Definition
A freelance trainer watches her 2026 turnover pass €41,250.
She reworks her quotes, warns her clients that VAT is about to appear on their invoices, then calls her service des impôts des entreprises (business tax office) to confirm the switchover date.
The answer: there will be no switchover, this year or any other. Her continuing vocational training services are exempt, and an exempt transaction looks at no threshold at all.
A VAT exemption places certain transactions outside the tax because of what they are, whatever the amount invoiced and whoever carries them out.
It is not a favour granted to the smallest businesses, it is a rule attached to the activity itself, listed in article 261 of the French tax code.
An exemption depends on the nature of what you sell, the VAT exemption scheme on the amount you collect. Mixing the two means getting the only question that matters wrong: will this ever stop?
Exemption and the franchise en base: the word that misleads everyone
Everyday language calls any freelancer whose invoices carry no VAT "VAT exempt".
In the statutes, the two situations share neither their cause, nor their life expectancy, nor the wording they put on an invoice.
| What separates them | Exemption by nature | Franchise en base |
|---|---|---|
| What triggers it | The nature of the transaction, defined by law | Turnover that has stayed below the thresholds |
| What ends it | No threshold, no date, no amount of growth | €85,000 and €93,500 of total turnover in 2026, with a sub-threshold of €37,500 and €41,250 for services |
| The wording on the invoice | The legal basis of the exemption relied on | "TVA non applicable, article 293 B du CGI" until 31 December 2026, then "TVA non applicable, article L. 233-3 du CIBS" |
The thresholds in the right-hand column are written directly into article 293 B of the French tax code, unchanged since 1 January 2025 and not modified in 2026: their full mechanics, basic threshold and higher threshold, live in the VAT threshold entry.
The left-hand column carries no amount whatsoever, and that is the whole point: an exempt activity never becomes liable for VAT by growing.
Two service providers at €60,000 in 2026
Take two freelancers collecting exactly the same amount in the same year: €60,000 of services in 2026. The first is a marketing consultant, and his work falls within the scope of VAT.
On the day his running total passes the higher threshold of €41,250, the exemption stops for transactions carried out from that very day, not from the following month.
Across his year, €60,000 minus €41,250 leaves €18,750 falling into the scope of the tax, with VAT to add to his clients' prices and a VAT return to file.
The second sells continuing vocational training, which is exempt. At €60,000 she charges no VAT. At €90,000 the following year, still none.
No switchover day, no corrective invoices, no billing tool to reconfigure. And both remain micro-entrepreneurs.
The micro scheme's Turnover threshold is €83,600 for services over the 2026 to 2028 period, entirely unrelated to the VAT thresholds. Her €90,000 year does not push her out of it.
You have to exceed that ceiling two years running before moving to the régime réel, on 1 January of the following year.
The trap springs the other way round far more often: being below the thresholds is not being exempt.
The consultant in the example invoiced without VAT for months, believed himself exempt, and discovers on his first overshoot that the tax was due from the day he crossed the line.
Invoices already issued that month, deposits included, have to be corrected.
The second effect is identical for both of them: neither the franchise en base nor an activity exemption grants the right to reclaim VAT on purchases.
Which activities, and what nobody checks on your behalf
The families of exemptions freelancers meet most often are continuing vocational training, medical and paramedical procedures carried out by regulated professionals, school and higher education teaching, and the letting of unfurnished residential property.
Each comes with precise conditions, and a neighbouring activity tips over to the other side quickly: selling video courses is not teaching, and a training service often requires an official attestation from the administration, which you do not obtain merely by invoicing training.
None of this is declared when you register.
Neither your APE code, nor your tax category, nor any box on the guichet unique (the one-stop shop for business formalities) triggers an exemption: the invoiced transaction carries it, and your business tax office confirms your case.
The practical consequence for your paperwork: if your transactions are exempt, the Article 293 B notice does not describe your situation, since it refers to the franchise en base.
The Bulletin officiel des finances publiques (the official tax doctrine) accepts three wordings for that scheme; the basis for an exemption is worth confirming before it is printed on a thousand invoices.
And above all, do not add VAT "just to be safe": any VAT written on an invoice makes you liable for it purely because you wrote it, and your client cannot even reclaim it.
Frequently asked questions
Can I reclaim VAT on my purchases if my activity is exempt?
Under the franchise en base the answer is a flat no: no Input VAT can be reclaimed, and a laptop or a software subscription costs you its VAT-inclusive price for good.
For an exemption, the deduction regime depends on which exemption applies, and those attached to the nature of an activity generally open no right of deduction at all.
Have your business tax office confirm the point before buying equipment while counting on a refund.
Does an exempt activity remove every reporting duty?
No, and the confusion is expensive.
The exemption covers VAT, nothing else: you still declare your turnover to Urssaf, you still pay your social contributions, and you still report your receipts on your income tax return.
On the VAT side, the French tax administration states that no return is due "as a general rule", and that reservation carries real exceptions: purchases of goods from an EU supplier, import VAT, and distance sales to consumers in another member state.
What if I run two activities and only one of them is exempt?
That is the most common situation among freelance trainers, and it is perfectly allowed.
An exemption attaches to the transaction, not to the business: the same micro-enterprise can invoice exempt training sessions and consulting subject to VAT.
Each invoice then carries the regime of what it describes, your revenue tracking has to separate the two streams, and your taxable transactions remain governed by the franchise en base thresholds.
Ask your business tax office to confirm how each line is counted.
Does the single €25,000 exemption threshold change anything?
Nothing, for two reasons.
It was never applied: scheduled for 1 March 2025, suspended before taking effect, then removed by the act of 3 November 2025, with the differentiated thresholds maintained.
And even in force, it would only have touched the franchise en base, never activity exemptions, which depend on no amount.
This page is up to date as of 5 September 2026: no change is confirmed to date for 2027, and it will be revised when the finance act is published.