French CPA for Liberal Professions: Hayot Expertise, Paris (English-speaking)

France has a distinct legal category called professions libérales (liberal professions) that does not map neatly onto Anglo-Saxon concepts. If you are a doctor, dentist, lawyer, architect, engineer, consultant, physiotherapist, or psychologist relocating to France or setting up practice here, you will almost certainly fall into this category, and French tax and social security law treats it very specifically.

A liberal profession in French law is an independent intellectual activity, exercised personally and in direct relationship with clients, typically requiring a recognised professional qualification. They divide into two groups:

• Réglementées (regulated): subject to a professional body (ordre), a protected title, and specific rules for corporate structures. Examples: doctors (Ordre des Médecins), lawyers (barreaux), architects (CROA), dentists, pharmacists, physiotherapists. One important exception: an owner-pharmacist running an officine is registered with the Ordre but is not taxed under the BNC regime, because operating a pharmacy is a commercial activity taxed under BIC rules. See our dedicated pharmacy accountant page.
• Non-réglementées (unregulated): no mandatory professional body, but still classified as liberal for tax purposes. Examples: consultants, management coaches, psychologists (unless ADELI-registered), IT contractors, executive trainers.

For French income tax, all liberal professionals fall under BNC, Bénéfices Non Commerciaux (non-commercial profits): a distinct tax category separate from employment income, commercial income, or company profits.

Hayot Expertise is an English-speaking French accounting firm (cabinet d'expertise comptable) specialised in liberal professions, supporting foreign professionals across medicine, law, architecture, consulting, training, therapy, and more.

Régime Micro-BNC vs Régime Réel (Form 2035)

France offers two BNC filing options:

1. Micro-BNC (simplified): Available if annual professional revenue is below €83,600 (2026 threshold). A flat 34% deduction is applied to gross revenue: you are taxed on 66% of receipts, with no deduction for actual expenses. Simple, but disadvantageous when your real expenses exceed 34%.

2. Régime réel, déclaration contrôlée (Form 2035): You deduct all actual professional expenses. The déclaration 2035 is the core annual tax return for liberal professionals in France. Unlike a corporate tax return, there is no statutory balance sheet for individual BNC: only a revenue and expense ledger (livre-journal des recettes et dépenses) and a fixed asset register (registre des immobilisations et amortissements).

When to choose réel over micro-BNC: if your actual expenses exceed 34% of revenue (typical for regulated professions with significant overheads), the réel regime is more advantageous. Above €83,600, it is mandatory.

Typical Deductible Expenses on Form 2035

• Professional rent and premises costs (or home-office proportion: professional surface ÷ total surface × rent)
• Professional liability insurance (RCP: responsabilité civile professionnelle)
• Mandatory professional body fees (Ordre des Médecins, CNB for lawyers, CROA for architects)
• Professional subscriptions (medical databases, legal research tools, SaaS software such as Doctolib or Doctrine)
• Continuing education and professional development (DPC for doctors, mandatory training for lawyers)
• Equipment depreciation (medical devices, computers, office furniture, vehicles at capped rates)
• Travel expenses (mileage at the official French rate: €0.636/km for a 5 CV vehicle in 2026 up to 5,000 km, then tapering)
• Madelin contributions (supplementary health, disability, and retirement insurance: fully deductible; see below)

This is the area that surprises foreign professionals most. Unlike employees, where contributions are split between employer and employee, a self-employed liberal professional in France pays all social contributions personally, and the rates are substantial.

Key Social Contribution Bodies

Overall TNS contribution rate: approximately 45 to 48% of your net BNC income (all bodies combined). A foreign professional earning €100,000 BNC annually will pay approximately €45,000 to €48,000 in social contributions before income tax. Cash-flow planning from day one is essential.

