Social contributions of an individual entrepreneur: what you need to know
Verified 01 January 2026 - Entreprendre Public Service / Directorate of Legal and Administrative Information (Prime Minister)
Are you thinking about becoming or are you an individual entrepreneur and would like to know the social regime that applies? We present you with the necessary information.
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Commercial, craft or industrial activity
You are affiliated with social security for the self-employed.
The social security contributions you pay are:
- Health and maternity insurance
- Daily allowances
- Basic retirement
- Supplementary pension
- Disability insurance, death
- Family allowances
- Vocational training
- CSG: titleContent/CRDS: titleContent
They are calculated on your professional income.
You must send all the necessary information to the tax authorities for the calculation of your social security contributions:
Online tax account for professionals (EFI mode)
The payment contributions are made in 2 steps:
- In December, you receive a single notice of provisional call for contributions to be paid the following year
- In October, you receive a notification of regularization of contributions from the previous year, based on actual income
Provisional contributions are paid either monthly (on the 5th or 20th of the month) or every 3 months (February 5th, May 5th, August 5th and November 5th).
The payment can be done in one of the following ways:
- By telepayment on your Urssaf online space
- By direct debit
- By transfer
Who shall I contact
Unregulated liberal activity
You are affiliated with social security for the self-employed.
The social security contributions you pay are:
- Health and maternity insurance
- Daily allowances
- Basic retirement (Cipav: titleContent)
- Supplementary pension (Cipav: titleContent)
- Disability insurance, death
- Family allowances
- Vocational training
- CSG: titleContent/CRDS: titleContent
They are calculated on your professional income. You must send all the necessary information to the tax authorities for the calculation of your social security contributions:
Online tax account for professionals (EFI mode)
The payment of contributions is made in two stages with the Urssaf:
- In December, you receive a single notice of call for provisional contributions to be paid the following year
- In October, you receive a notification of regularization of contributions from the previous year, based on actual income
Provisional contributions are paid either monthly (on the 5th or 20th of the month) or every 3 months (February 5th, May 5th, August 5th and November 5th).
Payment can be made in one of the following ways:
- By telepayment on your Urssaf online space
- By direct debit
- By transfer
Who shall I contact
Regulated liberal activity
You are affiliated with social security for the self-employed.
The social security contributions you pay are:
- Health and maternity insurance
- Daily allowances
- Basic retirement (Cnavpl: titleContent)
- Supplementary pension (Cnavpl: titleContent)
- Disability insurance, death
- Family allowances
- Vocational training
- CSG: titleContent/CRDS: titleContent
They are calculated on your professional income. You must send all the necessary information to the tax authorities for the calculation of your social security contributions:
Online tax account for professionals (EFI mode)
The payment of contributions is made in 2 steps:
- In December, you receive a single notice of call for provisional contributions to be paid the following year
- In October, you receive a notification of regularization of contributions from the previous year, based on actual income
Provisional contributions are paid either monthly (on the 5th or 20th of the month) or every 3 months (February 5th, May 5th, August 5th and November 5th).
Payment can be made in one of the following ways:
- By telepayment on your Urssaf online space
- By direct debit
- By transfer
Who shall I contact
Social contributions and contributions are calculated on the following income:
- Wages
- Allowances
- Supplementary social benefits
- Replacement income in the event of sick leave, maternity or
- "Extra-legal" family benefits (you decide to grant your employees supplements to benefits provided by social security)
- Cash benefits provided by the Social and Economic Committee (ESC)
- Benefits in kind such as food and accommodation, provision of a professional vehicle for private use
Social security contributions are payable by the employer and the employee.
It's the employer who withholds the amount social security contributions every month on the payroll of its employees.
He must thendeclare and pay these social contributions using the registered social declaration (DSN) by the 15th of the following month that of the period of employment in question where he hires fewer than 11 employees:
Registered Social Declaration (DSN)
The employer has the option to opt for the quarterly registered company declaration. The declaration and payment of social security contributions will have to be made by the 15th of the first month of the following quarter.
The social contributions and contributions due are as follows:
- Apec Contribution
- Contribution of family allowances
- Social security contributions sickness, maternity, disability and death insurance
- Contribution Solidarity of Autonomy (CSA)
- Workers' compensation contributions
- Payment to the National Housing Assistance Fund (NHAF)
- AGS Contribution
- Social Package
- Freight payment
In addition to these social contributions, there are employee contributions which are directly deducted from the gross salary of the employee.
These contributions include old-age insurance, the general social contribution (CSG: titleContent), the contribution to the repayment of the social debt (CRDS: titleContent), unemployment contributions and supplementary pension contributions.
You can estimate the amount of social security contributions you will have to pay when hiring an employee:
Calculate the social contributions for the hiring of an employee and his remuneration to be expected
Reductions in social security contributions and contributions
The business can benefit from discounts social contributions according to different criteria:
- Reduction of employer contributions based on salary : this allows the employer to benefit from a reduction in social security contributions for gross wages below a certain amount
- Reduction of employee and employer contributions on overtime : it applies to employees who work overtime or overtime on the part of the salary paid in respect of those hours
Exemptions from social contributions and social security contributions
The business can benefit from exemptions social contributions according to different criteria:
- Exemptions granted because of the location of the business:
- Company located in a job pool to be revitalized (BER) : in order to benefit, the business must be settled in an BER between January 2007 and 31 December 2027 and have not made any economic redundancies in the last 12 months
- Company located in rural revitalization zone (ZRR) or zone France ruralités revitalizations (FRR) : to benefit from this exemption, the business must have at least one establishment located in a ZRR or FRR and have fewer than 50 employees
- Company in the Defense Restructuring Zone (DRZ) : in order to benefit from it, the business must, in particular, have set up an activity that has not existed in the ZRD for at least 3 years
- Urban Free Zone company (UFZ) : to benefit from it, the business must meet several conditions, including having started your activity between january 2016 and december 31, 2025
- Exemption for young companies : it is a partial exemption from social security contributions in the form of aid for the creation and resumption of a company (ACRE) for companies at the beginning of their activity
- Young innovative or university company (JEI-JEIC- JEU) : this exemption applies to businesses under 8 years of age who carry out research and development projects (R&: titleContent)
We have chosen a list of a few words with the definitions that correspond to them in order to better understand the social regime of an individual entrepreneur:
- Abatement : flat-rate or proportional reduction applied on the basis of a tax calculation (income, value of property, etc.)
- Plate : the basis on which the rates of the various contributions and contributions are applied
- Contribution : tax on specific projects (CSG: titleContentand CRDS: titleContent dedicated to the financing of Social Security)
- Contribution : a levy which entitles the person to social benefits
- Discount : mechanism for reducing social contributions and contributions
- Registered Social Declaration (DSN) : online declaration filed monthly from the payslip. It must be completed by all private sector employers.
- Exemption : exemption from payment of one or more social security contributions
- Daily allowances : amount of money paid to the employee by the social security in the event of accident, illness or maternity
- Employer's share : social contributions and contributions payable by the employer
- Salary share : employee contributions and social security contributions
- Liable : company who has to pay a social contribution or contribution and has not yet done so
- Actual Fees : all expenses incurred by an employee or a manager for his professional activity (meals, daily commute...)
- Payroll : cumulative gross remuneration of employees of an institution
- Collecting organization : body responsible for receiving payment of contributions (e.g. Urssaf)
- Micro-social regime : simplified social regime for micro-entrepreneurs
- Gross compensation : all sums received by an employee under his employment contract before deduction of independent social contributions and contributions
- Single Location Payment (LULV) : system allowing all social contributions and contributions due by the employer to be paid in a single payment to the Urssaf