Chartered accountant for independent professionals and freelancers

Under the micro regime, you declare your receipts and a flat-rate allowance stands in for your expenses: your actual expenses are not deducted. Under the standard regime (déclaration contrôlée), you deduct your actual expenses, in return for keeping accounts and filing a 2035 return. The standard regime becomes worthwhile when your expenses exceed the allowance or when you invest. The micro regime is only open to you below a receipts ceiling. These are the rules for non-commercial profits (BNC), which cover most independent professions: consulting, healthcare, legal professions. A commercial or craft business falls under industrial and commercial profits (BIC), with different allowances and a different return: I will tell you which applies from our first conversation. I compare the micro and standard regimes using your own figures.

There is no single threshold. The question arises when your profit consistently exceeds your personal needs, when you go into partnership or when you want to give your business more structure. Corporate income tax (IS) then lets you keep in the business what you do not draw, but a company is not the only way to get there: since the 2022 reform, a sole trader under the standard regime can opt for corporate income tax, and their personal assets are separated from their business assets by default, with some exceptions. If a company makes sense, its form depends on your profession: for a regulated profession, a professional practice company (société d’exercice libéral: SELARL, SELAS) or another form allowed by its rules; for an unregulated business, a SASU or an EURL. Not all of them are automatically subject to corporate income tax: an EURL whose sole shareholder is an individual, for example, is only subject to it by election. I put figures on the situation before and after.

Under the standard regime, expenses that are necessary for your business, actually paid and supported by evidence: equipment, software, subscriptions, training, professional insurance, compulsory social security contributions, fees to your professional body. Some need particular care: vehicle, meals, home office, expenses that are partly private and partly professional. Durable equipment is in principle depreciated over several years, rather than deducted in one go. Small equipment with a low unit value can, under certain conditions, be deducted immediately. Under the micro regime, no actual expenses are deductible: the flat-rate allowance stands in for them.

It is no longer a tax issue. The uplift applied to the profit of non-members was abolished from 2023 income, and the 2025 Finance Act ended the approval of these organisations (organismes de gestion agréés), as well as the tax reduction for accounting and membership fees. Some continue to operate as associations: you can join them for their services, but without the tax advantages of the past.

As a sole trader, they are calculated on your professional income: your profit under the standard regime, or your receipts after the allowance if you are under the micro regime without being a micro-entrepreneur. They are first called on a provisional basis, then adjusted once your final income is known. So a good year also costs you the following year. A micro-entrepreneur, on the other hand, pays contributions equal to a percentage of the turnover received. This status is not open to regulated independent professions that come under a fund other than the CIPAV, such as doctors, allied health professionals or lawyers. Depending on your profession, your pension comes under an independent professionals’ pension fund (CARMF, CARPIMKO, CIPAV or CNBF, for example) or under the general scheme for the self-employed. I check your contribution calls and build the adjustments into your cash flow in advance.

Not always. Care provided by regulated medical and paramedical professions is in principle exempt from VAT. For other activities, the small business exemption (franchise en base) means you do not charge VAT as long as your turnover stays below a threshold, but you cannot recover VAT on your purchases either. These thresholds were debated in 2025: I check the one that applies to your situation and monitor whether it is crossed during the year.

Keep an eye on two limits that are not crossed at the same time: the VAT exemption threshold and the micro regime ceiling. Also compare your flat-rate allowance with your actual expenses: the standard regime can become more advantageous well before the ceiling. I help you prepare the move to the standard regime, or straight to a company, so that it happens at the right time and without disrupting your invoicing.