How Contributions Are Calculated: The Catch-Up Effect

French TNS contributions are provisionally calculated on the prior year's income, then adjusted the following year. For a newly arrived foreign professional in year 1 or year 2:

• You initially pay provisional contributions based on a minimum flat-rate base
• When year-1 income is reported (typically in May to June of year 2), a regularisation (rattrapage) arrives, often representing 40 to 60% of full-year contribution liability

We model this timeline for every new foreign client and build a monthly cash provision so the catch-up does not create a crisis.

The Madelin Deduction: Reducing Tax Through Pension Contributions

French law (Loi Madelin) allows TNS professionals to deduct supplementary pension, disability, and health contributions from their taxable BNC income. In 2026:

Maximum Madelin pension deduction = 10% of net BNC + 15% of the portion between 1 PASS and 8 PASS (PASS = €48,060 in 2026; maximum €88,911/year, reached on profit at or above 8 PASS)

A foreign professional earning €120,000 BNC can deduct up to ~€22,000 in Madelin contributions, saving up to €9,000 in income tax at the 41% marginal bracket. Madelin premiums do not, however, reduce the social contribution base: they are added back when URSSAF computes TNS contributions.

Individual Practice (Entreprise Individuelle / BNC)

The simplest entry point for a foreign liberal professional arriving in France. You register directly with URSSAF (and the relevant professional body if regulated). No share capital, no articles of association required. Taxed under the BNC regime.

Suitable when: annual BNC below €70,000 to €80,000, just starting out, or exploring the French market.

SELARL and SELAS: Corporate Structures for Licensed Professionals

When annual BNC exceeds €70,000 to €100,000, a corporate structure becomes tax-efficient. France created SEL (Société d'Exercice Libéral) vehicles specifically for regulated liberal professions:

• SELARL (equivalent of a French LLC for liberal professions): the majority manager (gérant majoritaire) has TNS status, approximately 45% social contributions on rémunération. Subject to corporate tax (IS): 15% up to €42,500 profit, 25% above. Allows salary + dividend optimisation.
• SELAS (equivalent of a French SAS for liberal professions): the president has assimilé salarié status (~65 to 70% contributions) with better social protection and access to the executive pension scheme (AGIRC-ARRCO).

For unregulated liberal professions (consultants, coaches, trainers), standard SASU or SAS vehicles are used without the SEL constraint.

Remuneration strategy in a SELARL: the company pays IS on profits. The manager takes a salary (deductible from the IS base), then separately distributes dividends taxed at the PFU flat rate of 31.4% (18.6% social levies + 12.8% income tax, since the 2026 social security financing law). We run an annual simulation to find the optimal salary/dividend split.

SPFPL: The Wealth Holding Structure for Regulated Professionals

For regulated professionals in SELARL/SELAS, a SPFPL (Société de Participations Financières de Professions Libérales) is a holding company that receives dividends from your SEL with near-zero taxation (régime mère-fille: 95% exemption, net tax friction of ~1.25%). This allows you to:

• Accumulate professional profits tax-efficiently
• Finance property purchases (via an SCI subsidiary) without personal tax leakage
• Prepare succession planning through donation of holding shares

SCM: Sharing Office Costs Without Merging Practices

A SCM (Société Civile de Moyens) is used when two or more liberal professionals want to share costs (rent, receptionist, equipment) without merging their activities. Each professional remains independent for tax purposes (filing their own 2035), and the SCM invoices shared costs at net cost. The SCM itself is transparent for French tax: no IS at the SCM level.

Common for: multi-doctor practices, architecture offices, physiotherapy clinics, multi-partner law firms.

EU/EEA Professionals

The EU Professional Qualifications Directive (2005/36/EC) provides for mutual recognition. EU nationals benefit from a streamlined process but must formally apply to the relevant French ordre professionnel and may need to:

1. Demonstrate linguistic competence in French (required for patient/client-facing professions)
2. Complete a required adaptation period or aptitude test

Non-EU Professionals

Recognition is handled case by case through diploma equivalence procedures (équivalence de diplôme). Some bilateral agreements exist (Franco-American for doctors, etc.). The process can take 6 to 18 months. We help you structure your business and tax affairs during the transition period so you are ready to invoice from day one of legal authorisation.

