A publisher offers you a contract to illustrate a book. The same month, YouTube pays out your first advertising revenue, once its monetisation thresholds are cleared.
Then comes the moment of declaring it all, and the same question stops everyone. Do you go through the artiste-auteur regime, the French social security scheme built for creators, or through a micro-entreprise?
You do not pick a regime, each income picks its own. Royalties and the sale of an original work fall under the artiste-auteur regime when your activity is within its scope. Platform advertising and client work with no creation behind it are declared somewhere else, a micro-entreprise for instance.
Plenty of creators run both at once, and that is perfectly legal.
Here is how to sort each of your incomes, and what each regime actually costs you. You will also see how to hold both side by side, with no prior knowledge of either.
The regime is decided income by income
The word "status" sends people in the wrong direction.
Being an artiste-auteur is not setting up a company. It means belonging to a social security scheme reserved for creators, whose contributions are collected by Urssaf Limousin.
A micro-entreprise is a simplified self-employment regime. Its contributions are calculated on turnover, and it only covers income that is not artistic.
The French administration page on combining the two settles one point. A work that falls under the artiste-auteur regime is not invoiced from a micro-entreprise, even if you run one alongside.
The work still has to fall under it. Two conditions must both be met: your activity belongs to one of the regime's five branches, and your pay counts as artistic income.
Urssaf publishes the list of incomes it treats as artistic. Here are the main ones.
- The sale or rental of an original work, a painting or an original photographic print for example.
- Royalties paid by a publisher, a producer or a client, in exchange for the right to exploit your work.
- Royalties passed on by a collecting society, such as Sacem for music or ADAGP for graphic and visual arts.
- Grants, creation support and prizes awarded for a work.
- Self-publishing, including your works sold on Etsy or Amazon.
- Crowdfunding for an artistic project, counted after the platform takes its cut.
Anything outside that list belongs to another activity. Selling products or delivering a service with no creation involved does not turn artistic because a creator happens to be doing it.
Developer, designer or video maker, where the line falls
The regime has five branches, from writing to photography. Two details matter if you code or draw. Original software and the design of original models both belong to it.
The test does not change from one branch to the next. You have to create an original work that carries your personal imprint. Applying a technique with no creative input of your own is not enough.
| Profile | Covered by the artiste-auteur regime | Not covered |
|---|---|---|
| Developer | Original software published and sold by a publisher, or self-published | Custom development for a client, maintenance, building and running websites |
| Graphic and web designer | Logo, visual identity, graphic mockup of a website | Layout work, site updates, consulting and art direction |
| Video maker | Original video and the royalties it earns | Advertising, subscriptions, gifts received during live streams |
| Writer | Book, practical guide, original texts for a blog | Copywriting and promotional texts |
| Photographer | Photographic work published or exploited | School, group or ID photos done as a craft service |
The developer
Someone who writes original software falls under the artiste-auteur regime when that software is made available to the public, published by a publisher or self-published. Coding a client's app or website, built for that client's own needs, does not, even if you assign them the rights.
The Sécurité sociale des artistes-auteurs, the body that runs the scheme, explicitly excludes custom development, maintenance, and building or running websites. Those jobs are services, to be invoiced from a micro-entreprise for instance.
Invoicing development work as royalties to pay lower contributions does not hold up. A custom job is a service. The regime follows the nature of the work, not the wording on the invoice.
Even once affiliated, a developer loses the tax advantages other authors enjoy. Assignments of rights on software are invoiced at the standard VAT rate, not the reduced one. No CFE exemption either, and no VAT exemption up to €50,000.
The graphic and web designer
A single assignment can straddle both regimes. For the same client, the graphic mockup of a site is a creation, while integrating and updating it is execution.
The video maker
Video makers and vloggers are listed among the authors of audiovisual works, for original videos made for the web. No official text files tutorials on one side or the other, only originality decides.
The activity qualifies, but not all of its income. The Sécurité sociale des artistes-auteurs classes advertising, subscriptions and live gifts as commercial income, excluded from the regime.
