Definition
At the end of December, you add up the transfers that have landed in the account since January: 40,000 euros.
The total looks good, it tells well over a family dinner, and it matches nothing of what you will actually keep.
This is the first misunderstanding of the scheme, and it costs more than all the others put together.
A micro-entrepreneur's turnover is the total of the amounts, excluding VAT, actually received for the business during the calendar year, before a single deduction and before a single expense.
Nothing comes off it: not the software subscription, not the train ticket, not the commission of the platform that pays you.
It is a gross amount, and everything is calculated on that gross amount, your Social contributions as well as your income tax.
The record that tracks it day by day is the Income ledger, where each payment received is entered at its date, and a business selling goods keeps a purchase register alongside it.
Turnover, income, taxable base
Three amounts travel under the same word, and the gap between them runs into thousands of euros. Move the slider to see them stacked on the same scale.
The taxable base is computed on gross turnover, never on what is left to you. The two deductions do not stack.
This calculation excludes the training contribution, the chamber levy, the CFE and the tax itself. It shows the order of magnitude and the mechanism, not your exact situation.
Take a non-regulated liberal professional, taxed under BNC (bénéfices non commerciaux, non-commercial profits), who collects 40,000 euros in 2026.
At the 25.6% rate applicable in 2026, social contributions come to 10,240 euros: 29,760 euros are left. The taxable base is not that remainder.
The tax office goes back to the gross figure and applies a Standard allowance of 34% for BNC in 2026, which leaves 26,400 euros to be taxed, whatever the real expenses of the year were.
Both calculations start from the same 40,000 euros, never one from the result of the other. Believing that the allowance applies after contributions means underestimating your tax year after year.
That 25.6% rate is the one for non-regulated liberal professions in 2026: an architect or a ski instructor affiliated to the Cipav pays 23.2% that same year.
And it covers neither the vocational training contribution, 0.2% for a liberal profession in 2026, so 80 euros more here, nor income tax itself: the demo above leaves them out to show the mechanism, not your exact situation.
And the allowance changes with the activity: 34% for BNC, 50% for commercial and craft services taxed under BIC, 71% for the sale of goods in 2026, with a minimum of 305 euros, raised to 610 euros for a mixed activity.
Received, never invoiced
Turnover is counted on the payment date, not on the invoice date. An invoice issued on 20 December 2026 and paid on 8 January 2027 belongs to the 2027 turnover; an invoice never paid is never declared.
This is the Cash receipt rule, and it applies to everything: contributions, the scheme ceilings, the VAT thresholds.
Two cases go wrong in the opposite direction.
The commission a marketplace withholds before transferring your money is still turnover: what counts is the amount paid by the client, so 100 euros invoiced and 88 euros received are declared as 100 euros.
Conversely, Disbursements (frais avancés au nom du client), costs advanced in the client's name and reimbursed to the cent against receipts, are not part of it.
One counter, two unrelated limits
This yearly total feeds two mechanisms that almost everyone mixes up.
The first is the Turnover threshold of the micro scheme: 203,100 euros for the sale of goods and hotel accommodation, 83,600 euros for services, liberal professions and furnished rentals, amounts set for the years 2026 to 2028.
The second is the VAT threshold: 37,500 euros of services in 2026, under an overall limit of 85,000 euros of total national turnover across all activities, both unchanged since 2025.
Crossing either one is enough to lose the exemption.
A service provider collecting 45,000 euros in 2026 remains a micro-entrepreneur and becomes liable for VAT, because those two limits never meet.
The ceiling is not read on a single year either.
The micro scheme only ends if the amount has been exceeded in two consecutive years, N-1 and N-2: staying under the threshold in either of those two years is enough to remain in it, and the exit only takes effect on 1 January of the following year anyway.
A single year at 90,000 euros for a service provider therefore changes nothing about the micro scheme. Their VAT, on the other hand, will have switched over long before.
Frequently asked questions
Is turnover counted excluding or including VAT?
Excluding VAT, always. As long as you are covered by the franchise en base (the VAT exemption scheme), you charge no VAT and the two amounts are the same.
Once liable, the VAT you collect for the State is not yours and does not enter the turnover declared to URSSAF.
Can I deduct my purchases from my turnover?
No, no expense is deductible in a micro-enterprise: the standard allowance replaces real costs, and it applies even if you spent nothing at all.
When real costs clearly exceed that allowance, it is a sign that another tax regime would suit the business better.
Does a period with no money received remove the duty to declare?
No. The declaration is still due at every deadline and is filed at zero, with nothing to pay.
A deadline left empty is treated as a missing declaration, not as an absence of activity, and a period without income opens no social entitlement.
Do expenses rebilled to a client count as turnover?
Yes, as soon as they appear on your invoice as part of your price: a trip rebilled at 200 euros adds to your receipts and bears contributions.
Only débours, costs advanced in the client's name, are excluded. Figures in force in 2026, checked on 5 September 2026.