Influencer: how to declare gifts and free products from brands

Quick answer. A product given by a brand in exchange for a post is taxable income in kind, valued at its market value including VAT, even without any payment. It is added to your professional revenue. Failure to declare exposes you to a tax reassessment increased by 40% in case of deliberate breach.

You receive press packages, brand boxes, trips or tech products, sometimes worth several thousand euros a year. The same question comes up in every creator file: is what you are given taxable? The answer turns on a single criterion, the counterpart, and the value to declare is not zero.

This article covers only the treatment of free products: how to test the counterpart, value the item, record it as revenue in kind and build the evidence file. For followers' donations and platform income (YouTube, Twitch, TikTok, affiliation), see our general article on the taxation of gifts, donations and platform income.

The principle comes from ordinary law: a product received in exchange for a post or a promotion is income in kind. It is valued at its market value, that is the product's market price including VAT, and enters your professional revenue just like a payment.

The decisive test is the existence of an obligation. If the brand expects a post, a story, a tag or a mention, the product is a taxable benefit in kind. A shipment that is genuinely without any counterpart or obligation is in principle a non-taxable gift.

The underestimated risk. Many creators believe that a product received "without an explicit request" escapes tax. In practice, the tax authorities recognise the link with your activity as soon as the product relates to your content. A cosmetics press box sent to a beauty creator who usually posts that kind of content falls into this risk zone, even without a signed brief.

Law no. 2023-451 of 9 June 2023 on the regulation of commercial influence reinforces this reading. It defines influence as the promotion of goods or services for remuneration "in money or in kind" and requires the wording "Advertising" or "Commercial collaboration". It does not create a specific tax regime, but it formally confirms that remuneration in kind is full remuneration.

Decision table: taxable or not?#

The value to use is never symbolic. It is the market value including VAT, that is the product's public price. Keep the invoice, the product sheet or a screenshot of the merchant page to justify the amount. This value is added to your revenue at the date of receipt, without waiting for a resale.

The tax classification depends on the dominant nature of your activity. Promotion and content creation, which are services, fall under BNC: form 2035 under the actual regime, or the micro-BNC regime. Resale, dropshipping or merchandise sales fall under BIC. Employment remains possible where there is a relationship of subordination. We always present this point according to the dominant activity, without ruling on it in absolute terms, because many creators combine several sources.

It is precisely when choosing the right status at incorporation that these flows must be anticipated. An activity mainly based on promotion is not structured like a merchandise shop.

In practice. To manage this revenue in kind in an accounting tool such as Pennylane, we create a dedicated category for "free products / endowments" and attach the proof (brief, public price, screenshots) to each line. Keeping and reviewing your accounts then integrates these benefits into the result without disruption at year-end.

Micro thresholds 2026 (until 2028)#

The value of free products counts toward your thresholds. Here are the applicable ceilings.

These micro ceilings are distinct from the VAT base exemption. You can exceed a VAT threshold while staying micro for income tax, and vice versa.

This is the point most often overlooked. The promotion service is an operation subject to VAT at 20%. The "product for promotion" exchange is legally a barter: each party carries out a taxable operation, valued at the value of the goods or services exchanged.

What the authorities look at. The value of the products counts toward your turnover for the base exemption. In 2026, the exemption threshold for services is €37,500, with an increased threshold of €41,250 (law no. 2025-1044 of 3 November 2025). A creator who thinks she is "only invoicing €30,000" but receives €12,000 of products in return may actually cross the threshold and become liable for VAT.

Trade-off. Staying below the exemption simplifies management but prevents you from recovering VAT on your purchases (equipment, subscriptions, subcontracting). Leaving the exemption increases the formalities but allows deduction and makes invoicing brands easier, as they recover the VAT themselves. The right choice depends on your level of investment and the share of professional clients, to be examined within our corporate tax service.

Our reading. The issue is not "are free products taxable" but "how to prove the treatment used". The concrete risk is not a theoretical grey area: it is the absence of documents on the day of an audit. A clean file (brief, public price, screenshots) secures both the declaration and the non-declaration of a genuinely private gift.

Failure to declare the products received is an omission of revenue. It is subject to a tax reassessment increased by 40% in case of deliberate breach (CGI art. 1729), raised to 80% in case of fraudulent manoeuvres, plus late-payment interest of 0.20% per month.

A common case. A firm we support had been receiving beauty and tech endowments for two years without recording them, out of ignorance. The regularisation involved reconstructing the market value of each shipment from the public prices and the saved brief messages, then including it in revenue. Keeping the brand messages made it possible to distinguish genuine private gifts from benefits in kind, and to limit the reassessment.

Proof to keep (checklist)#

• The brand's contract or brief, even received by email or private message.
• The product value: invoice, public price, screenshot of the product sheet.
• Screenshots of the posts proving the counterpart (post, story, tag, mention).
• The date the parcel was received (delivery note, tracking email).
• The "Advertising" or "Commercial collaboration" wording applied, required by the 2023 law.

For creators structuring their activity, our support for content creators and our accountant dedicated to influencers frame these obligations from the very first partnership.

1. Identify whether there is a counterpart: a post, story, tag or mention expected by the brand.
2. Estimate the market value of the product received, at its market value including VAT (public price).
3. Separate the private gift with no link to the activity from the professional benefit in kind.
4. Record the benefit as revenue in kind at the date of receipt, even without a cash flow.
5. Keep proof of delivery and counterpart (brief, public price, post screenshots).
6. Report the amount on the BNC return (2035 or micro) or BIC, depending on the dominant activity.

To go further on the line between business gifts and taxable benefits, see also the treatment of high-value business gifts and the tax guide for influencers and creators.