Liberal professionals who employ staff must meet strict social obligations. Most practices fall under the national collective agreement for medical practices (IDCC 1147), the national collective agreement for dental practices (IDCC 1619) or profession-specific agreements (lawyers, architects). We handle monthly payroll for employees (medical secretaries, dental assistants, associate lawyers, draughtspeople in architecture firms), the DSN (the monthly payroll declaration) and the calculation of employer contributions (URSSAF, retirement, provident cover, compulsory health insurance). Employer contributions represent about 42% of gross salary in the general case.

For the self-employed practitioner (majority manager of a SELARL, or BNC practice), personal social contributions are calculated on net profit (taxable BNC after expenses, including Madelin contracts), at an overall rate of about 45 to 48% in 2026. They are provisional (monthly or quarterly instalments based on the previous year) and adjusted the following year, which creates a significant cash timing gap to anticipate. For a practitioner treated as an employee (president of a SELAS or SASU), contributions are calculated on gross pay and represent about 65 to 70% of gross (employee plus employer contributions), with the executive pension scheme (AGIRC-ARRCO), which is more protective but more expensive.

Professionals who reach a new stage (hiring, opening a second practice, partnering with peers, buying a patient or client base) need to structure their legal and financial organisation.

1. Moving to a company: above €70,000 to €100,000 of BNC profit, a company subject to corporate tax becomes advantageous. We simulate the overall tax effect (income tax, social levies, corporate tax and flat tax) and support the creation of a SELARL, SELAS or SASU, from articles of association to registration and the accounting switch-over.
2. Partnering with peers: several doctors, lawyers or architects who want to share resources (premises, secretarial staff, equipment) can form an SCM (société civile de moyens, a cost-sharing company): each partner remains independent for tax purposes and the SCM recharges shared costs at cost. For a more integrated joint practice, a SEL (SELARL, SELAS) or an SCP (société civile professionnelle) is more suitable. We support the shareholders' agreement, the allocation of shares and the management of partner current accounts.
3. Holding and transmission: an SPFPL (for regulated professions) or an SAS holding (for non-regulated professions) can hold the shares of several SELs, centralise dividends almost tax-free and prepare transmission through gifts of holding shares (Dutreil pact: 75% of the value of the business shares is exempt from gift duties).
4. Financing and buying a practice: banks typically finance 70 to 80% of the purchase of a patient or client base, medical equipment and premises fit-out. We prepare the financial forecast, negotiate with banks and assemble applications for support schemes (ACRE for creators, CFE exemption in the year of creation). On the sale of a practice, we value it (typically 0.8 to 1.2 times annual gross receipts, depending on location and discipline) and secure the tax treatment of the sale (full exemption if receipts are below €90,000, partial exemption up to €126,000, professional capital gains with a holding-period allowance above that).

1. Staying too long under micro-BNC: above €50,000 of receipts, the real regime (form 2035) often becomes more favourable (actual expenses, depreciation, Madelin). Not switching costs thousands of euros in tax.
2. Under-provisioning URSSAF contributions: self-employed contributions are provisional and adjusted the following year. Many professionals forget to set the adjustment aside. We recommend provisioning 40% of net fees each month to cover URSSAF and income tax.
3. Forgetting deductible expenses: DPC training, Madelin contributions, the home office share, mileage allowances, professional subscriptions and accounting fees. Each euro of deductible expense reduces both income tax at your marginal rate and self-employed contributions, so the real saving is substantial.
4. Not anticipating incorporation: waiting until BNC profit reaches €150,000 before moving to a company means losing years of planning. We run the simulation from €70,000 of BNC profit.
5. Not setting up a holding structure: for professionals generating significant dividends, a holding (SPFPL or SAS) captures dividends almost tax-free (95% parent-subsidiary regime) and builds financial or property wealth without tax friction.

