Definition
A new client's supplier portal asks for "a recent extrait Kbis" before your first invoice can be approved. You go through your post, your URSSAF account, your inbox: nothing.
Nobody ever sent you one. You end up on a website offering to obtain it for a fee, and you start doubting that your business legally exists at all.
The extrait Kbis certifies that a business is registered with the Trade and companies register, the RCS.
Issued by the commercial court registry, it states the director's name, the address, the activity, the creation date and any ongoing proceedings.
It is the identity card of the businesses listed on that register.
But the register only lists companies and traders: a large share of micro-entrepreneurs have no Kbis extract, and never will.
Who gets one, who does not
Everything hinges on the activity declared at registration.
A micro-entrepreneur who buys to resell, runs a shop, serves food or provides accommodation is a trader: registered with the RCS, and therefore holding an extract.
A craftsperson with no commercial activity is not on it, their entry sits on the National business register.
A developer, a designer, a consultant or a coach carry on a liberal activity: neither traders nor craftspeople, they have no Kbis to produce, whatever their turnover.
One point of vocabulary that registries apply to the letter: Kbis refers to the extract of a legal entity, that is, a company.
For an individual, a trading Sole proprietorship for instance, the document is called an extrait K. Common usage won and everyone says Kbis, but a fussy client may be surprised to receive a K.
That fork decides more than a document. Camille buys jewellery and resells it: a trader on the RCS, so she does hold an extract.
Malik builds websites: a non-regulated liberal professional, he falls under BNC and has no Kbis anywhere.
Take the same quarter of 2026, with 10,000 € collected on each side, both of them in their second year of activity.
Camille pays 12.3% in social contributions in 2026 on her sales of goods, that is 1,230 €.
On top of that come CFP, the vocational training contribution for traders, at 0.1%, that is 10 €, and TCCI, the chamber of commerce levy on sales, at 0.015%, that is 1.50 €, a levy only due from the second year of activity.
Total for the quarter: 1,241.50 €. Malik pays 25.6% in 2026, that is 2,560 €, plus 0.2% of CFP for liberal professions, that is 20 €, and no chamber levy since he belongs to no chamber.
Total: 2,580 €.
Do not borrow your neighbour's rate: those 25.6% apply to non-regulated liberal professionals under the general scheme, while an architect or a ski instructor affiliated to the Cipav pension fund contributes at 23.2% in 2026.
Neither amount includes income tax. The same question, trader or liberal professional, sets both your register and your contribution rate.
No private website needs to be paid for this document.
A director gets the extract of their own business free of charge on MonIdenum, and the registration extract from the national business register can be downloaded from data.inpi.fr.
Platforms charging for that public data follow the same commercial logic as the Fraudulent register letters that arrive in the weeks after registration.
And having no Kbis proves nothing against you: when a client freezes payment on that ground, it is their form that failed to plan for non-trading freelancers, not your business that would be irregular.
Kbis, SIRENE notice and RNE extract
Three documents look alike and say different things.
The SIRENE status notice comes from INSEE, the national statistics office, is downloaded free from avis-situation-sirene.insee.fr and carries your SIRET number and activity code: it is the proof of existence every micro-entrepreneur holds, traders included.
The extract from the national business register, held by INPI, also covers every activity, craftspeople and liberal professionals alike.
The Kbis extract adds only one thing to the other two: the status of trader and what comes with it.
What a client is really after, most of the time, is not proof that you exist, but proof that you pay your contributions. Their own liability is engaged if undeclared work is found.
Above a certain contract value, the law requires them to ask for your URSSAF compliance certificate, which URSSAF issues from your online account.
Sending a SIRENE notice and that certificate upfront almost always unblocks the file, where the conversation about the Kbis goes nowhere.
Frequently asked questions
My client wants a Kbis and I am a freelance developer: what do I send?
A SIRENE status notice downloaded from the INSEE website, together with your URSSAF compliance certificate if needed.
Those two documents prove both that the business exists and that it is up to date, which no Kbis extract would say any better, and both are free.
Does a Kbis extract have an expiry date?
No law sets a validity period: the document is a snapshot of the register on the day it was issued.
Commercial habit calls for a recent one, simply because an address, a director or an activity may have changed since it was printed.
I am a trading micro-entrepreneur: where do I get my extract?
On MonIdenum, free of charge, once you have identified yourself as the director of the business concerned.
The commercial court registries also issue it, with a paid version for documents requested by a third party or supplied on paper.
Can a public body ask me for one?
Administrations have direct access to the registers and are no longer supposed to ask businesses for this document, even if some forms still do.
Without trader status, attach a SIRENE status notice and state that you are not listed on the trade register.