Definition
You registered your bike repair workshop with the guichet unique (the single business formalities portal) three weeks ago.
URSSAF now asks you to pick a declaration frequency, and one line stops you: your activity is filed under "BIC, prestations de services".
Nobody asked for your opinion, yet that line decides almost everything you will pay.
BIC stands for bénéfices industriels et commerciaux, industrial and commercial profits: the tax category covering commercial, industrial and craft activities, defined for the micro scheme by article 50-0 of the French tax code.
Facing it sits BNC, bénéfices non commerciaux, which covers the liberal professions.
You do not choose your category: it follows from the nature of what you sell. A shopkeeper, a craftsperson, a restaurant owner, a hotelier fall under BIC; a consultant, a developer, a translator fall under BNC.
This is no harmless administrative label.
Your category fixes four figures at once: the turnover ceiling you must stay under, the percentage removed before tax, your contribution rate, and the flat-rate income tax rate if you opted for it.
Two families under one acronym
Here is the real trap: the acronym covers two schemes that have almost nothing in common. This is what each one gives in 2026.
| What you sell | Sale of goods and hotel accommodation | BIC services |
|---|---|---|
| Turnover threshold, years 2026 to 2028 | €203,100 | €83,600 |
| Standard allowance in 2026 | 71% | 50% |
| Social contribution rate in 2026 | 12.3% | 21.2% |
| Flat-rate income tax in 2026 | 1% | 1.7% |
The contribution rates are those published by URSSAF for a mainland micro-entrepreneur at the full rate, outside ACRE (the start-up contribution relief).
The ceilings come from the official scale of thresholds applicable for the years 2026 to 2028, not from the practical guidance pages, several of which were still showing the old figures of €188,700 and €77,700 in 2026.
The €203,100 ceiling, applicable from 2026 to 2028, covers the sale of goods and hotel accommodation, not the provision of lodging in general. Furnished residential lettings are expressly excluded.
A classified furnished rental, a residential furnished let or a chambre d'hôtes, the French bed and breakfast, falls under the €83,600 ceiling, some 2.4 times lower.
And since 1 January 2026 a chambre d'hôtes is no longer a sale: it moved to BIC services, with 21.2% contributions, a 50% allowance and 1.7% flat-rate income tax.
Any 2025 article still quoting 12.3% for a bed and breakfast is out of date.
The calculation, on that bike workshop
Back to the workshop. Over 2026 it collects €30,000 in repairs and €20,000 in spare parts resold. That is a mixed activity, so two shares calculated separately, each with its own rates.
On the social side: €30,000 of repairs at 21.2% gives €6,360, and €20,000 of parts at 12.3% gives €2,460. That is €8,820 of Social contributions for the year.
On the tax side: the 50% allowance leaves €15,000 on the repairs, the 71% allowance leaves €5,800 on the parts, so €20,800 of taxable profit to carry onto the 2042-C-PRO return (the self-employed income schedule).
The ceiling itself is assessed twice over for a mixed activity: the total must stay under €203,100 and the services share under €83,600, both conditions together. A craftsperson invoicing €150,000, of which €100,000 is labour, leaves the scheme despite a total well below the sales ceiling.
A CIPAV member is the exception: their ceiling is €83,600 of total turnover in 2026, mixed activity included.
That 21.2% is not what you actually pay URSSAF.
On top come the CFP, the vocational training contribution, at 0.3% for a craftsperson in 2026, and the Chamber of commerce levy, at 0.48% for a craft service provider outside Alsace-Moselle.
Our repairer therefore hands over 21.98% on the services share, and income tax is still due on top of that.
Neither line falls due from day one: the CFP is only owed if revenue was declared in the previous calendar year, and the chamber levy only from the second year of activity, never below €5,000 of revenue.
BIC or BNC: what the line really changes
Since 2026, BIC services and BNC liberal activities share the same €83,600 ceiling. Many people conclude the distinction no longer matters: the opposite is true.
On €40,000 collected in 2026, a BIC service provider pays €8,480 in contributions and declares €20,000 of taxable profit; a non-regulated liberal professional, taxed as BNC at 25.6%, pays €10,240 and declares €26,400.
Same turnover, €1,760 more in contributions and €6,400 more taxable base. What separates the two categories is no longer the threshold, it is the allowance and the rate.
The line is drawn by the nature of the act. Buying to resell, manufacturing, transforming materials, repairing, lodging, feeding: commercial or craft work, therefore BIC.
Selling intellectual skill with no act of commerce: liberal, therefore BNC, with, in 2026, the 34% allowance of article 102 ter of the French tax code and a flat-rate income tax of 2.2%.
Regulated liberal professions affiliated to the CIPAV follow yet another grid: 23.2% contributions in 2026, whether they fall under BIC or BNC.
One last point, easily missed: the tax category does not always drive the social side.
Classified tourist furnished rentals prove it, with a 50% tax allowance on 2025 income declared in 2026, but a contribution rate still at 6% in 2026, unchanged despite the change of tax category.
Non-classified tourist rentals show the same independence the other way round: out of the auto-entrepreneur social scheme since 1 January 2026, they keep a micro-BIC tax regime capped at €15,000 with a 30% allowance.
A change on the tax side is never a change on the social side.
Frequently asked questions
I am a freelance developer, am I under BIC?
No, except for part of your activity. A non-regulated intellectual service falls under BNC: 25.6% contributions in 2026, a 34% allowance, an €83,600 ceiling and 2.2% flat-rate income tax.
You only move into BIC for the share that consists of buying equipment in order to resell it to your clients.
Does my code APE decide whether I am BIC or BNC?
No.
The activity code issued at registration classifies your business for statistical purposes; it sets neither your allowance nor your contribution rate, both of which follow from what you actually invoice.
An inaccurate code therefore does not change your calculation, but it is worth having it corrected, because many counterparties rely on it to place you.
Does being under BIC change anything for VAT?
No, and this is the most common confusion of all.
The VAT threshold figures are entirely disconnected from the micro-scheme ceilings.
In 2026 a service provider who goes over €37,500 of service turnover becomes liable for VAT on the following 1 January.
They become liable on the very day they cross €41,250 within the year, while remaining a micro-entrepreneur up to €83,600.
The overall €85,000 threshold, for its part, applies to total national turnover, sales included.
With a mixed activity, can I declare everything on one line?
No: the sales share and the services share are declared separately to URSSAF, each at its own rate, and they have their own boxes on the income tax return.
Putting everything on the services line would mean paying 21.2% on sales that only bear 12.3% in 2026, and losing the 71% allowance on that share along the way.