Definition
You fill in an online form on a Tuesday evening, a SIRET number reaches you a few days later, and you send your first invoice before the end of the month.
No share capital, no articles of association, no accountant: that is precisely what the micro-enterprise is built to produce.
It is not a legal form, it is a simplified regime laid on top of a business that already exists. Legally, what you create is a Sole proprietorship, like any other self-employed person in France.
The word "micro" covers two reliefs stacked on top of it: a tax side, computing your income tax on a percentage of your receipts rather than on your accounts, and a social-security side, turning your contributions into a percentage of what you actually collect.
No money in, no contribution due.
Two ceilings, and a rule kinder than its reputation
The regime holds as long as your Turnover threshold stays below the limits set for 2026 to 2028 by the official scale: €203,100 for the sale of goods and hotel accommodation, €83,600 for services and liberal professions.
They were raised for the period, against €188,700 and €77,700 before.
Hotel accommodation is meant in the strict sense: a classified gîte, a bed and breakfast or a furnished home rental falls under the €83,600 ceiling, not the higher one.
A large part of the web still shows the old figures, the new ones having been published only on 20 February 2026 although they apply from 1 January.
One isolated overrun does not push you out of the regime. The threshold must have been exceeded in two consecutive years, N-1 and N-2, and the exit only takes effect on 1 January following the second one.
A trader on €220,000 in 2025 but €160,000 in 2024 stays in the micro regime in 2026, both reference years being compared with the thresholds in force for the current year rather than with those of the time.
In the year of registration and the one after it, the regime applies as of right whatever the amount collected.
If you combine sales with services, both limits apply at once: €203,100 overall in 2026, of which no more than €83,600 for the services share.
A regulated liberal professional registered with Cipav, however, stays capped at €83,600 of overall turnover, mixed activity included.
On €3,000 collected, what actually leaves
A self-employed graphic designer in a non-regulated profession falls under BNC, the non-commercial profits category.
She collects €3,000 in March 2026: her Social contributions come to 25.6% in 2026, that is €768, plus the CFP vocational training contribution at 0.2% for a liberal profession, that is €6, due because she declared revenue in the previous calendar year.
She pays €774 to URSSAF and keeps €2,226, before income tax.
The rate depends on the activity: 12.3% on sales of goods, 21.2% on BIC services (commercial and craft work), 25.6% on other services under the general scheme, 23.2% for regulated liberal professions covered by Cipav, all 2026 rates published by URSSAF.
None of them includes income tax, the training contribution or the chamber levy.
On the tax side, a Standard allowance stands in for business expenses, at the rates in force in 2026: 34% under BNC, 50% on BIC services, 71% on sales.
On €36,000 collected over the year, she therefore adds €23,760 to her household's taxable income.
VAT runs on its own counter
Crossing the VAT threshold does not cost you the micro-enterprise regime. The two counters are independent: in 2026, the VAT exemption scheme for a service provider stops at €37,500 of previous-year turnover, while the micro ceiling runs to €83,600.
A freelancer on €45,000 charges VAT and remains a micro-entrepreneur.
The €85,000 threshold in force in 2026 is not reserved for sales: it targets total national turnover, service providers included, and stacks with the €37,500 sub-threshold.
As for the single €25,000 threshold announced in 2025, it was never applied, the law of 3 November 2025 having removed it.
What it gets confused with
Turnover is not income: it is the total collected, before contributions, before tax, and before your own purchases, which the micro regime never lets you deduct.
A reseller on €100,000 of sales may earn less than a consultant on €40,000.
Nor are the micro-enterprise and the sole proprietorship two competing options: the second is the container, the first the tax and social setting applied inside it, which you can lose without closing anything.
This page is up to date as of 5 September 2026: no change is confirmed for 2027, and it will be revised when the finance act is published.
Frequently asked questions
Are micro-entreprise and auto-entrepreneur the same thing?
Yes, both words describe the same regime.
The administration writes micro-entrepreneur, everyday usage kept auto-entrepreneur, and a Micro-entrepreneur is simply the person operating under it.
What happens on the day I leave the regime?
You move to the actual-profit regime on 1 January and lose the simplified social scheme with it: contributions are then calculated on real income, with minimum contributions and an annual adjustment.
Leaving is not final, the micro regime applying again as of right the year after turnover falls back below the threshold.
I work from home with no premises, am I exempt from CFE?
No. Without business premises you fall under the minimum charge, based on an amount set by your local authority according to your turnover bracket.
No CFE is due for the year of registration, but the two or three year exemption that once belonged to auto-entrepreneurs was repealed by the 2014 finance act.
The amount actually due depends on the rate voted locally: check your notice in your professional account.