Definition
A freelance developer opens the spreadsheet one evening in November: €71,000 collected since January, two more projects signed before Christmas.
The question comes up on its own, and it is badly framed: am I about to blow through the ceiling? What awaits is neither a fine, nor a closure, nor a demand for back contributions.
It is a comparison, made over two years, whose outcome may change the tax regime on the following 1 January.
The turnover threshold is the amount of Turnover excluding VAT above which the micro scheme stops applying.
For the years 2026 to 2028 it stands at €203,100 for the sale of goods and hotel accommodation, and at €83,600 for services, liberal professions and furnished rentals.
Both figures appear in the scale published by the French tax administration in the Bulletin officiel des finances publiques (BOFiP, the official tax doctrine), updated on 19 August 2026.
The figure that counts is the one actually collected during the calendar year, not the one invoiced: a December invoice paid in January belongs to the following year.
This is the Cash receipt rule, and it shifts far more files around 31 December than most people expect.
Two ceilings, and mixed activities that must respect both
Take a carpenter trading in 2026. He sells furniture he builds and he invoices the installation at the customer's home: two kinds of activity, so two lines to follow separately.
Over the year he collects €50,000 from furniture and €100,000 from installation, that is €150,000 in total.
| What he collects in 2026 | Amount | What he must respect |
|---|---|---|
| Furniture sales | €50,000 | Counts towards the total |
| Installation work | €100,000 | €83,600: exceeded |
| Total collected | €150,000 | €203,100: respected |
His total sits far below €203,100, and he is in overrun all the same. With mixed activities the two conditions add up: €203,100 overall, and no more than €83,600 for the services share.
His €100,000 of installation work crosses the second one, which reading the total alone never reveals.
One exception deserves its own sentence: a regulated liberal professional affiliated to the Cipav pension fund is capped at €83,600 of overall turnover, mixed activities included.
One overrun pushes nobody out of the scheme
This is the most reassuring point on the subject, and the least known one.
The micro scheme only ends if the ceiling was crossed in both year N-1 and year N-2: staying below in either one of those two years is enough to remain in it.
A retailer at €220,000 in 2025 but €160,000 in 2024 stays a micro-entrepreneur, no argument.
When both years exceed the ceiling, the exit takes effect on 1 January of the year following the second one, never mid-course.
It carries the micro-social scheme away with it: contributions are then calculated on actual income, with minimum contributions and an annual adjustment, and the nothing collected, nothing due logic disappears.
A quarter without a single invoice still costs money. The full mechanics of that switch live in the Threshold overrun entry.
Nor is it permanent: if turnover falls back below the threshold, the actual-profit regime still applies for the year of the drop, then the micro scheme applies again as of right the year after.
The €203,100 ceiling covers the sale of goods and hotel accommodation, expressly excluding the letting of furnished residential premises.
If you let a classified gîte, a bed and breakfast or a furnished home, you fall under the €83,600 ceiling, that is 2.4 times less.
It is the costliest mistake on this subject, and it travels under the misleading label of providing accommodation.
The ceiling is neither a VAT threshold nor an income
Two figures, two worlds that do not talk to each other. Crossing a VAT threshold does not cost anyone their micro-entrepreneur status, and the reverse holds too.
For a service provider the gap is striking: the VAT exemption scheme stops at €37,500 of previous-year turnover in 2026, whereas the micro ceiling runs up to €83,600.
A freelancer at €45,000 therefore charges VAT while remaining a micro-entrepreneur.
Beware of a widespread misreading: that €37,500 is a sub-threshold reserved for services, on top of which sits, in 2026 as well, an €85,000 ceiling covering previous-year total national turnover, all activities combined.
The amounts and effective dates are detailed in the VAT threshold entry.
A second confusion to clear away: the ceiling measures what comes in, not what is left.
The administration removes a Standard allowance before calculating income tax, 71%, 50% or 34% depending on the activity in 2026, and that percentage changes nothing about the ceiling.
A consultant taxed under BNC (bénéfices non commerciaux, the non-commercial profits category) who collects €83,600 in 2026 is at the ceiling, whatever taxable profit comes out of it.
It is that allowance, and not the ceiling, that separates a liberal activity from a commercial service: both stop at the very same €83,600 in 2026, and only the percentage removed changes, 34% on one side against 50% on the other.
What happens in the first year
If you started during the year, you are not compared with a whole ceiling: it is pro-rated over your days of existence.
A services activity started on 1 March 2026 covers 306 days, that is 83,600 × 306 / 365 = €70,087, the example given by Urssaf itself, the body that collects social contributions.
Seasonal businesses, whose activity by nature can only run for part of the year, are exempt from this calculation.
That pro-rata has no consequence whatsoever on the regime of the year of creation.
The micro scheme applies as of right in the year of creation and the year after, whatever the turnover, because there is no reference year to compare with.
Someone starting in August and collecting €100,000 in five months stays in the micro scheme that year and the next.
Frequently asked questions
Why do €188,700 and €77,700 still appear everywhere?
Because those amounts were the right ones for the 2023-2025 period.
The new figures were only published by Urssaf on 20 February 2026, the finance act having been enacted late, even though they have applied since 1 January.
Several official pages still display the old numbers on content dated 2026: the BOFiP scale is the one that settles the matter.
Are the ceilings raised every year?
No, and that is a clear difference from the income tax scale.
The update happens every three years, in proportion to the three-year change in the first bracket of the income tax scale, rounded to the nearest hundred euros.
That mechanism is automatic and written into the French tax code: the 2026 increase was not decided by the finance act, which merely delayed its publication.
The amounts in force are announced for the years 2026 to 2028, and the next update will follow that same three-year cycle, at an amount that is not known to date.
In 2026, which threshold is 2025 turnover compared with?
With the new thresholds, not with the ones published at the time. Turnover from the reference years is always compared with the amounts set for the current year.
A service provider at €80,000 in 2025 therefore sits below the threshold applicable in 2026: no overrun to record.
This is the most counter-intuitive point of the whole subject, and it changes the answer in every borderline case.
Do non-classified tourist furnished rentals have their own ceiling?
Yes, and it looks like no other: €15,000 on the tax side, with a 30% allowance for 2025 income declared in 2026.
It is also the only threshold the three-year update leaves untouched: identical in 2025 and for 2026 to 2028.
On the social security side, the activity left the auto-entrepreneur scheme on 1 January 2026 and moves to the actual-income regime for the self-employed.
Both halves must be read together, or the reader ends up understanding the opposite of what applies.
Ceiling calculator tells you whether you actually leave the scheme, which takes two years over the ceiling and not one.