✅ English-speaking French CPA: we explain the BNC regime, Form 2035, and SELARL/SELAS in plain English ✅ Sector specialists: doctors, lawyers, architects, consultants, physiotherapists; we know your specific contribution bodies and accounting rules ✅ Foreign professional onboarding: URSSAF registration, Madelin setup, and first 2035 declaration ✅ Structure optimisation: BNC vs SELARL simulation, salary/dividend split, Madelin maximisation ✅ Digital accounting on Pennylane: cloud-based, real-time, accessible from anywhere in the world

Background: Jennifer A., a former McKinsey consultant based in New York, relocated to Paris in 2022 with her French spouse. She set up as an independent management consultant (conseil en management), a non-regulated liberal profession.

Year 1, individual BNC at réel regime: annual fees €95,000 (two retained clients: a private equity fund and a CAC 40 group's transformation office). CIPAV contributions: €12,400 (CIPAV base + complementary). URSSAF: €7,800. Deductible expenses (home office, business travel Paris-London-Brussels, client lunches, laptop, professional subscriptions, professional liability insurance): €18,600.

Taxable BNC: 95,000 - 12,400 - 7,800 - 18,600 = €56,200. Income tax: approximately €13,800 (with partial household deductions). Net disposable: ~€61,000. Effective tax + contribution rate: 35.8%; this surprised Jennifer coming from a New York tax environment where LLC pass-through + self-employment taxes had reached very similar levels.

Year 2, Madelin optimisation: Jennifer maximised her Madelin pension deduction, capped at 10% of taxable profit plus 15% of the portion between 1 and 8 PASS: €5,620 + €1,221 = €6,841, reducing taxable BNC from €56,200 to €49,359. At a 30% marginal rate, income tax dropped by about €2,050. There is no CIPAV or URSSAF saving: Madelin premiums are added back to the social contribution base. The deduction is best read as tax-efficient retirement saving, not as a cost cut.

Year 3, SASU incorporation: annual fees reached €180,000. Under individual BNC, total tax + contributions approached 60% of gross. SASU with:

• President salary: €70,000 (employer + employee charges: ~€63,000 total)
• SASU IS on remaining profit: (180,000 − 70,000 − 63,000 − expenses) × 15% = ~€5,550 IS
• Dividends: €41,450 × 31.4% flat tax (2026 PFU: 12.8% income tax + 18.6% social levies) = €13,015
• Net disposable jump: over €20,000 vs individual BNC at same revenue level

For consultants, trainers, architects, and advisors billing international clients from France, understanding the VAT position of each client type is essential:

• French client (B2B, VAT-registered): standard French VAT at 20% on invoice
• EU client (B2B, EU VAT number): zero-rated under reverse charge (article 44 EU VAT Directive); client self-accounts for VAT
• EU client (private individual, non-VAT): French VAT at 20% for services below EU OSS threshold (€10,000); above threshold, charge VAT at client's country rate and file EU OSS
• Non-EU client (US, UK, Asia; B2B or B2C): outside scope of French VAT; no VAT charged, no reverse charge

Common error: French liberal professionals billing US companies incorrectly charge French VAT. This is incorrect for B2B services to non-EU businesses: the service is outside scope and no VAT should appear on the invoice. Conversely, failing to file OSS on B2C EU services above €10,000 is a compliance gap increasingly targeted by French and EU tax authorities.

Missing the DAS2 declaration (required when you pay more than €1,200 per year to any individual freelancer or consultant) generates a 15% penalty on the total amount not declared. Many foreign professionals have never heard of DAS2 and discover it during their first tax audit.

📞 Request a free consultation: Hayot Expertise, 58 rue de Monceau, 75008 Paris

For more on liberal health professions, see our accountant for doctors guide for 2026: BNC, SELARL, 2035 and CARMF.