French News Archive

Business in France

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.

Pension Turnover Thresholds
Type of businessCost AllowanceOne QtrTwo QtrsThree QtrsFour Qtrs
Sales71 %€6,357
€12,716
€19,075€25,433
Services (BIC)
50 %€3,687
€7,375
€11,603
€14,751
Professional (BNC)
34 %€2,794
€5,588
€8,382
€11,175

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.

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