“A hammer blow”: why the 2025 budget risks killing the self-employed status ?

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The draft finance bill that should be adopted soon by the French parliament provides a poisoned chalice for microentrepreneurs. Indeed, the VAT application threshold has just been considerably lowered, so much so that it will affect many self-employed entrepreneurs. Explanations.

A huge blow

Concretely, and following an amendment introduced in the Senate, the VAT exemption threshold for all microenterprises has been drastically reduced. Today, it applies to self-enterprises with an annual turnover of more than 36,999 euros for the provision of services and 84,999 euros for commercial or accommodation activities. This will now be 25,000 euros for the calendar year and 27,500 euros for the current year, regardless of the field of activity.

This is therefore a real blow to the self-employed concerned, who will have to add 20% to their rates. There is also an immediate consequence for them: administrative management that is much more complex than in the past. This is the height of irony for a status known for its ease of access. Similarly, self-employed entrepreneurs will be forced to increase their prices or accept a reduction in their income, which is clearly not an enviable situation.

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For some microentrepreneurs, particularly content creators, this is a cold shower. Projet Arcadie rightly points out the case of streamers paid by Twitch who will not have the opportunity to pass on the VAT. They will therefore have to pay it themselves and this risks further complicating their activity.

Massive increase in contributions

For its part, the site Cesdefrance offers some advice to the self-employed concerned. In particular, they can anticipate their turnover to avoid crossing this threshold too quickly, or target a clientele already subject to VAT. In this case, this tax has no impact on the latter. Changing legal status also remains a solution, but this amounts to giving up a status that was once considered advantageous.

Let us also recall that microentrepreneurs had already had to deal with some very bad news last year. Indeed, social security contributions will increase radically over the next few years and will reach 26.10% in January 2026, compared to just over 20% in 2024. After having largely encouraged millions of workers to use this status, it is as if the public authorities had decided to pick the pockets of these professionals whose incomes are often very modest.

What to remember:

• The VAT exemption threshold will decrease enormously
• This risks impacting a large number of self-employed workers, particularly those in the digital sector
• These announcements follow a massive increase in social security contributions

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