You deliver meals with Uber Eats or you teach private lessons with Les Sherpas. Every month, or every quarter, you copy what you earned onto the URSSAF website, then you pay.
With the withholding of contributions by platforms, the platform does it for you. It holds back your contributions on every payout, then declares and pays URSSAF on your behalf.
Voluntary platforms have been running this system since 1 October 2026. The law extends it to every platform on 1 January 2027. Your contribution rates stay the same.
So let's see whether you are affected, what you will actually receive and what you will still have to declare yourself, even if paperwork is not your thing.
Who is affected by the withholding?
You are if you work in France as an auto-entrepreneur (France's micro-business status), and part of your income goes through a digital platform.
According to the URSSAF FAQ, the obligation covers platforms that collect your client's money and then pay you what you are owed. A site that only puts you in touch, without handling the payment, is not covered.
During the trial phase, only these voluntary platforms withhold, since 1 October 2026:
- Uber Eats, for delivery;
- Les Sherpas and Sherpadom, for private tutoring;
- Wecasa and Wecasa Care, for home services;
- Student Pop and Extracadabra, for one-off assignments;
- Mon Spécialiste Auto and Truckrs, for cars and transport.
For every other platform, you declare as before until 31 December 2026.
The 2027 extension is written into France's 2024 social security financing act. In its July 2026 overview sheet, URSSAF noted that the implementing decrees were still "to come".
Do you rent out your flat or sell your belongings now and then, without making a living from it? URSSAF says these non-professional uses are not covered.
How does the withholding actually work?
You keep working as usual. The platform pays you at the same rhythm as before, every week for example.
The change happens behind the scenes, in three steps:
- At the end of each month, the platform sends its list of users to URSSAF. URSSAF replies with who is an auto-entrepreneur and which rate applies to each;
- The following month, the platform holds back your contributions on every payout it makes you;
- At the start of the month after, it declares to URSSAF what you earned, and pays over the contributions it held back.
It works a bit like income tax withheld from an employee's salary. You receive what is yours straight away, and there is no bill to pay later.
The withholding applies to each payout, not to each sale. An auto-entrepreneur's contributions are based on money received: a job done on 30 September and paid on 5 October therefore counts for October.
How much will you actually receive?
URSSAF gives a worked example in its sheet on corrections. A tutor gives a lesson billed at €100, and the platform keeps €10 in commission.
With the 25.8% rate used in this example, her contributions come to €25.80. The platform therefore pays her €64.20, which is the €100 lesson minus €10 of commission and €25.80 of contributions.
Contributions are calculated on the price the client paid, commission included. In the example, the platform keeps €10 but the contributions apply to €100, not €90. That was already the rule, and the withholding simply makes it visible on every payment.
The rate URSSAF sends covers everything you owe it. Your social contributions, the vocational training contribution and, where relevant, the chamber of commerce levy are all included.
If you chose the flat-rate income tax, your income tax is held back at the same time. An exemption such as ACRE is also taken into account, and the rate is updated every month.
To find your net income at the end of the year, tax included, our Net income calculator runs the numbers on your real turnover, based on French rules.
What do you still have to declare yourself?
The platform only declares the money that goes through it. You keep declaring the rest to URSSAF, at the same rhythm as before:
- Your direct clients, outside any platform;
- Platforms that do not withhold yet, until the end of 2026;
- Cash payments, even for a job you found on a platform.
If you declare every quarter, you keep that rhythm for that income. The platform, for its part, declares every month.
The trap is the month you sign up. Withholding starts the following month, provided you are already registered with URSSAF as an auto-entrepreneur.
Sign up on a platform on 10 April and you are withheld from May. The money received in April is yours to declare, in May if you declare monthly, in July if you declare quarterly.
Your taxes and VAT do not change either. If you charge VAT, you keep filing your VAT returns as before.
How do you check what the platform declared for you?
Each time a platform files a declaration, URSSAF lets you know by email. The details appear in your autoentrepreneur.urssaf.fr account within the first fifteen days of the following month.
You can see the platform, the month, the declared turnover, the rate applied and the contributions held back. The turnover certificate you download from the same place adds everything up, platforms and direct clients alike.
The platform must also keep you informed. According to the URSSAF sheet on its obligations, it shows the applied rate in your account over at least two months. It also details every amount held back.
What if the platform gets it wrong?
With every declaration, URSSAF recalculates your contributions from the declared turnover and your current rate. Two cases are possible:
- The platform held back too much. URSSAF refunds the difference, provided you owe it nothing;
- The platform did not hold back enough. URSSAF claims the difference from you, not from the platform.
A cancelled job follows the same path. In the URSSAF example, the €100 lesson is cancelled two months later, and the tutor gets her €25.80 of contributions back.
If you disagree with an amount, you deal with URSSAF, not the platform. Use the messaging in your online account, and URSSAF will contact the platform if needed.
In short, the withholding takes one declaration off your hands, not all of them! Keep checking your URSSAF account once a month, and note the date you join each new platform. 😉
Frequently asked questions about withholding by platforms
What is the withholding of contributions by platforms?
The platform holds back your social contributions on every payout it makes you, then declares them and pays them to URSSAF each month on your behalf.
It applies to auto-entrepreneurs working in France through a platform that collects the client's money.
Which platforms withhold contributions, and since when?
Voluntary platforms have been withholding since 1 October 2026, including Uber Eats, Les Sherpas, Wecasa and Student Pop.
The law extends the system to every platform on 1 January 2027.
Does the withholding change how much I pay?
No, the rates are the same as for every auto-entrepreneur. URSSAF sends the platform the rate for your activity, ACRE and flat-rate income tax included.
Contributions apply to the price the client paid, the platform's commission included.
Do I still have to declare my turnover to URSSAF?
Yes, for anything the platform did not withhold. That covers your direct clients, platforms that do not apply the system and cash payments.
The month you sign up on a platform is also yours to declare, because withholding only starts the following month.
