You are in a liberal profession with €60,000 of profit? If you pay yourself everything, corporate tax only gains you €1,264 a year.
But if you only take €25,000, your business keeps €18,971 after corporate tax. Under income tax, your savings would only come to €10,096.
That money still belongs to your business, though. To get it, you will have to distribute it to yourself, and pay income tax at that point, sometimes contributions too.
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Depending on your form of business, you do not reach corporate tax the same way.
Information verified on October 14, 2026. Indicative calculator with no legal force. The figures it applies are taken from official sources and dated: only your tax notice and the tax authorities are binding.
The official pages where we read the rules and amounts applied here.
As a sole trader on actual expenses, as in an EURL that has not opted, your profit is taxed in your name the year you make it, whether you spend it or not. Your contributions and your tax fall on everything your business earns.
Under corporate tax, your pay carries the same contributions as your profit does today, and your dividends carry them too beyond 10% of your profit or your capital. What makes the difference is mostly the 10% allowance for professional expenses, which your pay as a manager is entitled to: €1,264 a year on €60,000 of profit, in a liberal profession.
What you do not pay yourself stays in your business, after a 15% tax up to €42,500 of profit, then 25%. You can use it to invest, build a reserve or get through a bad year. But that money still belongs to the business: when you pay it to yourself as dividends, you will pay income tax, and contributions beyond the threshold.
You must choose corporate tax before the end of the third month of the financial year it is to cover. You can renounce it for five financial years; after that, the option becomes final. And for a sole trader, there is a catch: the option first has you assimilated to an EURL, and that step is irrevocable.
| Profit | Income tax: you keep | Corporate tax, all paid out: you keep | Your savings under income tax | What the business keeps under corporate tax |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| €40,000 | €25,837 | €26,293 | €837 | €1,971 |
| €60,000 | €35,096 | €36,359 | €10,096 | €18,971 |
| €100,000 | €54,754 | €56,897 | €29,754 | €50,989 |
Sole trader, single with no other income. Your savings under income tax are already taxed. What the business keeps under corporate tax will still pay income tax, and contributions beyond the threshold, the day you take it out.
Léo is a developer, a sole trader on actual expenses. He lives alone and makes €60,000 of profit.
He needs €30,000 a year to live on. Under income tax, all his profit is taxed, and he keeps €5,096 of savings on top.
Under corporate tax, he pays himself his €30,000 and his business keeps €11,424, after €2,016 of corporate tax.
If Léo wants to buy equipment for his business, corporate tax suits him. If he wants to put that money aside for himself, corporate tax does not help: he will have to pay to take it out.
Corporate tax changes little for you. Do not choose it for a few hundred euros.
Look instead at whether your current regime suits your spending.
Corporate tax makes sense if that money helps you invest, not if you plan to take it out next year.
Note the deadline. You must opt before the end of the third month of the financial year.
Show your choice to an accountant. The option commits you for five financial years.
A micro-entrepreneur cannot opt for corporate tax. You have to be a sole trader under an actual-expenses regime to opt, by asking to be assimilated to an EURL. Under the micro, you must first leave the scheme.
Under corporate tax, the owner's pay is taxed like a salary: you are entitled to the 10% allowance for professional expenses, or to deduct your actual expenses. What you distribute to yourself on top is taxed like a dividend.
After opting for corporate tax, your dividends carry contributions beyond 10%: of your net profit if you are a sole trader, of your capital, premiums and current account if you run an EURL. Below that, they only pay social levies.
The corporate tax option can be reversed for a while. You can renounce it up to the month before the first corporate tax instalment of the fifth financial year following the option. After that, the option becomes final. For a sole trader, assimilation to an EURL is irrevocable from the start.
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