Royalties, on the other hand, sit inside it. An original video registered with SACD or Scam, two French collecting societies, earns you royalties. The same video can therefore fall under both regimes at once.
For sponsored content and donations, no official rule settles the matter. It all depends on what you are really selling, a work or a promotion service.
Contributions are not calculated on the same base
In a micro-entreprise, the maths fits on one line. A micro-entrepreneur under the BNC category pays 25.6% of turnover in 2026, whatever their costs, plus 0.2% towards vocational training.
An artiste-auteur contributes on a social base, the income kept for the calculation. Under micro-BNC, that is your receipts minus the 34% allowance, then increased by 15%. €10,000 of receipts gives a base of €7,590.
Five contributions apply to that base in 2026, at rates unchanged from 2025. The French state covers part of the bill.
| Contribution | Rate | Your share |
|---|---|---|
| Capped old-age pension | 6.90% | 6.15% |
| Uncapped old-age pension | 0.40% | 0% |
| CSG | 9.20% | 9.20% |
| CRDS | 0.50% | 0.50% |
| Vocational training | 0.35% | 0.35% |
| Total | 17.35% | 16.20% |
The capped pension contribution stops at the social security ceiling, €48,060 in 2026. Every rate appears on the Urssaf page listing contribution rates for artistes-auteurs.
Look at the base before the rate. Under micro-BNC, the 16.20% applies to 75.9% of receipts, so roughly 12.3%. On €20,000, that comes to €2,459 of contributions, against €5,160 for a micro-entrepreneur under BNC, vocational training included.
The supplementary pension is still missing. A micro-entrepreneur pays it inside the 25.6%. An artiste-auteur pays it separately to Ircec, at 8%. For 2026, it is due as soon as the 2025 base reaches €10,692.
If that base does not exceed €32,076, the artiste-auteur can ask for the reduced 4% rate before November 30. Their supplementary pension rights are then cut by half.
With the same receipts, our €20,000 costs the artiste-auteur around €3,674 at 8%, or €3,066 at the reduced rate. The regime still comes out cheaper than a micro-entreprise, but the gap falls from about €2,701 to €1,486 at the full rate. At the reduced rate, it stays at €2,094.
A client who exploits your work, called a diffuseur in the scheme, can withhold your contributions from what they pay you. That is the précompte. With a SIRET number and a BNC declaration, you are exempt from it and pay yourself.
On the benefits side, a base of €7,212 validates four quarters of basic state pension in 2026, which is 600 times the hourly minimum wage on January 1.
Income tax and VAT follow different thresholds
For income tax, everything depends on who declares your royalties. Royalties declared in full by a third party (publisher, producer, collecting society) are taxed like wages. A 10% deduction for expenses applies automatically.
You can waive it and declare everything as non-commercial profits. According to the French tax authority page on royalties, the option binds you for that year and the two following ones.
Your other artistic income, sales of works, prizes or grants, falls under non-commercial profits. Below €83,600 of receipts in 2026, you can opt for micro-BNC. It applies a standard allowance of 34% for your expenses.
Micro-BNC is not a micro-entreprise. It is a way of calculating income tax. Your artiste-auteur income gets neither the micro-entrepreneur's global rate nor the flat-rate income tax, which is reserved for the micro-social regime.
Micro-BNC is lost after two consecutive years above €83,600. Full bookkeeping then becomes mandatory.
VAT has thresholds of its own for authors. In 2026, your artistic receipts benefit from the VAT exemption scheme up to €50,000 for the previous year. The tolerance rises to €55,000 for the current year.
The general thresholds do not apply to those receipts. A micro-entrepreneur selling services crosses over far earlier, at €37,500 and €41,250. Your other author activities, workshops for instance, have their own line at €35,000 and €38,500.
If you do charge VAT, three rates apply in 2026 depending on what you sell.
- 5.5% for the sale of an original work by its author.
- 10% for an assignment of copyright, software excluded.
- 20% for everything else, including assignments of rights on software.
