Auto-Entrepreneur France

For many people, the supreme dream is to build their own business. To achieve this desire you need a lot of ambition, perseverance, professionalism in a certain field of activity and a lot of work. This is just a small part in your way to launch in the business world. If you decided you want to be an auto-entrepreneur then you need to know some useful information.

Take your time and direct your efforts to the pre-launching stages, before actually starting your business. These stages are meant to explore and evaluate your goals and use this information to build a business plan that will help you reach your goals.

As a future entrepreneur, you need to find the answer to several key questions before starting your own business. Preparation of the following in advance will help you create a better business plan:

  • Business description;
  • Marketing strategy;
  • The analyze of competition;
  • Development plan;
  • Financial plan.

Under French law, there are two main types of legal structures for businesses:

  • The sole trader micro entrepreneur;
  • Company / Corporation.

Starting with January 1, 2009, the French state has created a new procedure for the development of a new business – Auto-Entrepreneur. This new economic system was adopted by France in order to modernize the country’s economy and to offer new entrepreneurs the opportunity to try out a new business idea in a much easier way.

This regime is universal, that is, it addresses everyone. A person may be a self-employed entrepreneur or an unemployed person who wishes to start “on his own”. The regime also refers to people who want to try entrepreneurship as a complementary activity, while still being an employee, a retired or a student.

However, this activity must be carried out in the form of an individual enterprise; otherwise the pension insurance scheme must be paid to RIS (Régime social des independents) or CIPAV (Caisse interprofessionnelle de prévoyance et d’assurance veillesse). By starting an activity like Auto Entrepreneur, many bureaucratic procedures are reduced. The legal thresholds up to which it can operate under this status:

  • Auto-Entrepreneur with sales activity – the maximum threshold is 80.300 Euro;
  • Auto-Entrepreneur with professional activity or service – the maximum threshold is 32,100 Euro.

The income tax to be paid by those who practice Commerce and Services reaches 13%, 20.5%, and 23%.

Registration or change of the status of self-entrepreneur is made by completing a declaration of auto entrepreneur and statement of activity.

Here is how to register the status of self-entrepreneur:

  1. Submit the documents online on the website http://www.lautoentrepreneur.fr or post them by mail at the centre of formalities for enterprises;
  2. Choose whether the payment of contributions and tax is done on a monthly or quarterly basis;
  3. Make a screenshot of the completed statement or save a copy of it, just to have as a reminder of what option you have chosen;
  4. Don’t forget to declare your turnover systematically, even if it is zero. In this case, the rule is that for 0 € turnovers, 0 € is paid for social contributions and tax.

The name of the future company:

The name of the person becoming an auto-entrepreneur determines the name of the future company.

The commercial name that may be chosen, by verifying that it has not been filed by someone else with the INPI, has absolutely no legal value.

It is therefore essential to be able to identify the company other than by name in the case of homonymy – the SIREN number – a unique French business registration number which proof that you are a fully registered French business. It is an essential registration for auto-entrepreneurs and it is used to identify the company. SIREN is composed of 9 digits and will be kept by the auto-entrepreneur throughout his independent activity. It never changes.

The SIRET number is composed of 14 figures: the first 9 digits are simply those of its SIREN, while the last 5 digits are used to identify the location of the business in France. It can change in case of change of address of the establishment.

Please feel free to contact us in case you would like to find out more about the auto-entrepreneur business status in France or you need assistance in registering it.