Micro-entreprise or real-expense EI: which URSSAF status for an independent tutor?

This article covers a French-specific topic: the URSSAF social-security status of independent tutors in France (auto-entrepreneur vs. EI au réel). It is translated for our English-reading audience, but the rules, thresholds and sources below apply only to businesses and tutors operating under French law.

Micro-entreprise or real-expense EI: which URSSAF status for an independent tutor?

A self-employed tutor in France has to pick a social and tax regime with URSSAF: the micro-entreprise (auto-entrepreneur) or the entreprise individuelle (EI) under the real-expense regime, also called déclaration contrôlée for BNC income. Both apply to private tutoring and exam-prep coaching, which falls under BNC (bénéfices non commerciaux, non-commercial profits). The difference in one line: micro-entreprise applies a flat allowance to your revenue; the real-expense regime deducts your actual costs. The right choice depends on what you genuinely spend to run your tutoring activity, and on how regular that spending is.

Calculate your break-even point in 30 seconds. Enter your revenue and real expenses, compare micro-entreprise and the real-expense regime instantly: → try the micro or real-expense simulator

Micro-entreprise: simple, flat-rate, capped

Under micro-BNC, the tax administration automatically applies a flat allowance of 34% to your collected revenue (minimum €305) to compute taxable income: no receipts, no itemized expenses, and nothing more to deduct even if your real costs exceed that flat rate. The regime is only available below a revenue ceiling, set at €83,600 for 2026 income (up from €77,700 in the prior period).

Your social contributions are calculated separately from that tax allowance: they apply directly to your collected revenue, at a flat rate. For unregulated liberal activities under the general regime (which includes private tutoring), that rate rose to 25.6% on 1 January 2026, part of a scheduled increase since 2024 meant to improve auto-entrepreneurs' pension rights. A small professional-training contribution is added on top. In practice: whether you spent €50 or €5,000 on supplies that year, you pay the same percentage of contributions on what you billed.

Real-expense EI: more bookkeeping, but you deduct what you actually spend

Under the real-expense regime (déclaration contrôlée, form 2035), the flat allowance disappears: you deduct your actual, receipted business expenses to arrive at taxable profit (revenue minus costs). That profit is the base for income tax and, since the reform of the self-employed social contribution base that took effect from 2025 income onward, for social contributions too: the calculation base is that profit, reduced by an additional flat 26% allowance applied automatically by URSSAF. The reform changes the calculation mechanics, not the principle: the higher your real expenses, the lower your taxable profit, and the lower your contribution base.

In exchange, the real-expense regime requires bookkeeping kept up all year: a ledger of income and expenses, a schedule of fixed assets and depreciation if you buy durable equipment, and an annual form 2035 filing. That extra administrative load, often handed to an accountant, is what has to be weighed against the tax and social savings.

What a tutor can actually deduct under the real-expense regime

The principle: any expense incurred for the activity, receipted and proportionate, is deductible. For an independent tutor, that concretely covers:

• Small equipment and teaching supplies: notebooks, felt pens, textbooks, teaching aids or games, printer paper, a printer and its consumables.
• Computer equipment and software: a laptop, a tablet, a headset for video lessons, subscriptions to tools used to prepare or give lessons (expensed outright if low-cost, or depreciated over several years above a certain amount).
• A home office: if you work from home, a share of rent (or mortgage interest), building charges, electricity, heating and home insurance, prorated to the share of the home genuinely and exclusively used for the activity.
• Travel to students' homes: car trips calculated with the official mileage scale published each year by the tax administration, or actual costs (fuel, maintenance, insurance, parking) prorated to business use; public transport on receipt.
• Meals taken away from home when the activity requires it (a run of student visits that prevents going home for lunch, for example): the extra cost compared with a meal at home is deductible, within a limit set each year by the tax administration.
• Professional liability insurance, membership fees for teaching associations or unions, continuing education.
• Banking and admin costs: a dedicated business account, lesson and invoicing software (such as Kadrella), accountant's fees.
• Phone and internet, prorated to business use.

Every expense has to stay receipted and proportionate to the activity: the tax administration can disallow a cost it judges excessive or unrelated to the work.

The threshold: how much in expenses makes the real-expense regime worth it?

This is the question that decides it. Simplified, compare the two regimes at equal revenue (CA), with f the share of real expenses relative to revenue (for example f = 30% if you spend €3,000 against €10,000 billed):

• Contributions under micro: 25.6% × revenue, regardless of f.
• Contributions under the real-expense regime (order of magnitude): an overall social contribution rate for an unregulated liberal profession generally between 40% and 45% of net profit depending on income level, applied to revenue × (1 − f), then reduced by the 26% allowance introduced by the 2026 reform. Since that reform was designed to leave the overall levy unchanged, this effective rate on profit stays in the same range before and after the change in calculation method.

