French bar-tabac accounting: FDJ, customs, mixed revenue and licences

A French bar-tabac brings several activities into one cash register: bar, tobacco, FDJ, press, parcel services, food, commissions and sometimes licences. The owner cannot manage the business from total receipts alone.

This guide complements our bar-tabac accountant page, the article on opening a bar-tabac, the restaurant accounting guide and our business creation or acquisition service.

Accounting should separate own sales, commissions, regulated flows and collected taxes. Profitability depends less on total receipts than on margin by activity and operating cost.

Freshness note: updated on 14 August 2026. The retail tobacco monopoly no longer sits in the French tax code: since 1 July 2025 it has been codified in articles L. 3512-14-2 and following of the public health code (ordinance no. 2023-1210 of 20 December 2023). Article 568 of the tax code, in its version in force since 29 July 2026, only keeps the licence duty, and tobacco excise now belongs to the code on levies on goods and services. Articles 570 to 575 M of the tax code, still quoted everywhere, are repealed.

This is the specific feature that most surprises buyers. French tax doctrine is explicit: profits from the sale of state-monopoly products, meaning the retailer's margin on manufactured tobacco, must in principle be classified as non-commercial profits (BNC) (BOI-BIC-CHAMP-60-40, § 20). A tobacconist acts as an agent of the administration, not as a trader buying to resell.

The same guidance adds two layers: where the operator also carries on a commercial activity, for instance an attached bar, that activity is taxed as industrial and commercial profits (BIC) (§ 30); and article 155 of the French tax code applies to approved managers whose tobacco licence is only an extension of a preponderant commercial activity (§ 40), the classic café-tabac, in which case the whole is taxed as BIC.

The point is not academic: it drives the number of returns, the bookkeeping basis (cash accounting for BNC against accrual accounting for BIC), the social contribution base and, on resale, the nature of the capital gain.

FDJ and tobacco flows should be isolated. Receipts do not represent the business's own revenue: the retailer collects stakes on behalf of the operator and remits them. Only the commission is income.

On VAT, article 261 E of the French tax code exempts the proceeds of the national lottery, national loto, pari-mutuel horse betting and sports betting, except for the remuneration received by organisers and by intermediaries taking part in the organisation of those games and bets. A retailer selling tickets is exactly such an intermediary: its commission falls within the scope of VAT, while the stakes collected do not.

Monthly consequences: stakes flow through a third-party account, not a revenue account; the FDJ commission is recorded as income and subject to VAT; the operator's statement is the reconciliation evidence, stake by stake and commission by commission; and any difference between the till and the partner statement is cleared within the month, not at year end.

The cash register should provide a reliable split between bar, food, tobacco, FDJ, press, parcel services, ancillary products, discounts and cancellations. Three mistakes distort a bar-tabac's accounts more often than any others.

1. Counting FDJ stakes and tobacco sales in turnover. Stakes are collected for the operator, and tobacco is sold as an agent of the administration, not on the retailer's own account: only the 8.35 % net discount feeds the result.
2. Applying a single VAT rate to the till. Alcoholic drinks carry the standard 20 % rate, on the premises as well as to take away, while soft drinks move from 10 % for immediate consumption to 5.5 % in a container allowing storage (bottle, carton, can). Tobacco sales and the retailer's discount escape VAT at the retailer's level, the tax being paid upstream by the supplier on the retail price (article 298 quaterdecies). Press is not simply another rate either: intermediation by a duly registered agent gives rise to no VAT payment, the publisher accounting for the tax on the full public price (article 298 undecies).
3. Judging profitability on total receipts. Margin is computed activity by activity. Tobacco brings footfall, rarely the main margin.

Before an acquisition, Hayot Expertise reviews revenue by activity, real margin, opening hours, payroll, rent, licences, investment, dependence on regulated flows and cash.

• Reconcile cash register, bank and partner statements.
• Separate own sales and commissions.
• Check cash differences.
• Track bar and food margin.
• Prepare payroll obligations.
• Update forecast cash.

A good bar-tabac report is short and strict: revenue by activity, commissions, bar margin, payroll, rent, cash differences and cash. Complexity comes from mixed flows rather than volume.

The main risk is cash illusion. A large receipt can correspond to a flow to be remitted or to a low commission. Without segmentation, the owner overestimates profit.

The owner must decide whether to develop bar sales, food, services, add-on sales or footfall. That choice changes hours, payroll, margin and working capital.

• Review customs obligations linked to tobacco.
• Isolate FDJ and commissions.
• Check VAT by sale family.
• Secure licences and operating conditions.
• Be able to receive electronic invoices from 1 September 2026: the obligation applies to every VAT-registered business, whatever its size, and requires an approved platform.
• Use the right issuing deadline: 1 September 2027 for SMEs and micro-enterprises, against 1 September 2026 for large and mid-sized companies.
• Anticipate counter e-reporting: sales to private customers do not give rise to an electronic invoice, but article 290 of the French tax code covers transactions carried out with non-taxable persons, on the same timetable.