Pension Rights of Auto-Entrepreneurs 2012

Tuesday 01 May 2012

The level of the minimum turnover required for auto-entrepreneurs to obtain pension rights has been revised for 2012.

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If you are an auto-entrepreneur, you will normally pay a fixed percentage of your turnover in social security contributions.

The actual percentage contribution varies by type of business.

A 'service' based business pays at the rate of 21.3% of turnover, and a 'sales' based business 12% of turnover. Those in one of the professions libérales pay either 21.3% or 18.3% depending on the nature of their business activity.

The size of pension rights earned each year will depend on the turnover of the business and a minimum level of turnover is required to earn such rights.

The minimum (cash not sales) turnover per year differs by type of business occupation.

For those in sales it is €6,357; those in a service activity, €3,687; for professionals it is €2,789.

However, your pension rights are arrived at after deduction of the standard cost allowance for each type of activity - either 71%, 50%, or 34%.

Those of you with some familiarity of all of this will recognise these cost allowances as those that apply for the 'regime de base' for a micro-entreprise.

Broadly speaking, pension rights in France for the self-employed are based on points awarded for each quarter's earnings, and the value of that point. So in the following table, someone running a sales based business would need to have a turnover of €25,433 after allowances to earn four quarter points.

The following table shows the turnover needed to obtain one to four quarters' pension rights in a calendar year.

The amount of pension you will actually receive will depend on the number of quarters' you earn, although there are minor variations by type of scheme.

This article was featured in our Newsletter dated 01/05/2012