Definition
A few weeks after registering your business with the guichet unique (the one-stop shop for business formalities), a first message lands.
It comes from URSSAF, asks you to declare the turnover for the period, and adds that you must do so even if you collected nothing.
Nobody explained who this body is, or why it turns up before the tax office does.
URSSAF stands for Unions de recouvrement des cotisations de Sécurité sociale et d'allocations familiales, the network that collects the funding of the French social protection system.
For a micro-entrepreneur it is a single payment counter: you declare what you have collected, you pay your Social contributions, and it also takes two levies that are not part of that flat-rate package.
What it actually takes, in euros
The contribution rate depends on your activity.
In 2026 it is 12.3% for the sale of goods, 21.2% for services taxed as BIC (industrial and commercial profits), 25.6% for other services taxed as BNC (non-commercial profits) under the general scheme, and 23.2% for regulated liberal professions affiliated to Cipav.
Only one of those rates moved on 1 January 2026: the BNC rate, raised from 24.6% to 25.6% by décret n° 2025-943 of 8 September 2025.
Two activities sit outside that list: classified tourist furnished rentals are taxed at 6% in 2026, and non-classified tourist furnished rentals left the micro-social scheme on 1 January 2026, even though the tax side keeps a micro regime for them.
Take a craft business providing services outside Alsace-Moselle, collecting 3,000 € in one quarter of 2026. Social contributions come to 21.2% of that, or 636 €.
On top of that sits the Vocational training contribution at 0.3% for craftspeople, or 9 €, then the Chamber of commerce levy owed to the chambre de métiers (chamber of trades), 0.48% for a service activity, or 14.40 €.
The total levy reaches 659.40 €, which is 21.98% of the turnover collected.
That 0.48% applies outside Alsace-Moselle: the levy reaches 0.65% in the Bas-Rhin and the Haut-Rhin, and 0.83% in the Moselle in 2026, for a service activity.
The headline contribution rate never covers everything URSSAF takes. A non-regulated liberal professional pays 25.6% in contributions plus 0.2% of CFP in 2026, so 25.8%, but no chamber levy: that one applies only to traders and craftspeople.
It is due only from the second year of activity, and not below 5,000 € of turnover, a threshold whose reference year is shown in your URSSAF account.
The CFP, for its part, assumes turnover was declared in the previous calendar year, and no start-up exemption removes it.
What it does not take
The most common mix-up sets URSSAF against the tax administration, and it hurts cash flow because it makes people forget a whole bill.
URSSAF does not collect your income tax: that goes to the DGFiP, the French tax administration, based on your annual income tax return.
There is one exception, the versement libératoire option, where URSSAF takes an extra percentage on the same declaration, but on behalf of the tax administration.
The CFE, the local business property tax, follows the same tax route: you pay it to the DGFiP in your professional account, and it never appears on an URSSAF payment schedule. So does VAT.
In the other direction, a widespread reflex knocks on the wrong door: the chamber of commerce or chamber of trades levy never appears on a micro-entrepreneur's CFE notice, as the official DGFiP answer states, because URSSAF takes it from declared turnover instead.
What the flat-rate package funds
What you pay is not a tax: the package is split between the branches of the social security system, and that split changed on 1 January 2026.
For a micro-entrepreneur taxed as BNC, it breaks down in 2026 into health 2.60%, daily sickness benefit 1.50%, invalidity and death cover 3.30%, basic pension 46.40%, supplementary pension 21.00% and CSG-CRDS 25.20%.
These percentages are shares of the package you pay, never percentages of turnover.
That internal shift favours the contributor: CSG-CRDS, which opens no entitlement at all, gives way to the contributions that do.
One quick reading circulates everywhere and is wrong for BNC: their basic pension share does not rise, it falls, to 46.40% of the package in 2026 against 47.60% in 2025.
The amount in euros goes up because the overall rate moved from 24.6% to 25.6%.
Declaring, even at zero
The Turnover declaration is still due when you collected nothing, on the monthly or quarterly schedule chosen at registration. An empty period is declared as zero, it is not skipped.
Payment counts as much as the declaration: your entitlements are calculated on contributions actually paid, not on those merely due.
On identical turnover, someone up to date validates a pension quarter where someone in arrears validates none.
URSSAF is also the body that issues the URSSAF compliance certificate your business clients ask for, and it requires being up to date with payments.
It is again the body you claim ACRE from, within 60 days of the start date declared at the guichet unique: since 1 January 2026 the claim is compulsory for every self-employed worker, and once the deadline passes the relief is lost.
The official rates for each activity appear on the URSSAF page devoted to the scheme.
Frequently asked questions
Do I have to declare if I collected nothing during the period?
Yes.
The turnover declaration is due at every deadline, including at zero: it is what triggers the calculation, and a period left undeclared counts as a failure to file, not as an absence of activity.
A nil amount is simply entered as zero.
Does URSSAF collect my income tax?
No, unless you opted for the versement libératoire. Only in that case does it take an extra percentage alongside your contributions, on behalf of the tax administration.
Without the option, your income tax is settled with the DGFiP after your annual income tax return.
Why is the amount taken higher than the advertised rate?
Because the contribution rate does not say everything. The vocational training contribution is added, along with the chamber levy for traders and craftspeople.
A craft service provider outside Alsace-Moselle pays 21.2%, then 0.3%, then 0.48%, which is 21.98% in 2026.
Is ACRE granted automatically when I register?
No, and this is the structural change of 2026: the claim must be filed with URSSAF within 60 days of the start date declared at the guichet unique.
Without that step the full rate applies, with no way of claiming it back later.