VAT and private tutoring in France
Most independent private tutors in France are VAT-exempt under article 261-4-4° of the tax code. When the rule applies and what to put on invoices.
VAT on private tutoring is, in most cases, a question you can settle in one sentence: an independent tutor paid directly by their students does not charge VAT. That single fact spares a lot of tutors from a régime they never actually fall under. The nuance is worth understanding, because the exemption comes with two conditions and one common mistake on invoices.
Why private lessons fall outside VAT
French tax law exempts private lessons from VAT under article 261-4-4°-b of the Code général des impôts. The text covers courses and lessons in academic subjects (maths, French, languages), university, professional, artistic (singing, piano, dance) and sports teaching, when they are given by an individual paid directly by the student.
Two conditions decide whether you qualify:
- You teach as a natural person (a micro-entrepreneur or a profession libérale), not through a company that invoices in its own name.
- Your students, or their parents, pay you directly, without an employee delivering the lesson in your place.
If you teach with the help of salaried teachers who give the lessons, the exemption falls away and you come back under the ordinary VAT rules. The exemption rewards the person who actually teaches, not a structure that resells lessons.
When both conditions hold, the exemption is automatic. There is no form to file, no prior authorisation to request, and no turnover figure to watch on this point. A maths tutor billing families 30 euros an hour and a piano teacher billing 45 are treated the same way: 0 percent VAT on every invoice.
What it changes on your invoices
The practical effect shows up in one line of your invoice. Because you are exempt, you never add VAT to your rate, and you never file a VAT return (the CA3). Your invoice total is your rate, full stop.
The common mistake is the legal mention. Many micro-entrepreneurs copy the phrase "TVA non applicable, article 293 B du CGI", which is the wording for the franchise en base de TVA. For teaching, the correct reference is different: "TVA non applicable, article 261-4-4° du CGI". Both mean no VAT is charged, but they rest on different rules, and using the right one shows an inspector you know why you are exempt.
If you want the rest of your invoices to be clean too (numbering, mandatory fields, the client's details), the rules for invoicing private lessons cover the whole document, and a tutoring invoicing tool fills those mentions in for you.
Exemption and franchise: do not confuse them
These are two separate reasons a small business charges no VAT, and tutors often mix them up.
- Franchise en base (article 293 B) is a turnover-based régime. Below a threshold, a business charges no VAT; above it, VAT starts to apply.
- Exemption (article 261-4-4°) is specific to teaching. It has no turnover ceiling. A tutor who qualifies stays exempt whether they bill 5,000 or 60,000 euros a year in lessons.
That difference matters. A tutor covered by the teaching exemption does not need to track the franchise thresholds for their lesson income at all. The exemption applies first.
When you do have to charge VAT
The exemption is generous, but it has edges. You leave it, and fall back under ordinary VAT rules, in cases such as:
- You hire salaried teachers who deliver the lessons in your place. The "personally taught" condition no longer holds.
- A company you own is paid for the lessons, rather than you as an individual.
- The service is not really a course or a lesson: selling learning materials, or a product that is not direct teaching.
In those situations the franchise en base thresholds and the consequences of crossing them come back into play, so it is worth checking your exact setup with an accountant before you grow a team.
Keep a clean record
Exemption is not the same as invisibility. You still declare your income and pay your social contributions, and you should be able to show, if asked, that your activity is genuinely teaching paid directly by students. A simple, dated trail of lessons and payments is enough: who you taught, when, how much they paid. Keeping that in one place rather than scattered across a phone and a notebook makes any future question a five-minute answer instead of an afternoon of reconstruction.
Sources
A senior software engineer, he founds and runs several tech companies. He builds products around messaging APIs, automation and AI integration, and shares here what he learns while building.
- tva
- facturation
- fiscalite
- cours particuliers