Definition
Your first invoice has been paid. Two thousand euros land in the account, whole, with no payslip to explain what is missing.
This is the moment when many new business owners get it wrong: they spend money that is already partly not theirs.
A micro-entrepreneur's social contributions are a flat-rate charge, meaning a percentage applied to the Turnover actually received, declared and then paid to URSSAF every month or every quarter.
They are never calculated on profit, only on what you collect, before a single expense. No money in, no contribution.
In return, they fund health cover, daily sickness benefits, a basic pension and a supplementary pension.
One rate per activity, and only one moves in 2026
The rate depends neither on how long you have been trading nor on how much you collect, only on the nature of the declared activity.
Here are the full rates applying in mainland France in 2026, as published by Urssaf.
| Declared activity | Full 2026 rate |
|---|---|
| Sale of goods, catering, hotel accommodation | 12.3% |
| Commercial and craft services (BIC, business profits) | 21.2% |
| Other services, non-regulated liberal professions (BNC) | 25.6% |
| Regulated liberal professions attached to CIPAV | 23.2% |
| Classified tourist furnished rentals | 6% |
Only one moves in 2026, the BNC rate under the general scheme: 24.6% in 2025, then 25.6% since 1 January 2026.
It is not 26.1%, a figure from a 2024 decree replaced by décret n° 2025-943 of 8 September 2025, and which nevertheless still circulates everywhere.
Do not mix up the two families of liberal professions either: an architect attached to Cipav pays 23.2% in 2026, which is 2.4 points less than a non-regulated consultant.
Two activities changed box on 1 January 2026: bed and breakfasts moved from sales to services, so to 21.2%, and non-classified tourist furnished rentals left the micro-social scheme for the standard self-employed regime, while keeping a micro-BIC tax regime up to 15,000 euros.
Because the rate hits turnover and not profit, two people working just as hard do not pay the same amount. Move the slider to see the gap in euros.
Between the lightest and the heaviest, the gap reaches 3,990 €
These amounts cover social contributions only. The vocational training contribution and the chamber levy come on top, as does income tax. Rates apply in mainland France, excluding ACRE relief and tourist rentals.
On 30,000 euros collected in a year, the seller of goods pays 3,690 euros and the non-regulated professional 7,680 euros: a 3,990 euro gap for work of identical value.
That is the first figure to build into a price.
The calculation, and what it leaves out
The calculation is one multiplication. A non-regulated freelance developer collecting 30,000 euros in 2026 pays 30,000 by 25.6%, so 7,680 euros over the year.
A software subscription or a train ticket will not reduce that figure by a single cent.
Hence the habit that spares you the shock described at the start: set the contribution aside on the day the money lands, and treat only what is left as yours.
The headline rate is not everything Urssaf collects.
The Vocational training contribution (CFP) comes on top (0.1% for traders, 0.2% for liberal professions, 0.3% for craftspeople in 2026), due as soon as you declared a positive turnover in the previous calendar year, and not covered by the Acre relief.
On top of that comes the Chamber of commerce levy, due only from the second year of activity and above 5,000 euros of turnover, and higher in Bas-Rhin, Haut-Rhin and Moselle.
A craft service provider outside Alsace-Moselle therefore pays 21.2 + 0.3 + 0.48 = 21.98% of turnover.
That leaves the most expensive confusion of all: contributions and income tax are two separate charges. The 25.6% paid by our developer contains no income tax whatsoever.
Income tax is settled separately, through the standard scale after the flat-rate allowance, or through the versement libératoire (flat-rate income tax paid with each declaration) for those entitled to it.
What the flat-rate charge buys
Behind the single rate sit six contributions, whose split changes on 1 January 2026: CSG-CRDS (the general social levies) gives ground to the lines that build entitlements.
For sales, BIC services and Cipav, whose overall rate has not moved, the amount taken stays the same while the entitlements earned go up.
Out of 100 euros paid in 2026 by a BNC micro-entrepreneur under the general scheme, 46.40 euros go to the basic pension, 21.00 euros to the supplementary pension and 25.20 euros to CSG-CRDS, the rest covering health, daily sickness benefits and invalidity and death cover.
One nuance not to get backwards: for BNC, the basic pension share falls (47.60% of the charge in 2025, 46.40% in 2026), and it is the amount in euros that rises, because the overall rate went up.
Pension quarter validation follows a single rule: four quarters at most per calendar year, one quarter per band of pensionable income equal to 150 hours of the hourly minimum wage on 1 January of that year.
That works out at 1,803 euros for 2026, which is 150 by 12.02 euros, the minimum wage in force on 1 January 2026. It is a calculated amount rather than a published one.
The minimum wage rise on 1 June 2026 does not change the quarters of the current year.
Outside the regulated liberal professions, the administration no longer publishes a turnover figure per activity: the number of quarters depends on the income reconstructed from the contributions actually paid, and the official career statement is what counts.
For Cipav, Urssaf does publish a 2026 table: 2,792 euros validate one quarter, 11,168 euros validate four.
Frequently asked questions
Do I still have to declare a quarter with no income at all?
Yes, the declaration remains compulsory: you enter 0 euros and you pay nothing.
A period without turnover opens no entitlement, however, and an Acre application filed too early is used up all the same, since its relief period runs even when no revenue comes in.
What does a business created in 2026 pay with Acre?
For an activity created up to 30 June 2026, a BNC micro-entrepreneur pays 12.8%.
From 1 July 2026, the same person pays 19.2%: the rate paid becomes 75% of the full rate, so the actual relief drops from 50% to 25%.
The application must be filed with Urssaf within 60 days of the start of activity.
Does Acre relief cost me pension entitlements?
No: entitlements are calculated on the charge that would have been due without it, subject to one condition that is never optional, being up to date with payment.
Arrears, on the other hand, really do cost quarters.
Does the rate go up as turnover grows?
No, the charge is strictly proportional: the rate is the same on 5,000 euros as on 80,000 euros collected.
What changes when certain amounts are crossed is VAT, and then, after two consecutive years above the ceiling, membership of the micro scheme itself.
Rates in force in 2026, checked on 5 September 2026.