Setting the two equal, the tipping point sits at roughly 35% to 40% of real expenses relative to revenue. Below that, the micro-entreprise flat allowance stays more advantageous, or roughly equivalent, for much simpler bookkeeping. Above it, the real-expense regime becomes worthwhile on both social contributions and income tax (where the tax-only tipping point, tied purely to the 34% allowance, is actually a bit lower).

Example. A tutor bills €20,000 of lessons over the year.

• With €2,000 of real expenses (10% of revenue): staying on micro-entreprise is clearly better. The gain from switching would be marginal and would not cover the time or cost of ongoing bookkeeping.
• With €8,000 of real expenses (40% of revenue: equipment, a share of a dedicated office's rent, regular travel to several students): the real-expense regime starts to be worth it, provided those costs recur year after year rather than being a one-off purchase.

These percentages stay order-of-magnitude figures: the real-expense contribution rate varies with income level and the relevant supplementary pension fund. To test your own revenue and expenses, use our micro or real-expense simulator, or URSSAF's official simulator, before switching status.

Regularity matters as much as the amount

Crossing an expense threshold in a single year is not enough to justify switching to the real-expense regime. It requires bookkeeping kept up all year, including months with no notable expense: it is not a box ticked once. If the big expenses are occasional (a laptop replaced once every three or four years, for example), the added admin cost quickly outweighs the gain, and staying on micro-entreprise remains the simpler choice, even in the year of that purchase.

The calculation changes when expenses are recurring: equipment renewed regularly, a share of a dedicated office's rent booked every month, travel to several students every week. That is where switching to the real-expense regime pays off over time, not just in one isolated year.

Tutors working with several organizations

A tutor who works for several tutoring organizations (several businesses, each managing their own lessons and payments) accumulates more total revenue than working with a single one. The same fixed or recurring costs (a share of a dedicated office's rent, a subscription to a lesson-prep tool, travel to students spread across several areas) then sit on a larger volume of activity: they reach the 35-40% threshold above faster. Adding organizations, without adding expenses in the same proportion, mechanically moves a tutor closer to the tipping point toward the real-expense regime.

What Kadrella changes, and what it doesn't

Kadrella doesn't force either status: whether a tutor is on micro-entreprise or real-expense EI, the tutoring organization keeps tracking lessons, students and payments the same way in the tool. The choice of URSSAF regime is a personal decision for the tutor, made with an accountant or using URSSAF's official simulator, and it doesn't need to be the same for every tutor at one organization. What Kadrella does centralize (lessons given, payments received, invoices) gives each tutor a clear, exportable record to run their own bookkeeping on, whichever regime they choose.

Summary

• Micro-entreprise: 34% flat tax allowance and 25.6% contributions on revenue, no receipts needed. Simple, capped at €83,600 of revenue.
• Real-expense regime (déclaration contrôlée, BNC): deduction of actual, receipted expenses, on both income tax and social contributions (base reduced by a 26% allowance since the 2026 reform). Ongoing bookkeeping required.
• Switching becomes worthwhile at roughly 35% to 40% of real expenses relative to revenue, provided those expenses are recurring rather than one-off.
• Working with several organizations raises revenue without raising expenses in the same proportion, which moves a tutor closer to the tipping point.
• Always check your own numbers with URSSAF's official simulator or an accountant before switching status.

Official sources

• Micro-entreprise regime (micro-BNC) (service-public.gouv.fr)
• Evolution of auto-entrepreneur social contribution rates (Urssaf.fr)
• Auto-entrepreneurs: a greater share of contributory contributions from 1 January 2026 (Autoentrepreneur.urssaf.fr)
• Contribution rates, unregulated craftspeople, tradespeople and liberal professions (Urssaf.fr)
• Reform of the social contribution base and rate schedule (Urssaf.fr)
• The social contribution base reform (impots.gouv.fr)
• What can I deduct from my professional results? (impots.gouv.fr)
• The déclaration contrôlée regime (BNC) (Bpifrance Création)
• BOFiP (BNC, tax base, expenses, overheads, car costs)
• BOFiP (BNC, tax base, assessment of deductible expenses)
• Official contribution simulator (mon-entreprise.urssaf.fr)

This article gives order-of-magnitude figures as of publication; French rates and thresholds are revised every year. Always check the current amounts on urssaf.fr and impots.gouv.fr, and have an accountant confirm your own situation before switching regime.