Definition
For six months your clients have been paying their invoices into the current account that also takes your rent, your groceries and a friend paying you back for a weekend away.
Then the quarterly declaration comes round: you open the statement, you look for what belongs to the business, and nothing stands out any more.
That is exactly the problem a dedicated account solves.
A dedicated bank account is an account kept for the movements of your activity: client payments come in, work-related spending goes out, and nothing else passes through it.
It is not a business account, it is a separate account, and the difference is charged to you every month.
French law requires a separation of use, not the purchase of a particular banking product.
Nor does the obligation apply to every micro-entrepreneur: it is triggered above a level of Turnover exceeded for a period set by regulation, and the exact conditions are set out on the URSSAF portal.
Below that, nobody imposes it on you.
What it changes, and what it does not
It changes how readable your declarations are. In a micro-enterprise everything starts from the Cash receipt: only money actually received forms the turnover of the month or quarter.
A dedicated account makes that reading mechanical, because its statement confirms, line by line, the Income ledger, which remains the compulsory record, and the declaration that follows from it.
During an URSSAF audit, that comparison between statements and declarations is precisely what is carried out: a mixed account turns a one-hour check into several days of reconstruction.
It changes nothing in the calculation.
The micro scheme replaces real costs with a flat-rate tax allowance, 34% for a liberal activity taxed as BNC (bénéfices non commerciaux, non-commercial profits) in 2026, and that allowance applies whether your purchases went through a dedicated account or your personal one.
Contributions themselves are calculated on gross turnover received, never on the balance of the account.
What a mixed account costs
Take a freelance developer in an unregulated liberal profession (BNC). Over one quarter her clients pay her €3,000.
Into the same account also land €1,200, a friend repaying a holiday she had fronted, and €400 transferred from her savings account.
When declaring, she adds up the credits on the statement: €4,600.
At the 25.6% rate applying in 2026 to liberal activities under the general scheme, a rate that does not apply to the regulated professions covered by CIPAV, she pays 25.6% of €4,600, that is €1,177.60 of contributions, where the €3,000 she actually earned would have called for €768.
The CFP (contribution à la formation professionnelle, the vocational training levy), which comes on top of that overall rate, 0.2% of turnover for a liberal profession in 2026 and due once turnover has been declared in the previous calendar year, rises for the same reason from €6 to €9.20.
In a single quarter, €412.80 paid on money that was never turnover, and that no simple request brings back.
Those €1,600 also eat into her €83,600 ceiling, shared in 2026 by BIC services and BNC liberal activities.
They eat into her VAT sub-threshold too, set in 2026 at €37,500 of previous-year turnover and €41,250 in the current year.
That sub-threshold only protects her as long as her total turnover also stays under €85,000 and €93,500 over those same two periods.
Two false ideas are expensive here. The first: a dedicated account makes nothing deductible.
A laptop paid for from that account reduces neither your contributions nor your tax, because the micro scheme ignores real costs. The second: this account separates no assets.
The money sitting there is yours, you can transfer it to your personal account whenever you like, that transfer is neither a salary nor a dividend, and it is declared nowhere.
Protecting your personal belongings is a matter of Professional assets, a legal notion that depends on no bank.
Dedicated account, business account and company account
Three different things carry almost the same name. The dedicated account is a use: a second account in your own name, at the bank of your choice, whose movements you keep for the activity.
The business account is a commercial product, charged for, bundled with services such as a card terminal or a named adviser: sometimes useful, never imposed by law on a micro-entrepreneur.
An account opened in the name of the business, finally, assumes a legal entity, and a micro-enterprise is not one: it is a Sole proprietorship under a simplified regime, so the account stays in your name.
Two practical points. The terms of a personal current account may forbid business use: that is your bank's rule, not a tax rule, and it is worth checking before you open anything.
And a Stripe, PayPal or SumUp balance is not a bank account: it is a case of Platform payments, whose payout should land on the dedicated account, remembering that the turnover to declare is the amount paid by the customer, commission not deducted.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need a dedicated account from the very first euro?
No. The obligation is triggered only above a level of turnover sustained for a period set by regulation, and many micro-entrepreneurs never reach it.
Opening a second free account from the start is still one of the most profitable moves of the early months, because it makes every declaration mechanical.
Is a free online current account enough?
Yes, as long as its terms allow business use and nothing but the activity passes through it.
The only criterion that counts is the separation of movements, not the name of the product nor the fees attached to it.
Check that point with the bank before opening: any restriction there is contractual.
Can I transfer money from the dedicated account to my personal one?
Yes, whenever you want and for whatever amount you want.
That transfer is neither a salary nor income to declare: contributions and tax have already been calculated on the turnover received, and the balance of the account enters no calculation at all.
What happens if I fail to open one when I am required to?
It is a breach of a legal obligation and exposes you to a penalty, but the real cost shows up elsewhere.
Without a readable statement, every declaration becomes impossible to verify and the burden of proof falls on you during an audit, sometimes on movements several years old.