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Your working life · 9 steps
Going self-employed starts with where you're leaving from: your current job, a termination that opens unemployment benefit, or a career-change resignation approved before you leave. Registering is then free and done online, but your options are chosen straight away, Acre has a short deadline and the returns never stop. Here is the order, with your price worked out.
Turnover isn't a salary: in a micro-business, your costs aren't deductible, days without work and holidays are paid by nobody, and there's no employee unemployment insurance. Work out the day rate that leaves you the same net as your salary, over a year with quiet spells, not your best quarter.
You can set up while keeping your job, as long as your contract has no exclusivity clause, you don't compete with your employer and you work on it outside your working hours. If you want to leave, careful: resigning doesn't open unemployment benefit, except a career-change resignation approved beforehand; a mutual termination does, with a payment.
You must be on a permanent contract and have worked at least 1,300 days in the last 60 months. First, career guidance (CEP), free and compulsory; then the file to Transitions Pro, with a market study and a 3-year financing plan; only once you have the certificate do you resign, and you have 6 months from its date to register with France Travail.
First reread your non-compete clause, then set up the business after your contract ends: set up during your notice, it rules out the ARCE. Keeping ARE, you receive part of your allowance each month and earn pension quarters; with the ARCE, part of your entitlement comes as a lump sum, in two payments 6 months apart, with no monthly safety net.
Online, no earlier than 1 month before you start trading and no later than 15 days after. Attach your ID, proof of the business address, the sworn statement of no criminal conviction and, for a regulated activity, your diploma or permit. The receipt you get when you file already lets you take out insurance; if a document is missing, you have 15 working days to send it.
You file monthly by default, or quarterly if you ask within a month of starting. The flat-rate tax option (versement libératoire), which pays your tax with your contributions, must be chosen by the last day of the 3rd month at the latest, if your household's reference taxable income allows it. Acre is never automatic: send the form to URSSAF within 60 days, and start at the beginning of a quarter to make the reduced period longer.
Your day rate must cover your contributions, tax, costs, unbilled days (prospecting, admin, gaps between assignments) and the protection employment used to pay for: health cover, provident cover, pension. The simulator tells you what's left net from your turnover; then present your assignments in a proper freelance CV.
Every month or quarter, on autoentrepreneur.urssaf.fr, declare what you received excluding VAT, not what you invoiced, and pay straight away; your first return is due 90 days after you start at the earliest. In spring, report your turnover in your income tax return, even with the flat-rate option. If you're on unemployment benefit, also declare your income in every monthly update.
Your pension and sick-pay rights are based on what you declare: a small year earns few, and a cash buffer replaces the safety net of employment. Plan for the CFE, a local business tax due even when working from home: nothing to pay in the year you set up, but it comes after that, except for very small turnovers. And if your turnover exceeds your activity's threshold two calendar years running, you leave the micro scheme.
Describe your situation: Nego tells you where to start, follows the checked steps of each procedure, does the calculations with the site's tools and drafts your letters. It does not replace the administration: each procedure is completed on the official service.
Yes, if your contract has no exclusivity clause, the activity doesn't compete with your employer and you do it outside your working hours. Some collective agreements require prior authorisation: check yours before you start.
Yes, if you're receiving benefit: either you keep part of your allowance each month on top of your income, or you take part of your entitlement as a lump sum with the ARCE. Either way, apply for Acre within 60 days. However, your micro-business itself won't give you unemployment rights.
Yes, through the career-change resignation scheme: permanent contract, at least 1,300 days worked in the last 60 months, career guidance, then a project judged genuine and serious by Transitions Pro before you resign. You are then paid like any jobseeker, and France Travail checks within 6 months that you're carrying out your project.
Nothing: registering on the national business register is free. Only commercial agents pay for their compulsory registration on their special register. Your costs come afterwards: contributions on what you receive, insurance and, except for very small turnovers, the CFE local business tax after the year you set up.
The one that, after contributions, tax, costs and unbilled days, leaves you the same net as your salary: the site's day-rate calculator works it out from the net you're aiming for. It's only a floor: add what you want to fund in protection (provident cover, pension, a cash buffer).
Yes, filing is compulsory even with nothing: enter zero (or néant, meaning nil). You then pay no contributions, unless you chose minimum contributions. A missing return triggers a penalty and contributions worked out on an increased flat-rate basis.
Every rule mentioned here is explained and sourced in its procedure or guide; amounts are calculated by the site's tools. All procedures