What Revenue Do You Need to Pay Yourself €2,000 Net Per Month?

Quick answer. To take home €2,000 net of social contributions each month (before income tax), you need revenue of roughly €2,540 as a sole trader providing services, €2,690 under the BNC liberal-profession regime, and a total cost of around €3,800–4,000 for a SASU. The right reflex is to start from the net you want and work back to the revenue, status by status, without forgetting income tax and business expenses.

Many business owners set a revenue target first, then discover the net actually available is far lower. Reversing the logic clarifies decisions: start from the income you want, then work back to the revenue that makes it possible.

This shapes everything else: your pricing, your working-capital needs and the very choice of legal status. For a €2,000 net target, the revenue required and the cash mobilised differ sharply between a sole trader (micro), an EURL and a SASU. We routinely point clients to our director remuneration simulator to test each assumption before deciding.

To move from a net target to required revenue, four elements cascade in order:

1. Social contributions, levied on revenue for a sole trader, or on remuneration in a company. Under the micro regime, the CSG-CRDS surtax is already included in the single rate: do not add it a second time.
2. Taxable income, i.e. the profit retained for income tax: revenue after a flat-rate deduction (micro), or actual profit after expenses (company).
3. Income tax, progressive, depending on the whole household, not the professional income alone.
4. Business expenses (rent, software, insurance, fees) which reduce net income or, under the real regime, the tax base.

The flat-rate micro deductions cannot be below €305. In the micro regime, the contribution rate already covers health, pension and the CSG-CRDS; a small vocational-training contribution is added.

Under the micro regime, social contributions are a percentage of revenue received. The "social" net therefore equals revenue minus that percentage, before income tax.

Services (BIC, 21.2%)#

• Net target: €2,000
• Required revenue: €2,000 ÷ (1 − 0.212) ≈ €2,538 per month, about €30,460 per year.
• Taxable base after the 50% deduction: about €1,269 per month, with income tax then reducing the net according to your household.

Liberal professions (BNC, 25.6%)#

• Net target: €2,000
• Required revenue: €2,000 ÷ (1 − 0.256) ≈ €2,690 per month, about €32,280 per year.
• Taxable base after the 34% deduction: about €1,775 per month.

Sale of goods (12.3% rate) is not directly comparable: revenue includes the cost of the goods resold, so the "net" depends mainly on the commercial margin, not on the contribution rate alone.

A SASU president belongs to the general social-security scheme (assimilated employee), with no unemployment contribution. The remuneration bears both employee and employer contributions, widening the gap between the company's cost and the net received.

As an order of magnitude, paying the president €2,000 net requires a gross salary of around €2,600–2,700 and a total company cost (including employer charges) of around €3,800–4,000 per month, before corporate income tax and operating expenses. Exact rates depend on the pay level and insurance options: we recommend modelling them with our director remuneration simulator or the official URSSAF simulator.

In return for this higher cost, the SASU provides full social protection (health, general-scheme pension, supplementary cover) and the option to top up pay with dividends once the accounts are approved.

The sole manager of an EURL is a self-employed worker (TNS). Contributions are based on net remuneration and run broadly around 40% of income, with no employer charges since the manager is not an employee. For €2,000 net, the gross remuneration to plan for is around €2,800 per month, to be refined according to the base retained.

The EURL is often a middle ground: lighter contributions than a SASU, but weaker social protection and no unemployment cover.

The calculations above assume zero business expenses. A real activity carries rent or co-working, software, insurance, accounting fees, sometimes a professional-body subscription. Under the micro regime these costs are not deductible: they are deemed covered by the flat-rate allowance, which weighs directly on your net. If your real expenses exceed the allowance, the real regime (EURL or SASU) often becomes more advantageous.

In practice, €500 of monthly expenses under the micro regime reduce your net by the same amount: to keep €2,000 after expenses you then need around €600–700 more revenue, depending on the contribution rate.

• CSG is already included under the micro regime. Do not add it to the micro rate: double-counting is a common error that distorts the calculation.
• ACRE. The start-up relief reduces contributions for the first four quarters. For businesses created from 1 July 2026, this relief drops from 50% to 25% (decree no. 2026-69). Check your creation date and eligibility.
• Micro thresholds. Above €203,100 (goods) or €83,600 (services and liberal professions) of revenue over two consecutive years, you move to the real regime, which changes the net calculation entirely.
• Minimum TNS contributions. In an EURL, minimum contributions remain due even with no income: a barely active company still has a social cost.
• Income tax. The examples reason "net of contributions"; progressive income tax, depending on the household, comes next. A personalised estimate remains essential.

We recently advised a consultant who believed she could pay herself €2,000 net "with €2,500 in revenue, that's enough". After reworking the calculation (BNC contributions at 25.6%, a 34% deduction, about €400 of business expenses and income tax), the revenue actually required exceeded €3,200 per month. That gap forced a rethink of her pricing and led her to seriously compare the micro regime with an EURL.

This gap is systematic: people almost always underestimate the combination of contributions, tax and expenses. The right method is to work backwards — set the desired net, calculate the required revenue, then check the market supports it. If not, three levers exist: adjust pricing, cut the cost structure, or change status. The choice of status is never neutral: the micro regime favours simplicity and light charges, the SASU favours social protection, the EURL an intermediate balance.

Hayot Expertise advice. Never set a net income target without knowing the exact revenue that makes it possible. Model each scenario (micro, EURL, SASU) before committing: a simple change of status can be worth several hundred euros of net income per month for the same activity.