How Much Private Tutors Earn in France, Net

A private tutor's net income in France is what is left of the money families pay once social contributions, income tax and business costs are taken out. The hourly rate you advertise says very little about it. Here is how to get from one to the other, using the 2026 rates for a French micro-entrepreneur and a full worked example.

The three deductions to know

A private tutor registered as a micro-entrepreneur runs a non-regulated liberal activity, taxed as non-commercial profits (BNC). Three things reduce turnover.

Social contributions

According to Service Public Entreprendre, the official French business portal, contributions for a non-regulated liberal activity are 25.6% of turnover in 2026. You declare and pay them to URSSAF, and they are calculated on what you actually collect, month by month or quarter by quarter: no revenue, no contributions.

Income tax

Two options:

• Without the flat-rate tax option, your turnover is reduced by a 34% standard allowance (€305 minimum), then added to your household's other income and taxed on the progressive scale, as impots.gouv.fr explains.
• With the flat-rate option (versement libératoire), you pay income tax along with your contributions: the combined rate becomes 27.8%, so 2.2% of tax. It is only open if your household's reference taxable income two years earlier stays under a ceiling: €29,579 for a single person.

Business costs

As a micro-entrepreneur you deduct no expenses: the 34% allowance is meant to cover them for income tax, but not for contributions. Travel, materials, phone plan and prep books come out of your own pocket.

A worked example

Take a tutor charging €30 an hour, 15 hours of lessons a week, 36 weeks a year, with the flat-rate tax option and €600 of yearly costs.

That is about €925 a month over twelve months, or €20.50 per hour taught. But an hour of teaching never comes alone: prep, marking, travel and messages to parents easily add 20 minutes. With 18 minutes of unseen work per lesson hour, real earnings drop to around €15.80 per hour worked.

The number to watch is not your hourly rate. It is your net income per hour actually worked.

To run the numbers with your own figures, our URSSAF simulator is free.

What really moves your net income

At the same rate, two tutors can end the year with very different incomes. The main levers:

1. Paid weeks. Going from 36 to 40 weeks, with holiday revision courses, adds €1,800 of turnover in the example.
2. Lost hours. An unbilled last-minute cancellation costs the whole hour; a written cancellation rule protects it.
3. Unpaid lessons. Contributions only apply to what you collect, but an unpaid lesson is still an hour worked for nothing.
4. Your rate. €2 more per hour over 540 hours is €1,080 more turnover, close to €780 net with the flat-rate option.

To set or review the price itself, our guide on how much to charge for tutoring in France gives ranges by level.

Special cases

A few situations change the maths:

• In your first year, the ACRE start-up relief cuts contributions. Our article on ACRE for tutors covers the conditions.
• Above €83,600 of turnover two years running, you leave the micro-enterprise tax regime.
• If a family pays you through CESU, you are their employee, and micro-enterprise rules no longer apply to that income.

Sources

• Social contributions of a micro-entrepreneur, Service Public Entreprendre
• Micro-enterprise tax regime, Service Public Entreprendre
• How to declare micro-entrepreneur income, impots.gouv.fr