

Income tax: two options

• Normal option: once a year, you report your turnover on your income tax return. The tax office first deducts a flat allowance for expenses (71% for sales, 50% for commercial or craft services, 34% for liberal professions), then applies the normal tax scale to the rest, together with your household's other income.
• Versement libératoire: you pay your income tax each month or quarter with your contributions, at 1% (sales), 1.7% (commercial or craft services) or 2.2% (liberal professions) of turnover. For 2026, it is open if your household's reference tax income for 2024 (« revenu fiscal de référence ») was €29,315 or less per tax share (« part »).

CFE: the local business tax

The cotisation foncière des entreprises (CFE) is a yearly local tax, even if you work from home. You do not pay it for the year you start, and the year after, its base is halved. You are also exempt in a year when your turnover from two years earlier was €5,000 or less.

In the year you start, send form 1447-C-SD (« déclaration initiale de CFE ») to your business tax office (SIE) by 31 December, by post or through the secure messaging of your professional space on impots.gouv.fr.

The amount depends on your town and your turnover. The tax notice is only available online, in your professional space on impots.gouv.fr, and the payment is due by 15 December.

VAT

Most micro-entrepreneurs do not charge VAT, thanks to the exemption for small businesses (« franchise en base de TVA »). In 2026 the thresholds are €85,000 for sales (with a higher limit of €93,500) and €37,500 for services, building work included (higher limit €41,250).

The exemption applies this year if your turnover last year did not go over the first threshold. If this year's turnover goes over the higher limit, you must charge VAT from the day it is passed. If it only goes over the first threshold, you keep the exemption until 31 December and lose it on 1 January. If you start during the year, the thresholds of that first year are reduced in proportion to your days of activity (number of days ÷ 365): going over the reduced higher limit means VAT from that day, and going over the reduced first threshold means VAT from 1 January of the following year.

Without VAT, your invoices must say « TVA non applicable, art. 293 B du CGI ».

VAT threshold calculator (in French)

Worked example

A delivery rider who receives €2,000 in a month, without ACRE and without the versement libératoire, pays €424 of contributions (21.2%) and €4 of training contribution (0.2%): €428 for the month, plus €0.88 of chamber fee as a trader, declared and paid to URSSAF. Income tax comes later, with the yearly return.

Frequently asked questions