Definition
A local authority picks your quote to rebuild its website. Before signing, the purchasing department asks for "your attestation fiscale".
You search your URSSAF account, find only the attestation de vigilance, send that one, and the file comes back: wrong document, and the deadline for supporting papers is getting close.
The attestation fiscale, in full attestation de régularité fiscale (tax compliance certificate), is issued by the French tax administration and carries form number 3666-SD.
It says one thing only: on the date it is issued, you have filed the returns you owe and paid the corresponding taxes. It says nothing about your turnover, nothing about your social contributions, nothing about the quality of your work.
It is a snapshot of your tax file, taken on the day of the request.
What the administration actually checks
Two things, and only two: the returns filed, and the amounts paid. For a micro-enterprise under the VAT exemption scheme, that list runs out fast.
There is no VAT return to file, as a general rule: the exceptions concern purchases of goods within the European Union, import VAT and distance selling.
What remains is income tax, meaning the Form 2042-C-PRO filed every spring. Under the exemption scheme, your tax certificate hangs on a single thread: one form a year.
That thread snaps most often for those who chose the Flat-rate income tax, the versement libératoire.
Paying income tax alongside each turnover declaration, at 1%, 1.7% or 2.2% depending on the activity in 2026, feels like being done with the tax office for good.
Those rates cover income tax alone, by the way: social contributions come on top.
And above all: turnover must be reported on the 2042-C-PRO with the versement libératoire exactly as without it, in the box provided for that option, and the return stays compulsory even with no turnover at all.
That reporting creates no second taxation, it feeds the effective tax rate, the revenu fiscal de référence and the pension savings allowance.
A micro-entrepreneur convinced there is nothing left to declare therefore piles up missing returns without owing a single euro, and finds out the day a certificate is refused, usually in the middle of a tender.
The day VAT joins your file
Léa is a freelance graphic designer under the BNC category. She collects 45,000 € in 2026.
The VAT exemption thresholds for services, unchanged in 2026, are 37,500 € on the previous year's turnover and 41,250 € on the current year's, that sub-threshold also requiring her to stay below 85,000 € and 93,500 € of total turnover.
The day her running total crosses 41,250 €, she becomes liable for VAT: not the following month, not on 1 January, that very day.
The 3,750 € collected beyond it, that is 45,000 minus 41,250, are taxable, and invoices already issued since that date must be corrected, deposits included.
She does not lose her status for all that: the micro-scheme ceiling for services and liberal activities is 83,600 € for 2026 to 2028, more than twice the VAT threshold she has just crossed.
These are two unrelated sets of thresholds, right down to the way they age: the micro ceilings are raised every three years, while the VAT exemption figures are written into the tax code itself and did not move in 2026.
For the tax certificate, however, everything changes: Léa's file now includes periodic VAT return filings, and a single missed one is enough to have the document refused, even though she owes nothing.
Three certificates with almost the same name
The URSSAF compliance certificate comes from URSSAF and proves your social contributions are up to date.
That is the one clients ask for most often, since the law requires them to obtain it above a certain contract value to guard against undeclared work.
The attestation fiscale comes from the tax administration and speaks only of taxes. A public buyer needs both; a private client writing "attestation fiscale" usually means the first one.
The third one confuses for another reason: you are not its recipient but its issuer.
A micro-entrepreneur registered for services à la personne (personal services at a client's home) hands clients an annual attestation fiscale every year, which they use to claim their tax credit.
Same words, opposite direction.
Frequently asked questions
Where do I get my tax compliance certificate?
In your professional account on impots.gouv.fr, under the certificates section: issuing it is instant and free.
Without an online account, form n° 3666-SD is requested from the service des impôts des entreprises (SIE), your local business tax office. No paid intermediary has any role here.
It was refused although I owe nothing: how is that possible?
Because compliance covers filings as much as payments.
An income tax return never filed, or a VAT return forgotten after becoming liable for VAT, blocks the certificate without a single euro being due.
File the missing return, then issue the document again.
I have a tax debt I cannot clear right away.
Ask your business tax office for a payment plan before the client asks for the document.
A plan granted and followed to the letter is treated very differently from a debt left unanswered, which blocks your applications for a long time.
How long does a certificate stay valid?
No rule gives it a shelf life: it reflects the situation recorded on the day it was issued.
Buyers ask for a recent one, and nothing stops you from issuing a fresh certificate for each application, since it costs nothing.
I have only just registered: can I already provide one?
Your file holds no return to check yet, so the request may simply have no object.
Attach a SIRENE status notice and your URSSAF compliance certificate instead, stating in writing that your first income tax return is not due yet.
Situation up to date as of 5 September 2026.