When your royalties come from a publishing contract, a producer or a collecting society, the payer declares the VAT on your behalf. They withhold it from what they pay you, even if you are exempt.
Running both, the most common case
Combining the two is allowed, with one clear limit: a micro-entreprise never serves to invoice your works, only your other activities.
Those come in two kinds:
- Activities with no artistic character, selling products or running a guest room for example.
- Activities related to your work, such as workshops, classes or public appearances, above an annual cap.
That cap sits at €14,424 of related income in 2026. Below it, you declare them as an artiste-auteur. Above it, only the excess leaves the regime, from its very first euro, and can go through a micro-entreprise opened alongside.
The cap equals 1,200 times the gross hourly minimum wage on January 1, so 1,200 × €12.02 in 2026. A mid-year rise in the minimum wage does not move it, and the €14,256 figure still circulating was the 2025 cap.
One condition often slips past unnoticed: you must have earned a main artistic income during the year or one of the two before it, before declaring a single workshop as an artiste-auteur.
Paperwork-wise, running both is light. You keep one SIREN number and one SIRET number, unless the two activities are carried out at two different addresses.
Each activity keeps its own contributions and its own declarations. Your income tax return, though, gathers both.
Your non-commercial receipts add up for the €83,600 threshold. A developer running a professional micro-entreprise who also earns artiste-auteur income under BNC does not get two ceilings, only one. Royalties taxed as wages do not count.
Getting started, then declaring once a year
To declare under BNC, everything starts with a start-of-activity declaration on the guichet unique, the single online portal for business formalities. It gives you a SIRET number. Urssaf then checks that your activity really belongs to the regime.
If all you receive is royalties paid by a publisher or a producer, taxed as wages, you have nothing to file. Affiliation happens with the first précompte withheld by your diffuseur.
Since April 1, 2026, Urssaf decides on affiliation, and no longer the Sécurité sociale des artistes-auteurs. The year then follows a fixed rhythm:
- One annual declaration of your artistic income, on the Urssaf online space for artistes-auteurs. The one covering 2025 income ran from April 27 to June 19, 2026.
- Four payment deadlines under BNC, on January 15, April 15, July 15 and October 15.
- Instalments based on your income from two years earlier, then squared up. You can adjust them until September 30, at least fifteen days before the deadline concerned.
- Everything online, declaration and payment alike, compulsory since January 1, 2026.
For the first two years, with no known income to work from, your instalments rest on a flat-rate base. You can bring it in line with what you actually earn.
Frequently asked questions
Can royalties be invoiced from a micro-entreprise?
No, not for a work that falls under the artiste-auteur regime. If your activity belongs to one of its five branches, royalties, sales of works, grants and prizes are declared as an artiste-auteur, never from a micro-entreprise.
A micro-entreprise can exist alongside, for an activity with no artistic character or for related income above €14,424 in 2026.
How much does an artiste-auteur pay in contributions in 2026?
16.20% of the social base in 2026, once the share covered by the French state is deducted. Under micro-BNC, that base equals 75.9% of receipts, so around 12.3% of receipts.
For 2026, the supplementary pension adds 8% on top, as soon as the 2025 base reaches €10,692. Below a base of €32,076, that rate can be lowered to 4% on request, with rights reduced accordingly.
Can a developer be an artiste-auteur?
Yes, if they created original software the public can obtain, from a publisher or through self-publishing.
Custom development, maintenance and website building are services, excluded from the regime.
Does YouTube income fall under the artiste-auteur regime?
Advertising, subscriptions and gifts received during live streams are commercial income, excluded from the artiste-auteur regime.
Only the royalties earned by your original videos belong to it, such as those a collecting society passes on to you.
Can an artiste-auteur opt for the flat-rate income tax?
No, not for artistic income. The flat-rate income tax is reserved for the micro-social regime of micro-entrepreneurs, and an artiste-auteur's micro-BNC is not part of it.
A micro-entreprise held alongside, for an activity with no artistic character, can opt for it on its own receipts.