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7. Social Charges/Contributions in France

7.3. Social Security Contributions for Self Employed Persons

If you are self-employed in France then the level of your contributions will depend on the legal and tax status of your business, eg limited company, or micro-entreprise.

The rules are complex and can only really be summarised here.

Broadly speaking:

If you have micro-entreprise business tax status you will pay social security contributions as a percentage of your turnover, whose rates will vary by type of business - between 12% to 23%.
If you operate on the basis of the régime réel then you pay social security contributions after deduction of your actual eligible costs, at a level of around 45% of net profits. Most social security contributions are a deductible expense for income tax.

There are various exemptions and reliefs that operate for the self-employed, notably for low profits and business start-ups.

You need to refer to our detailed review of social security contributions for the self-employed in our pages Guide to Micro-Entrepreneur and Social Security Contributions for Business Owners for those not operating as a micro-entreprise.

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