Definition
On 14 October, a freelance graphic designer receives a €4,000 bank transfer. Her running total for the year goes from €38,000 to €42,000.
She does not know it yet, but she has just become liable for VAT, that very day, on everything she invoices from then on.
The invoices she sends the following week without VAT will have to be corrected, and the tax will still be owed whether or not she thought to charge it to her clients.
A VAT threshold is a level of Turnover above which the VAT exemption scheme stops and you have to charge VAT.
There is not one of them per activity but two, and they do not trigger the same thing: the basic threshold is read on the year just ended, the higher threshold on the year in progress.
For 2026, article 293 B of the CGI, the French tax code, sets a total national ceiling of €85,000 on the previous year's turnover and €93,500 on the current year's.
A sub-threshold of €37,500 and €41,250 applies to services and liberal activities. Food served on the premises and accommodation come under the global ceiling alone.
Lawyers, authors and performing artists have their own line: €50,000 and €55,000 on their regulated work and transfers of rights, €35,000 and €38,500 on the rest of their activity.
Two thresholds, two effective dates
Take that designer again, with round numbers. She collected €34,000 in 2025, below €37,500, so she starts 2026 exempt. By 30 September 2026 her running total reaches €38,000.
She has passed the basic threshold without touching the higher one, and nothing changes before 1 January 2027, the date on which she would become liable.
Then the 14 October transfer takes the total to €42,000, above €41,250.
Crossing the higher threshold takes effect on the very same day: transactions carried out from 14 October 2026 onwards are subject to VAT.
The difference between the two mechanisms fits in one sentence.
Exceeding the basic threshold costs you the exemption on 1 January of the following year; exceeding the higher one costs it immediately.
Since 1 January 2025, a single overrun of the basic threshold is enough: staying above it for two years while keeping the exemption is no longer possible.
Many pages, public ones included, state that VAT applies "from the first day of the month in which the threshold is crossed".
The URSSAF page (the body collecting social contributions in France) still says so, while article 293 B of the CGI and impots.gouv.fr say the day itself.
When two official sources contradict each other, the legal text decides: keep the day of the crossing, and plan corrective invoices for everything issued since, deposits included.
The VAT is owed even if you did not charge it, and nothing guarantees that a client will agree to pay it after the fact.
The VAT threshold is not the scheme ceiling
This is the most expensive confusion on the subject, and it starts from a reasonable intuition: two rules that look at the same turnover ought to fire at the same point.
They do not, and the demo below puts both markers on a single bar.
The VAT threshold sits at 45 % of the ceiling
You invoice without VAT. Nothing to declare on that front.
The two thresholds are entirely independent: crossing the VAT one does not push you out of the micro regime, and staying under the ceiling does not exempt you from VAT. They are two separate sets of rules that happen to look at the same turnover.
For a service provider, VAT arrives at €37,500 in 2026 while the micro-scheme Turnover threshold is set at €83,600 for the years 2026 to 2028: you become liable for VAT at €37,500 and you stay a micro-entrepreneur up to €83,600.
The gap even widened in 2026: the micro ceilings were revalued that year, while the VAT thresholds, written into the CGI as fixed amounts, have not moved since 1 January 2025.
The two sets of rules remain independent, and crossing a VAT threshold costs you neither the micro scheme nor your status as a micro-entrepreneur.
The ceiling counter, for its part, fills on a Cash receipt basis: what counts is money received during the calendar year, not invoices issued.
One limit of this demo deserves saying out loud, because it catches almost everyone: the €85,000 line is not a threshold reserved for the sale of goods.
It is the total national ceiling, all activities combined, and it applies to service providers too. A mixed micro-entrepreneur at €80,000 of sales and €10,000 of services respects the €37,500 services sub-threshold and still loses the exemption, because the total reaches €90,000.
What crossing the line actually changes
Below the thresholds, your invoices carry the wording "TVA non applicable, article 293 B du CGI" (VAT not applicable under article 293 B), set out in the Article 293 B notice entry.
The BOFiP (the official tax doctrine database) accepts three wordings, including a reference to article 293 B bis for the European exemption and another to directive 2006/112/EC: seeing a different one on a colleague's invoice does not mean they got it wrong.
These wordings are the ones to use until 31 December 2026: on 1 January 2027, VAT rules move into a new code and the wording becomes "TVA non applicable, article L. 233-3 du CIBS", with no change to the thresholds.
Above them, three things happen at once.
You add VAT to your prices, you reclaim Input VAT on your business purchases for the first time, and you file a VAT return, where the exemption required none as a general rule.
A last word for anyone who followed the 2025 news: the single €25,000 exemption threshold, announced for 1 March 2025, was never applied.
It was suspended, then removed by the act of 3 November 2025, and the differentiated thresholds are maintained.
No change is confirmed to date for 2027: this page is up to date as of 5 September 2026 and will be revised when the finance act is published.
Frequently asked questions
From what amount do I have to charge VAT in 2026?
It depends on the activity, but two amounts have to be watched at the same time.
A service provider leaves the exemption at €37,500 of turnover in the previous year, or immediately at €41,250 during the current one.
Everybody, service providers included, must also stay under the total national ceiling of €85,000, raised to €93,500 for the year in progress.
Do I lose the micro-enterprise scheme when I become liable for VAT?
No, and that is the most reassuring point on this page. VAT thresholds and micro-scheme ceilings are two separate sets of rules that happen to look at the same turnover.
A service provider at €45,000 charges VAT to clients and stays a micro-entrepreneur, with the same contribution calculation and the same declaration as before.
What do I do about invoices already sent without VAT after crossing the higher threshold?
They have to be corrected, deposits included, for every transaction carried out from the day of the crossing onwards.
That is exactly why the running total is worth watching as soon as it approaches the higher threshold: asking a client to add VAT three weeks after the invoice was sent is a conversation nobody enjoys having.
Are the VAT thresholds revalued every year?
No, and that is what sets them apart from the micro-scheme ceilings.
The amounts are written as fixed figures into article 293 B of the French tax code and have not changed since 1 January 2025.
The micro ceilings, by contrast, follow a revaluation every three years, which happened in 2026: the two sets of figures move on separate clocks.
VAT threshold calculator tells you the date you become liable, which differs depending on which threshold you crossed.