How to Start a Tutoring Business in France

Starting a tutoring business is turning a few scattered hours into a declared activity: a legal status, a workable rate, your first students, and a way to keep track of lessons. Here is the plan, from registration to your first lesson, so you start in good order without losing your evenings to admin.

Register your activity

Most independent tutors in France begin as a micro-entrepreneur. Registration is free and online, through the single business formalities portal run by the INPI. You pick a liberal activity (BNC), receive a SIRET number, and can start invoicing.

The regime holds as long as your turnover stays under the ceiling. For 2026 it is €83,600 a year for a liberal or service activity, a threshold raised for the 2026-2028 period. You declare social contributions to URSSAF every month or quarter, as a percentage of what you collect: no turnover, no contribution.

For income tax, the micro regime applies a flat 34% allowance on your receipts (a minimum of €305) before tax is worked out. Under income conditions you can also opt for the "versement libératoire", which takes the tax alongside the contributions (2.2% of turnover for a liberal activity).

The bookkeeping fits on one line: an income ledger, kept up to date from the first euro you collect, with the date, the amount, the client and the payment method. It is the only accounting the micro regime asks for, and it feeds your tax return too.

Before you choose, estimate what you will actually keep. Our free URSSAF simulator works out contributions and tax from a turnover figure.

For the step-by-step registration, read our guide on registering as a self-employed tutor.

Set your rate

Build a rate backwards: start from the income you want, subtract contributions and tax, and divide by the hours you can genuinely bill in a week. Travel, prep and chasing payments are unpaid, so count them in.

The level you teach drives most of the spread. A primary lesson, an upper-secondary lesson and an exam-prep lesson do not sell for the same price. Check what tutors in your town charge before you settle.

Do not undercut to win your first students. A rate set too low is hard to raise later, and it often reads as inexperience rather than a bargain. Start from a price that matches your level, and offer a first trial lesson if a family needs reassuring.

One argument works in your favour for home lessons: the family gets 50% of what they pay back through the services à la personne tax credit, within a €12,000 yearly expense limit. Home tutoring qualifies, online lessons do not. This requires a SAP declaration on your side. Kadrella does not generate the tax certificate or handle that declaration, but our free tax certificate generator prepares the document you hand your families in January.

Find your first students

This is the step that stalls most people. Two routes exist, and the best tutors use both.

• Word of mouth. Tell the people around you, leave a notice in local shops and schools, create a Google listing for your area. One happy student brings another.
• Platforms. Superprof and similar sites give you visibility, but take a commission and keep the relationship. Use them to start, not to stay.

When an enquiry comes in, reply fast and offer a specific slot. Families often message several tutors on the same day, and it is usually the first one to propose a concrete trial who keeps the student.

The goal is to avoid depending on a single channel. We covered the direct channels in how to get tutoring clients without a platform.

Get organised from the first student

A spreadsheet is fine for the first month. By the third student it shows its limits: a forgotten lesson, an unmatched payment, a reminder that drags on.

Management software takes these over:

• a lesson schedule synced with Google Calendar;
• invoices built from the lessons you gave;
• payment tracking with automatic matching of incoming bank transfers;
• reminders and invoices sent over WhatsApp.

Kadrella has a free plan to start and imports your Superprof contacts. See what tutoring business software does once your activity grows.

The plan in short: register, set a rate that holds, find three students, and put a tool in place before you reach ten.

Sources

• Micro-entreprise tax regime (service-public.fr)
• Tax credit for home employment and home services (service-public.fr)
• Micro-entrepreneur: contributions and declarations (urssaf.fr)
• Single business formalities portal (INPI)