Definition
On 20 December a client buys a €250 gift voucher from you, to offer a friend a photo session. The session will take place in April, perhaps in June, perhaps never.
The question lands on 31 December, as you fill in your return: does that money belong to the year that is ending, or to the year the work will actually be delivered?
To the year that is ending.
A gift card, a gift voucher, a bon cadeau that you issue on your own services is a payment received in advance, and a micro-enterprise knows only one date, that of the Cash receipt.
A gift card enters your Turnover on the day it is paid for, not on the day it is redeemed. The voucher is only a promise of work; the money is already in your account.
What you declare, and when
On the day of the sale, you enter the amount in your Income ledger with its date, its amount and the payment method, exactly like any ordinary job.
It then goes into the declaration for the month or quarter concerned, and contributions are calculated on it.
On the day the voucher is redeemed, you declare nothing. The work is delivered, but no money comes in: it came in months earlier.
The same card is never declared twice, and plenty of vouchers are, precisely because being redeemed looks like being sold.
Give the customer a document covering the work done, stating that it was settled by gift voucher, with no new amount received.
Twelve vouchers sold in December
A photographer in an unregulated liberal profession (BNC, non-commercial profits) sells twelve €250 gift vouchers between 1 and 24 December 2026, so €3,000 received.
Four will be redeemed in March 2027, six over the summer, two never will.
Her December 2026 declaration therefore shows €3,000.
At the 25.6% rate applying in 2026 to liberal professions under the general scheme, meaning outside the regulated professions affiliated to the Cipav, social contributions come to €768.
On top comes the CFP, the contribution à la formation professionnelle or vocational training levy.
It is 0.2% of turnover for a liberal profession in 2026, which is €6, owed as soon as a positive turnover was declared in the previous calendar year.
She pays €774. That rate covers neither income tax, which is settled separately, nor the chamber levy owed by traders and craftspeople.
In 2027, the ten sessions actually delivered produce no line on any declaration, and neither do the two expired vouchers. The year 2027 will only ever see the vouchers sold in 2027.
Waiting for a voucher to be redeemed before declaring it is the most common mistake, and it comes from accounting logic that is perfectly sound elsewhere: in a company taxed on actual profits, a gift card is deferred income, and becomes income only when the customer uses it.
That logic does not carry over to the micro regime, which works on a cash basis.
A card that is never used remains turnover you have already declared: its expiry gives back neither contributions nor tax.
The effect shows up on VAT too, since those sums fill your counters for the year of the sale.
For a service provider the basic VAT threshold is €37,500 in 2026 and the higher one €41,250.
Both are sub-thresholds rather than standalone limits, since your total turnover must also stay below €85,000 for the previous year and €93,500 for the current one.
Crossing the higher threshold makes you liable that very day, as set out in article 293 B of the French tax code.
A strong Christmas campaign can therefore push work that will only be delivered in spring into VAT.
Gift vouchers, deposits and online sales
Three situations look alike, and the good news is that they are settled the same way.
A Deposit paid in December for a job starting in March belongs to December; a gift voucher paid for in December for a session in March does too.
Money received in advance is never put on hold.
Selling your vouchers through an online shop does not change the rule either, only the way you read it.
The customer's payment and the payment provider's transfer do not fall on the same date, and that is the specific case of Platform payments.
One constant holds: your turnover is the amount paid by the customer, commission not deducted.
A €250 voucher sold online is declared at €250, even if only €242.50 reaches the account.
Two neighbouring items are not gift cards at all.
Chèques-vacances (state-backed holiday vouchers) are issued by the ANCV and may only be accepted by approved professionals: your income is their face value, before the reimbursement commission, and it arises on the day the ANCV pays you.
A discount voucher, meanwhile, is not a payment but a reduction in price: €30 off a €200 job gives €170 of turnover, not €200.
Frequently asked questions
Do I have to refund a gift voucher that nobody used?
The answer lies in your Terms and conditions: they set the validity period of the voucher and what happens to unused sums, and they bind both parties as soon as the buyer was made aware of them before paying.
Write that period on the voucher itself. If you do choose to refund, the sum returned reduces the turnover of the period in which you hand it back, with the supporting document kept.
Should I issue an invoice when the voucher is sold?
Yes, the buyer is owed a document, with the usual details of your invoices and a description of the work promised.
As long as you are under the VAT exemption scheme, no VAT appears on it and you state "TVA non applicable, article 293 B du CGI", which remains the wording to use until 31 December 2026.
VAT rules move to a new code on 1 January 2027, and the wording then becomes "TVA non applicable, article L. 233-3 du CIBS"; the old one remains accepted until 30 June 2028.
Do gift vouchers count towards the micro-enterprise ceiling?
Yes, from the first euro and in the year they are sold, like any other receipt.
For services and liberal professions the ceiling is €83,600 in 2026, an amount announced for the years 2026 to 2028.
A year-end campaign that fills your cash therefore fills your ceiling as well, while the matching work is still entirely ahead of you.
Can I push the payment for December vouchers into January?
Only the date the money is made available to you counts: a transfer on the day it appears on the account, cash on the day it is handed over, a cheque on the day you can draw on it rather than the date the client wrote on it.
Refusing a payment in December to accept it in January is legal, but the sum then changes year for every counter at once, ceiling and VAT thresholds included.