Closing your auto-entreprise in France for free: the steps

Closing your auto-entreprise (a business under France’s micro-business regime, the micro-entreprise) is done for free, online, on the guichet unique (the one-stop business formalities portal, run by INPI). You don’t need to go through a paid website: the declaration of closure is free, deregistration (radiation) from the registers is free too for a micro-entrepreneur, and the only real difficulty is the signature, which you can do at no cost. Here’s how to close your micro-entreprise step by step, the last declarations to make, what’s still due after closing, and what automatic deregistration is.

The rules are those in force in 2026, checked on Entreprendre Service Public, impots.gouv.fr and the guichet unique’s website on 30 September 2026.

Close or pause?

Before you close, check that it’s really what you want. There are two ways to stop.

The pause has one advantage: you don’t lose your registration, and the ACRE (start-up relief on contributions) keeps running if you benefit from it. At the end of the period, you reactivate your activity or close it permanently.

If you’ve simply exceeded the ceilings, you have nothing to close: your sole proprietorship (entreprise individuelle, EI) continues, it just moves to the régime réel (the standard regime, on actual profits). That’s explained in leaving the micro regime.

Is it really free?

Yes. The procedure itself costs you nothing:

• The guichet unique is free, help included.
• Deregistration is free for a micro-entrepreneur. The Commercial Code (article L743-13) exempts micro-entrepreneurs who carry on a commercial activity from all registration, amendment and deregistration fees in the trade and companies register. For a craft activity or a liberal profession, you’re entered only in the national business register (RNE), and deregistration there is free.
• The signature can be free, provided you choose the right method (next section).

What’s left to pay isn’t the closing but what your activity still owes: your last social-security contributions, your income tax, and possibly your CFE (the local business property tax) and your VAT.

Websites that offer to « fermer ton auto-entreprise » (close your auto-entreprise) for a fee carry out the same procedure as you would on the guichet unique. They don’t do away with your last declarations or your contributions: you’ll do those yourself anyway.

Step 1: declare the closure on the guichet unique

Since 1 January 2023, all business closures go through the guichet des formalités des entreprises (formalites.entreprises.gouv.fr), run by INPI (the national industrial property office). According to Service-Public, you have 30 days after your activity stops to make the declaration.

Prepare your signature first

This is the point that stops the most people. At creation, a simple click was enough to sign. For a closure, the guichet unique requires one of these two things:

• log in with FranceConnect+, a free, strengthened identification that relies in particular on La Poste’s L’Identité Numérique app. Once you’re logged in this way, the simple signature is enough;
• or use an advanced-level electronic signature certificate, with its key, which is paid for.

Create your Identité Numérique La Poste before you start your formality. If you’ve already started without it, save your draft, log in with FranceConnect+, reopen the draft and sign: that’s how to close your auto-entreprise for free all the way through.

The procedure

1. Log in to the guichet unique, preferably with FranceConnect+.
2. Select your business. If it’s your first formality from this account, you identify it with your SIREN (the nine-digit business number); the guichet unique can check that you’re indeed authorised to act for it.
3. Choose the closure formality and enter the date your activity stopped.
4. Attach your identity document: identity card or passport, or, if you’re a foreign national, the residence permit that allows you to carry on a self-employed activity.
5. Sign and send.

Only you, the holder of the sole proprietorship, can make this declaration, or a representative to whom you’ve signed a mandate. In the event of death, the heirs take care of it.

What the declaration triggers

The declaration of closure automatically leads to your deregistration from the RNE, and from the trade and companies register if your activity is commercial. Service-Public states that the guichet unique passes the information on to the other bodies: you’re also removed from the Sirene directory, from the files of the URSSAF (the body that collects social-security contributions) and from the tax administration’s files of active professionals. You don’t have to notify each one separately.

Step 2: the last URSSAF declaration and the contributions

According to Bpifrance Création, you make a last turnover declaration on autoentrepreneur.urssaf.fr, for what you’ve received from your previous declaration up to the closing date. The deadline depends on how often you declare:

• monthly: within 30 days of the permanent closure;
• quarterly: within the month following the calendar quarter of the closure.

You pay your contributions at the time of this last declaration, within 30 days of the closing date. If you’ve paid too much, the URSSAF refunds you within 30 days. If you opted for the versement libératoire (paying income tax as a percentage of turnover, with the contributions), the corresponding tax is paid at the same time.

How to make the declaration is in the auto-entrepreneur’s URSSAF declaration.

An invoice sent before closing but paid after it is still income received by your activity. For your last declaration to be right, check in your receipts book (livre des recettes) what you actually received, and on what date.

Step 3: income tax

impots.gouv.fr explains that a micro-entrepreneur who stops their activity must file, within 60 days of the closure, income return form 2042-C-PRO (the supplementary income return for self-employed income), entering on it the turnover made from 1 January up to the closing date.

