What is a micro-entrepreneur in France?
A micro-entrepreneur works in their own name, as an entrepreneur individuel, and pays income tax and social contributions computed on turnover. It is not a company: no statuts (the French articles of association), no share capital, no separate legal person. For most people who want to be self-employed in France, alone and with modest costs, it is the first status they meet.
A regime, not a legal form
Article L526-22 of the French Commercial Code (Code de commerce), checked October 2026, defines the entrepreneur individuel as a natural person who carries on one or more independent professional activities in their own name. The micro label adds two regimes: the micro tax regime of articles 50-0 and 102 ter of the French tax code (Code général des impôts), and the micro-social regime of article L613-7 of the French Social Security Code (Code de la sécurité sociale).
The official note on the distinction, published in July 2026 on service-public.gouv.fr, calls it an entreprise individuelle with lightened rules. Auto-entrepreneur is its former name: an auto entrepreneur in France and a French micro-entrepreneur are the same thing.
Your professional assets are separate by law
The assets useful to your activity form your professional estate; the rest is your personal estate (article L526-22). A creditor whose claim arose from your business can only pursue the professional estate, and debts to the bodies that collect social contributions count as professional. The separation applies by law, without any formality.
It has two limits. Creditors keep the securities you agreed to give. And a creditor may ask you in writing to waive the separation for a specific commitment, after seven clear days of reflection, three with a handwritten statement (article L526-25).
Can a foreigner be a micro-entrepreneur?
Yes, under a condition that depends on nationality. Nationals of the European Union, the European Economic Area and Switzerland need no residence permit, as the official service-public.gouv.fr guide for foreigners who create a business confirms (checked October 2026). Everyone else needs a permit that allows them to work under the status: article L526-22 closes the status of entrepreneur individuel to other foreigners who do not hold one.
A permit that allows the status
A residence card generally carries the right to work, but a visitor card does not (articles L414-10 and L414-11 of the French immigration code, Code de l’entrée et du séjour des étrangers et du droit d’asile). The card built for self-employment is the one-year entrepreneur / profession libérale card, for an activity that is economically viable and provides sufficient means of living (article L421-5), after an assessment of that viability by the foreign labour service of the département (article R421-9).
Founders with a larger project can aim at the multi-year talent-porteur de projet card, searched for as the Talent Passport (article L421-16). The choice of card is explained in the guide to the talent passport and in the guide to starting a business in France.
If you live abroad
The same official guide draws the line for nationals of countries outside the EU: a company can be run from abroad, but working as an entrepreneur individuel implies residing in France with a permit that allows a non-salaried activity.
Two other rules matter here. Anyone who works on French territory as a self-employed person is affiliated to French social security, whatever their residence, subject to EU regulations and international conventions (article L111-2-2 of the Social Security Code). And the VAT franchise is reserved for businesses established in France (article 293 B of the tax code).
How much can you invoice under the micro regime?
Up to 203,100 euros a year for sales of goods and accommodation, and 83,600 euros for services and liberal activities, excluding VAT (articles 50-0 and 102 ter of the tax code, checked October 2026). The ceiling is tested on the previous calendar year or the year before, and the category of activity also fixes your tax allowance and your contribution rate.
| Activity | Ceiling | Tax allowance | Contribution rate | Legal basis, checked October 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sale of goods, food, accommodation other than furnished lettings | 203,100 euros | 71 % | 12.3 % | Article 50-0, 1°; article D613-4, a) |
| Other commercial and craft services | 83,600 euros | 50 % | 21.2 % | Article 50-0, 2°; article D613-4, d) |
| Liberal activities (BNC), most professions | 83,600 euros | 34 % | 25.6 % | Article 102 ter; article D613-4, e) |
| Architects, psychologists and the other professions of article R641-1, 11° | 83,600 euros | 34 % | 23.2 % | Article 102 ter; article D613-4, b) |
Unclassified furnished tourist lettings have their own ceiling of 15,000 euros, with a 30 % allowance (article 50-0, 1° bis).
Profession libérale: what the term means
In French law, the liberal professions group people who work habitually, independently and under their own responsibility, providing mainly intellectual, technical or care services based on appropriate qualifications (article 29 of law n° 2012-387 of 22 March 2012). Their profits are bénéfices non commerciaux, BNC (article 92 of the tax code); commercial, industrial and craft profits are bénéfices industriels et commerciaux, BIC (article 34).
The category decides your ceiling, allowance and rate, so the activity you declare matters. Intellectual services sold on your own account are the typical case for a freelance in France.
Above the ceiling
According to the official service-public.gouv.fr guide to the tax of a micro-entrepreneur, checked October 2026, the micro regime ends on 1 January once both reference years are above the ceiling, and you are then taxed on your real profit. A single year above is tolerated (article 50-0). You remain an entrepreneur individuel; only the regime changes.
How is a micro-entrepreneur taxed?
Through your personal income tax, on a flat basis, which is what makes freelance tax in France simple under this regime. The taxable profit is your turnover minus a flat allowance, added to your household’s other income on the progressive scale. An option lets you pay the tax as a small percentage of turnover instead.
