Two ceilings, two years

Atelier Céramique Nolan billed 34 000 € of services last year and is already at 39 000 € this year. Its founder, under the small-business exemption, charges no VAT and believes she has room up to 41 250 €. She is right about the figure and wrong about what it triggers. Before you read: how many ceilings does article 293 B set, and which years do they cover?

Relief from payment

Article 293 B of the general tax code sets the principle: for their supplies of goods and services, taxable persons established in France benefit from an exemption relieving them of payment of value added tax.

The word relieving is the one to hold on to. The exemption is not an exemption of the activity: the business remains a taxable person, and it is payment of the tax it is relieved of so long as its ceilings are not crossed.

The public service page completes the practical consequence: under this regime there is no VAT return to file, and the business is exempt from monthly or quarterly French VAT returns.

The text finally refers, for measuring turnover, to the terms provided for in article 293 D. The figure to compare with the ceilings is therefore not necessarily the gross total read off the accounts.

The two-row table

The I of the article presents its ceilings as a table, and its structure is what many miss. One row covers the previous calendar year, the other the current year.

For the previous calendar year, the text sets 85 000 € of total national turnover, and 37 500 € for turnover from services other than on-premises consumption and accommodation.

For the current year, the same two columns carry 93 500 € and 41 250 €. Those second amounts are higher: they mark the point beyond which the exemption ceases mid-year.

Two comparisons are therefore required, not one. You look first at what the previous year produced, then watch what the current year accumulates — two distinct questions, with two sets of figures.

The two also fail in different ways. The previous-year test is settled once, at the start of the year, and cannot be undone; the current-year one is live, and can be crossed on any day trading is good.

A rolling rule, and a dated version

The table names no year. It sets the previous calendar year against the current year, which makes it a rolling rule: the same amounts are read afresh each year against new periods.

That drafting has an advantage and a trap. The advantage is stability of reading; the trap is that an amount copied without its version does not say which state of the text it comes from.

The version cited here is the one in force since 1 March 2025, from law no. 2025-127 of 14 February 2025. It is that date, and not a year of application, that identifies the figures used.

One further point should be known to anyone preparing a lasting decision: the article's page carries a repeal notice by ordinance no. 2025-1247 of 17 December 2025, whose effect is deferred to 1 January 2027.

That notice does not change what applies today, and nothing here rests on guessing what will replace it. It simply means a plan built on these ceilings should be revisited before that date rather than assumed to carry over.

It is also a reminder of why the version date matters more than the figures. Two readers quoting 85 000 € may be quoting different states of the law; only the date attached to the reading tells them apart.