Crossing €41,250 on a Tuesday in September makes you liable that Tuesday. The invoice issued the day before stands, the one issued the day after must carry VAT.
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The exemption thresholds, that is the right to invoice without VAT, depend on what you sell: 37,500 € for services, 50,000 € for a few professions with their own scheme, and 85,000 € of total turnover for everyone, service providers included. Care, and private lessons paid for by your pupils, are exempt from VAT and have no threshold at all.
Information verified on October 1, 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.
The basic threshold is €85,000 of turnover in all, of which €37,500 at most from services. Passing either in one year makes you liable on 1 January following. You therefore have several months to warn clients, adjust prices and choose your filing regime.
The higher threshold is €93,500 in all, of which €41,250 at most from services. Crossing it makes you liable straight away: VAT is due on transactions carried out from the day it is crossed. Invoices issued before stand as they are, those after must carry VAT. It is the more expensive of the two, because it lands in the middle of a year you have invoiced without VAT.
They are adjusted to the part of the year left to run, counted in days of activity out of 365. A service business started on 12 June has 203 days: it owes VAT beyond €22,942 collected, not €41,250. The following year, its exemption only continues if that first turnover stayed under the basic threshold reduced the same way, €20,856 in this example. Only seasonal or intermittent activities keep the full thresholds.
It was voted, postponed, suspended, then abandoned by the law of 3 November 2025. The differentiated thresholds have therefore never stopped applying. Yet you still find it on pages updated in 2026: an article that presents it as the rule is out of date.
A psychologist, an osteopath, a chiropractor or a dietitian invoices their care without VAT because it is exempt in itself, not thanks to the exemption scheme. It is not even counted in the turnover measured against the thresholds: only their other services go into it, an expert report or renting their practice to a colleague for instance. A sophrologist or a naturotherapist is not exempt: these thresholds apply to them as to any service provider.
Do you give piano, language or tennis lessons yourself, without employees, and do your pupils pay you directly? Then you are exempt from VAT, whatever your turnover, and those lessons do not count towards the thresholds. Fitted-out premises change nothing, but a salaried assistant costs you the exemption. And training paid for by your trainees' employer does not meet the direct payment condition.
A service provider becomes liable for VAT at €37,500 while their micro ceiling sits at €83,600. They charge VAT and remain a micro-entrepreneur. Many people mix up the two and think they have left the micro scheme.
| Activity | Basic threshold | Higher threshold | Effect |
|---|---|---|---|
| Goods, accommodation, catering | €85,000 | €93,500 | 1 January following, or the day itself beyond the higher one |
| Services | €37,500 | €41,250 | Same |
| Lawyers, authors, performers | €50,000 | €55,000 | On regulated work only |
| Care by regulated health professions | None | None | Exempt from VAT, left out of the thresholds |
| Private lessons paid for directly by pupils | None | None | Exempt if given personally, without employees |
For lawyers, authors and performers, these thresholds cover only the work falling under their regulated activity. The rest of their turnover falls under a second exemption, at €35,000 and €38,500.
Léa is a consultant. She collected €36,000 last year, under the basic threshold: she is exempt this year.
On 15 September, one invoice paid takes her annual running total from €40,800 to €42,100. She has just passed €41,250.
From that 15 September, all her transactions are subject to VAT. Earlier months' invoices need not be redone.
Had she stopped at €40,000, she would have switched on 1 January only, with three months to organise.
For €1,300 of extra turnover, she loses three and a half months to prepare.
Put the exemption wording on every invoice, « TVA non applicable, article 293 B du CGI » until 31 December 2026, then « TVA non applicable, article L. 233-3 du CIBS »: its absence is a ground for reassessment.
Watch your running total during the year, not just the closed year. It is the higher threshold that surprises people.
While you are exempt, you cannot deduct any VAT on your purchases. If you invest heavily, you bear all of that VAT yourself.
Ask your tax office for an intra-EU VAT number. It is not issued automatically under the exemption.
Warn your consumer clients. For them VAT is a straight price rise, where businesses reclaim it.
In return you reclaim VAT on your purchases and investments, which offsets part of it.
Choose your filing regime as soon as you switch. The simplified real regime suits most micro-entrepreneurs.
The basic and higher VAT exemption thresholds differ by their effective date. Passing the basic threshold makes you liable on 1 January following. Passing the higher one makes you liable on the day itself, on transactions carried out from that day.
For a business started in 2026, the VAT exemption thresholds are reduced in proportion to the part of the year left to run, in days of activity out of 365, as the tax authority's guidance provides. For a start on 12 June, goods lose the exemption beyond €52,001 and services beyond €22,942, with VAT due from the date the threshold is passed. Seasonal or intermittent activities make no such adjustment.
Invoices issued before the day you cross the VAT threshold stand as they are, without VAT: you do not have to redo them. Only transactions carried out from that day are subject. So keep a record of the exact date you crossed it.
In 2026, the single €25,000 threshold does not apply, and it never did. Voted then postponed and suspended, it was repealed by the law of 3 November 2025 without ever taking effect. The differentiated thresholds of €85,000 and €37,500 remain the only ones in force.
You may waive the VAT exemption by opting to pay VAT, which lets you deduct it on your purchases. But stating VAT on an invoice without having opted makes you liable for it by the mere fact of writing it, with no right of deduction.
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