What you pay afterwards depends on your option:

• with the versement libératoire, your tax has already been paid with your contributions. Your income is used only to calculate the tax rate on your household’s (foyer fiscal) other income;
• without the versement libératoire, your turnover, minus the flat-rate allowance (abattement forfaitaire), is taxed on the progressive income tax scale with your other income.

How to fill in form 2042-C-PRO, box by box: the auto-entrepreneur’s income tax return.

Step 4: VAT, if you were liable for it

Most auto-entrepreneurs are under the franchise en base de TVA (the VAT exemption for small businesses) and have nothing to do here. If you charged VAT, because you had exceeded the franchise thresholds or had opted to pay it, you send a last return electronically:

• CA12 (the annual VAT return; form no. 3517-S-SD) within 60 days of the closure, under the réel simplifié;
• CA3 (the monthly or quarterly VAT return) within 30 days, under the réel normal.

On it you declare the VAT on all transactions that haven’t been declared yet. The return is filed online, from your professional area on impots.gouv.fr. The VAT rules are in VAT for the auto-entrepreneur.

Step 5: the CFE for the year of closing

The cotisation foncière des entreprises is due for the whole year by anyone who is carrying on an activity on 1 January. So if you close during the year, it’s still assessed for the whole year, and it arrives on your tax notice at the end of the year.

You’re not liable, however, for the months after your closure. To pay only for the period from 1 January to the last day of the month of your closure, you must ask for it:

1. wait until your CFE tax notice appears in your professional area on impots.gouv.fr;
2. send a claim from that area’s secure messaging, or by post to your SIE (the business tax office);
3. you have until 31 December of the following year.

This reduction doesn’t apply if you sell your activity or transfer it elsewhere.

If your turnover for the reference period doesn’t exceed €5,000 over 12 months, you’re exempt from the CFE minimum contribution, and the problem doesn’t arise. And if you close in the same year you created your business, you’re exempt: the CFE isn’t due in the year of creation.

Everything about the CFE, including how it’s calculated: the auto-entrepreneur’s CFE.

What’s still due, in one table

After closing: audits and keeping your documents

Closing doesn’t put an end to everything. Two things follow you for a few years.

A URSSAF audit is still possible. For a self-employed worker’s personal contributions, the URSSAF can go back 3 years, counting from 30 June of the year after the year for which the contributions are due. For example, an audit carried out after 30 June 2025 can cover 2024, 2023 and 2022. In the event of fraud or undeclared work, the period rises to 5 years.

You keep your registers and your documents. Your receipts book, your purchases register if you kept one, and their supporting documents (client and supplier invoices) are kept for 10 years from the end of the financial year they relate to, according to Service-Public. The tax administration, for its part, can audit over 6 years.

Before you close, export everything: your receipts book, the invoices you’ve issued and received, your URSSAF certificates. Once your accounts are closed at your bank or in your tools, it’ll be harder to find them on the day someone asks you for them.

Automatic deregistration: what happens if you do nothing

Some auto-entrepreneurs stop working without declaring anything, counting on automatic deregistration. It exists, but it doesn’t replace a closure.

If you declare zero turnover, or declare nothing, for 2 consecutive calendar years or 8 calendar quarters, the URSSAF can deregister you automatically: it considers that you no longer carry on an activity that justifies your affiliation. The URSSAF’s director first informs you that deregistration is being considered; you have one month to object by proving that your activity is continuing. Deregistration by the URSSAF automatically leads to your deregistration from the RNE.

During those two years, your business still exists. You’re still required to declare your turnover, even when it’s zero, and you may be asked to pay a CFE. Closing yourself on the guichet unique is free and takes less time than dealing with those letters.

And if you want to start again later?

Closing your micro-entreprise doesn’t stop you creating another one later, if you meet the conditions again. The procedure is the same as the first time: creating a micro-entreprise, on the same guichet unique.

If you’re closing to take up a salaried job or to receive benefits, the rules for combining are in auto-entrepreneur, unemployment and employment.

Closing well is the last thing you do for your business: do it properly, and leave with peace of mind.
💜💙 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 (13)

Verified on 30 September 2026

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2. Entreprendre Service Public — Cessation temporaire d'activité du micro-entrepreneur
3. Entreprendre Service Public — Création, modification ou cessation d'activité : à qui faut-il s'adresser ?
4. Entreprendre Service Public — Quels sont les délais de prescription en matière de contrôle Urssaf ?
5. Entreprendre Service Public — Quels sont les délais de conservation des documents pour les entreprises ?
6. Entreprendre Service Public — Registres obligatoires du micro-entrepreneur
7. impots.gouv.fr — Je déclare ma cessation d'activité, ai-je d'autres démarches à accomplir ?
8. Guichet des formalités des entreprises (INPI) — Signer
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