CFE for auto-entrepreneurs in France: exemptions, calculation and payment

The CFE for auto-entrepreneurs is the cotisation foncière des entreprises, the CFE (the local business property tax): a local tax paid by everyone who carries on a non-salaried activity, the micro-entreprise (France’s micro-business regime) included, even when they work from home or at their clients’ premises. The good news is that many auto-entrepreneurs (self-employed people under France’s micro-business regime) don’t pay it, or not straight away: the year the business is created is exempt, and so is a small turnover. Who pays, when, how much, and how to settle it before 15 December: it’s all here.

The rules and amounts are those in force in 2026, checked on impots.gouv.fr, service-public.gouv.fr and the BOFiP (the tax administration’s official doctrine) on 30 September 2026.

What the CFE is

The CFE is part of the contribution économique territoriale (CET, the territorial economic contribution). According to Service-Public, it’s collected by the municipality (or the group of municipalities, the intercommunalité) where you carry on your activity, and it’s due every year from whoever, on 1 January, habitually carries on a non-salaried professional activity in France.

For the auto-entrepreneur, two things make it unusual:

• it doesn’t depend on your profit, and not directly on your turnover: it’s calculated on the rental value of the premises you use, or failing that on a minimum base (base minimum) set by your municipality;
• it isn’t paid to the URSSAF (the body that collects social-security contributions): you pay it to the tax office, from your professional area on impots.gouv.fr.

The CFE isn’t the taxe foncière (property tax). The taxe foncière is due from the owner of a property; the CFE is due from whoever carries on the activity, whether they own, rent or have simply set up in a room of their home. The two can exist side by side.

The first-year exemption

No CFE is due for the year the business is created, whatever the date of creation within the year. Because the CFE is always set for a whole calendar year, the exemption covers only that year: an activity created on 31 December 2025 is subject to the CFE from 2026.

For an auto-entrepreneur with no employees, the year of creation in the CFE’s sense is a precise notion. The BOFiP sets it as the first year in which you have turnover. As long as you haven’t received any takings, your activity hasn’t begun as far as the CFE is concerned, and your first assessment comes the year after your first turnover.

If you receive a CFE notice (avis de CFE) when you haven’t yet had any turnover and don’t employ anyone, you can ask the business tax office (service des impôts des entreprises) for tax relief (dégrèvement), bringing proof that you had no takings.

Service-public.gouv.fr adds that, in the year after creation, the tax base is halved.

The initial 1447-C declaration

In the year you’re created, you must file the initial CFE declaration no. 1447-C with the business tax office (SIE) you report to, by 31 December at the latest. It’s what triggers the exemption for the year of creation, and the details you give on it are used to calculate your CFE in the following years.

The declaration is due even if you work from home. In that case, impots.gouv.fr says to fill in:

• in box A2 (page 1), the floor area of your main home used for your activity;
• in box A3 (page 2), the origin of the establishment, by ticking « Début d’activité » (start of activity);
• in box B1 (page 2), the date of creation, the number of employees and your estimated turnover or takings excluding VAT.

Service-public.gouv.fr specifies that the form is filed on paper with the SIE; you can download it from impots.gouv.fr or from your professional area. If you later change the place where you work, that’s also a 1447-C, this time ticking « Transfert d’activité » (transfer of activity).

The exemption under €5,000 of turnover

This is the exemption that concerns the most auto-entrepreneurs. impots.gouv.fr states that if you’re taxed on the minimum base (the case for nearly everyone who has no business premises) and your turnover or takings for the reference period don’t exceed €5,000, you’re exempt from the minimum contribution (cotisation minimum).

The reference period is the year before last before the tax year:

Scaling up to 12 months matters a lot the first time. If you started on 1 October and received €3,000 over three months, your turnover scaled up to a full year is €12,000: you don’t get the exemption, even though you received less than €5,000.

The exemption under €5,000 applies to the minimum contribution. If you have real business premises whose rental value exceeds the minimum base, your CFE is calculated on those premises, and this exemption doesn’t apply.

You work from home: is the CFE due?

Yes. The CFE is due even without premises, when you work from home or at your clients’ premises. It’s the most frequent question, and impots.gouv.fr’s answer is clear: you’re then taxed on a minimum base, voted each year by your municipality or group of municipalities, whose amount depends on your turnover.

The place taken into account is your business address (domiciliation). It can be your home, or another address if you use a business address contract (contrat de domiciliation commerciale): it’s then the municipality of that address that sets the base and the rate.