The flat allowance replaces your expenses
The allowance is 71 % for sales and accommodation, 50 % for other commercial services and 34 % for liberal activities, never less than 305 euros (articles 50-0 and 102 ter). It stands for all your costs. A consultant who invoices 40,000 euros under the BNC regime is taxed on 26,400 euros, whether her real costs were 2,000 or 20,000 euros.
That is the heart of micro-entrepreneur tax in France, and its limit. If your real costs exceed the allowance, you can opt for a real regime even below the ceiling, for a year renewed tacitly (article 50-0, 4, and article 102 ter, 5).
The optional flat payment
The versement libératoire lets you pay income tax with your contributions: 1 % of turnover for sales, 1.7 % for other commercial services, 2.2 % for liberal activities (article 151-0 of the tax code, checked October 2026). It requires the micro tax and micro-social regimes, and a household reference income of the year before last, per share, no higher than the upper limit of the second income tax bracket. You opt by 30 September for the following year, or by the end of the third month after creation.
What social contributions do you pay?
A percentage of the turnover actually collected, declared and paid monthly or quarterly (article L613-7 of the Social Security Code, checked October 2026). The global rates, set by article D613-4, are those of the table above. The official guide to a micro-entrepreneur’s contributions, checked October 2026, gives the same rates and confirms that a period without turnover costs nothing.
What the contributions buy
Your benefits, pension rights included, are computed on turnover after the same allowance as for tax (article L613-7, II). Low turnover means low rights: being self-employed in France on a small turnover buys a small pension. You can ask that your contributions never fall below the minimum amounts of the self-employed schemes, by 31 December for the following year or by the end of the third month after creation (article L613-7, I).
Do you charge VAT as a micro-entrepreneur?
Not while you stay under the franchise ceilings. Under article 293 B of the tax code, in the version checked October 2026, a taxable person established in France pays no VAT when its turnover in France did not exceed 85,000 euros in the previous calendar year, of which at most 37,500 euros of services other than sales to eat in and accommodation.
The current year must also stay under 93,500 euros, of which 41,250 euros of services; once either is crossed, VAT is due from that day (article 293 B, II). Légifrance shows the article with an end date of 1 January 2027, when the VAT provisions are recodified (ordonnance n° 2025-1247 of 17 December 2025). The VAT number is explained in the guide to SIRET, SIREN and VAT numbers.
How do you register as a micro-entrepreneur?
Online, through one file sent to the guichet unique, the official window for business formalities at formalites.entreprises.gouv.fr (article L123-33 of the Commercial Code). According to the official guide to registering a micro-enterprise, checked October 2026, you file at the earliest one month before you start and at the latest fifteen days after.
The single online file
Registering as a micro-entrepreneur in France means declaring your activity and business address, with your identity document, a proof of that address and a sworn statement of non-conviction and parentage, according to the same guide. The guide for foreign founders adds that registration may require proof that your stay is lawful. How the window forwards one file to every administration is described in the guide to company registration.
What you receive
You enter the national register of businesses, which records every business with a commercial, craft, agricultural or independent activity in France (article L123-36). INSEE gives you a nine-digit SIREN and, for your establishment, a SIRET made of those nine digits and five more (article R123-221). Both go on your invoices, as the guide to SIRET and SIREN numbers explains.
When is a company the better answer?
When the status stops fitting the project: partners or investors, real costs above the allowance, turnover above the ceilings, clients who only contract with companies, or a life outside France.
Are you an EU, EEA or Swiss national, or do you hold a permit that allows the status? If not, the permit comes first, or a company run from abroad. Will turnover stay under the ceiling? If not, the real regime. Will partners or investors come in? Then an SAS or a SARL. Will real expenses exceed the flat allowance? Then the real regime again, alone or through a single-member company. Otherwise, the micro-entrepreneur fits.
| Question | Micro-entrepreneur | EURL or SASU |
|---|---|---|
| Who is the business? | You, in your own name (article L526-22) | A legal person from its registration (article L210-6) |
| Partners and investors | Not possible | Possible (articles L223-1 and L227-1) |
| What you risk | The professional estate, unless you waive it or give a security (L526-25) | Your contribution, unless you give a personal guarantee (L223-1, L227-1) |
| Expenses | Replaced by a flat allowance (articles 50-0 and 102 ter) | Taken into account in the profit |
| Turnover ceiling | 83,600 or 203,100 euros a year | None |
The middle step: entrepreneur individuel au réel
Leaving the micro regime does not require a company. You remain an entrepreneur individuel, taxed on your real profit after your actual expenses. You can even opt to be treated for tax as an EURL of which you are the single partner (article 1655 sexies of the tax code).
EURL or SASU
When partners, investors or clients call for a company, the single-member forms are the EURL, a SARL with one partner, and the SASU, an SAS with one partner (articles L223-1 and L227-1). The EURL follows the frame of the Code, as the guide to the SARL explains; the SASU lets you write your statuts, as the guide to the SAS explains. Both are compared with the sole trader in the guide to starting a business.
Concord prepares the entrepreneur / profession libérale file, from the viability of your activity to the consular filing, and drafts the statuts of an SASU or an EURL for founders who outgrow the status.