CFE: how French private tutors can pay nothing

The CFE exemption for private tutors is an automatic exemption set out in article 1460, 3° of the French tax code (CGI): a teacher of academic subjects, sciences or the arts who teaches personally, at home or at the student's home, does not pay the cotisation foncière des entreprises. Not everyone who gives lessons gets it, though. It depends on how you teach: alone, where, and with what kind of premises.

The CFE in a few lines

The CFE is a local business tax. The official page on service-public.gouv.fr describes it as a tax owed by every business and every person carrying on a self-employed professional activity, unless an exemption applies. The same page lists three general rules that apply to everyone:

• a business is exempt in the year it is created, until 31 December of the year it starts, and its tax base is halved the following year;
• it is exempt if its turnover excluding tax two years earlier (year N-2) did not exceed €5,000;
• the tax notice is online only, in the business's tax account, and a CFE of €3,000 or less is usually due by 15 December.

So a tutor who does not meet the teaching conditions may still be exempt in their first year or under the €5,000 threshold. If you are starting out as a micro-entrepreneur, the URSSAF simulator gives an estimate of your social contributions, which are a separate matter from the CFE.

Who is exempt: what the BOFiP says

The tax administration's official guidance is published in the BOFiP, reference BOI-IF-CFE-10-30-10-60 of 3 July 2024, paragraphs 110 to 140.

Subjects covered

Paragraph 120 covers people who teach the following, with no particular diploma required:

• literature, modern or ancient languages, mathematics, physical and natural sciences, humanities, law;
• drawing, painting, music, singing, recitation, dance;
• physical training, yoga, gymnastics and sport in general.

School tutoring in maths, French or English falls within the text. So does a piano or guitar teacher.

The condition: teach yourself, with no establishment

Paragraph 130 sets the core condition. In our translation:

The exemption is granted only if the teachers give their lessons personally, either at their own home or at their students' home, or in premises with no sign and no special fitting-out.

The BOFiP gives an example from a Conseil d'État decision of 3 March 1976: a dance teacher who gives the lessons personally, without assistants, to a small number of students, in a room rented four hours a week, with a plate at the entrance that shows neither the teacher's name nor the lesson times, is exempt. The same paragraph also exempts people who, without running an establishment, teach on a self-employed basis for continuing-education associations or for any other private establishment.

Who is not exempt

Several situations fall outside the exemption, and they are often the ones a growing tutoring business ends up in:

1. Salaried teachers. They are outside the scope of the CFE altogether (paragraph 110), so the question does not arise.
2. A teacher who runs a genuine establishment open to the public, meaning premises set aside for lessons, with a clearly professional fit-out, where students are usually taught in groups (paragraph 140).
3. Correspondence courses, that is, distance teaching run as a business.
4. Practical teaching: typing, computing, sewing, cooking, driving.
5. A tutoring agency or company. Private teaching establishments are liable for the CFE when they operate for profit (paragraph 10). A business that employs tutors does not get the teachers' exemption, even when every lesson takes place at the student's home.

The line is crossed gradually. A solo tutor who opens premises with a sign, or starts having other teachers work on their behalf, should check the question again.

The parallel with VAT

The logic resembles the VAT rule. Article 261, 4, 4° b of the CGI exempts from VAT private lessons given personally by individuals who are paid for their teaching directly by their students (BOI-TVA-CHAMP-30-10-20-50, paragraph 360). We covered that rule in our article on VAT and private tutoring in France.

The two exemptions do not overlap exactly:

• Subjects. VAT also covers vocational teaching, alongside school, university, artistic and sports teaching. The CFE excludes practical teaching.
• Premises. For VAT, the BOFiP accepts fitted-out premises, owned or rented, as long as the teacher works without any employee (paragraph 370). For the CFE, the premises must have no sign and no special fit-out.
• What they share. Both target the person who does the teaching. Running a teaching establishment takes you out of both, and teaching with employees loses the VAT exemption.

If a CFE notice arrives anyway

If you believe you meet the conditions and a notice appears in your account, the official route is a claim (réclamation), described on impots.gouv.fr:

• Channel. The secure messaging in your professional account on impots.gouv.fr, or failing that a letter on plain paper to the tax office that manages your file.
• Recipient. Your business tax office (service des impôts des entreprises, SIE).
• Content. The claim must be dated, identify you, name the tax being contested, explain why (here, article 1460, 3° of the CGI and how you teach), include the tax notice, and carry your signature.
• Deadline. For the CFE, until 31 December of the year after the tax roll was issued for collection. A 2025 notice can be contested until 31 December 2026.
• Payment. Contesting does not exempt you from paying on time. You can expressly ask for a deferral of payment (sursis de paiement) in the claim, but penalties apply if the claim is rejected.

Keep records that show how you work: where lessons take place, the absence of a sign, invoices addressed to your students. Invoicing software for tutors keeps those invoices and the payments received, student by student.

This article sums up our own research based on the official texts listed in the sources. It is not legal or tax advice: have your situation checked by a qualified professional (tax lawyer, chartered accountant) or directly by your tax office or the Urssaf.

Sources

• BOI-IF-CFE-10-30-10-60, CFE, exempt non-commercial activities (BOFiP, 03/07/2024)
• BOI-TVA-CHAMP-30-10-20-50, VAT, teaching exemption (BOFiP)
• Cotisation foncière des entreprises (CFE), entreprendre.service-public.gouv.fr
• Comment réclamer ?, impots.gouv.fr
• Dans quel délai puis-je faire une réclamation ?, impots.gouv.fr