How the CFE is calculated

The calculation has three steps:

1. The base. This is the rental value of the property subject to the taxe foncière that you used for your activity during the year before last. If you have no premises, or if that value is very low, it’s replaced by your municipality’s minimum base.
2. The rate. The municipality or group of municipalities votes its CFE rate. So with the same turnover, two auto-entrepreneurs set up in two different municipalities don’t pay the same amount. The online service « Connaître les taux d’impositions directes locales par commune » (find out local direct tax rates by municipality) gives yours.
3. The management fees (frais de gestion), added to the base multiplied by the rate.

According to the BOFiP, the minimum base is framed by law, according to the turnover of the year before last. Each municipality chooses its amount within the range:

Careful: this table gives a base, not the amount to pay: the CFE is this base multiplied by your municipality’s rate.

An example

You’re a consultant and you work from your flat. Your activity started in 2025, and you received €18,000 over ten months. For your CFE, the turnover of the year of creation is scaled up to 12 months: €21,600. You’re above €5,000 and you fall in the €10,001 to €32,600 band.

The municipality’s figures below are invented for the example; yours are on your CFE notice.

In 2025, the year of creation, you pay nothing. After that, this calculation applies, plus the management fees. Your CFE notice details the base and the rate used, and any reduction for the first year of assessment.

On the CFE notice, the mention « OUI » (yes) on line 9 shows that your contribution was calculated on the minimum base.

Other exemptions that may apply to you

Some activities are permanently exempt from the CFE, whatever the turnover. Among those that often concern auto-entrepreneurs:

• painters, sculptors, engravers and illustrators regarded as artists who sell only the product of their art, including graphic designers whose activity is limited to creating graphic works;
• author photographers, for taking photographs and assigning their works or their copyright;
• authors, composers, choreographers and translators receiving copyright royalties;
• teachers of literature, sciences and the recreational arts who teach in person, at home, at their pupils’ homes or in premises with no sign or special fittings;
• independent home sellers whose total gross pay is below €7,930;
• craftspeople and jobbers (façonniers) who work alone or with the help only of apprentices under contract (help from a spouse, a Pacs partner (civil partnership) and children is allowed).

Lastly, some municipalities grant optional exemptions, for example for three years for a new establishment, or in certain areas. They depend on a local council decision: ask your SIE.

Paying the CFE: the professional area and the 15 December deadline

The notice doesn’t come by post. Your CFE notice is placed only in your professional area on impots.gouv.fr. If you don’t have one yet, create it: it’s separate from your personal area, the one for your income tax return.

The deadline is 15 December. Impots.gouv.fr explains that when the previous year’s CFE didn’t exceed €3,000, which is the case for the vast majority of auto-entrepreneurs, you pay it by 15 December inclusive at the latest. If that date falls on a Saturday, a Sunday or a public holiday, it moves to the next working day.

Payment must be electronic. Three options:

Direct debit on the due date saves you from forgetting 15 December, just as the holidays approach.

The chamber fee is paid elsewhere. The auto-entrepreneur doesn’t pay the chamber fee (to the chambers of commerce and industry or the chambers of trades) with the CFE: it’s paid to the URSSAF, with your contributions.

So that your reference turnover is easy to find on the day you fill in the 1447-C or check your notice, keep your receipts book (livre des recettes) up to date. And if you stop your activity, the CFE is one of the things to settle: the article on how to close your auto-entreprise goes through them.

A 1447-C declaration in the first year, a look at your professional area every autumn: the CFE asks for no more than that.
💜💙 Your BravoLisa Team

This article is for general information purposes only and does not constitute professional tax, legal, or accounting advice. Every situation is different — consult a qualified professional (tax adviser, accountant, or lawyer) for advice specific to your circumstances. BravoLisa does not accept liability for decisions made based on this information.

Last updated: September 2026. Rates and thresholds can change: always check with the URSSAF, impots.gouv or the relevant authority.

Sources (8)

Verified on 30 September 2026

1. impots.gouv.fr — Je suis micro-entrepreneur, dois-je payer une cotisation foncière des entreprises (CFE) et créer un espace professionnel sécurisé ?
2. impots.gouv.fr — Devrai-je acquitter une CFE l'année de la création de mon entreprise ?
3. impots.gouv.fr — J'exerce mon activité à mon domicile, suis-je redevable de la CFE ?
4. impots.gouv.fr — J'utilise une pièce de mon habitation principale pour mon activité professionnelle. Dois-je déposer une déclaration de création (n° 1447-C) ?
5. impots.gouv.fr — Formulaire n° 1447-C-SD, déclaration initiale de cotisation foncière des entreprises
6. Service Public Entreprendre — Cotisation foncière des entreprises (CFE)
7. BOFiP — BOI-IF-CFE-20-50-10, annualité de la cotisation, création et extension d'établissement
8. BOFiP — BOI-IF-CFE-20-20-40-10, cotisation minimum, règles générales