Skip to main content
Start free
Premium

French BNC Revenue Register Template (Mandatory)

Mandatory chronological revenue register for French professionals under the BNC declaration régime, per Tax Code Art. 99.

Who is legally required to keep a registre des recettes BNC in 2026?

Any self-employed liberal professional subject to the régime de la déclaration contrôlée (full real-income regime, form 2035) must maintain this register under Article 99 CGI. This covers professionals whose annual gross receipts exceed EUR 77,700 in 2026, those in regulated professions ineligible for micro-BNC (lawyers, chartered accountants, notaries), and anyone who has voluntarily opted into the full real-income regime regardless of their turnover level.

Source: Article 99 CGI — Régime de la déclaration contrôlée (BNC), Légifrance · updated 2026

About this form

The registre des recettes BNC (mandatory revenue register for self-employed liberal professionals) is the core accounting document required of any professional in France operating under the régime de la déclaration contrôlée (the full real-income tax regime, filed on form 2035). Mandated by Article 99 of the Code général des impôts (CGI — France's general tax code), the register must record each payment chronologically, detailing the actual date of receipt, the gross amount, the payment method, and the client's full identity whenever a transaction exceeds EUR 76 in cash or is settled by any other means. Professionals under the micro-BNC regime (annual gross receipts at or below EUR 77,700 in 2026) may use a simplified version: a daily total suffices when each individual cash payment remains below EUR 76. The register must be retained for six years and produced on demand by the French tax authorities (Direction générale des finances publiques).

Worked example

Marie-Claire Benoit, a self-employed physiotherapist (kinésithérapeute libérale) based in Lyon, has been filing under the régime de la déclaration contrôlée (form 2035) since 2019. In June 2026 she records: 45 sessions at EUR 28 each settled by card or CPAM (French national health insurance) bank transfer — client identity noted on every line; 3 private sessions at EUR 60 each paid in cash (below the EUR 76 threshold, so the daily total without individual identification suffices); and one rehabilitation assessment at EUR 380 paid by cheque drawn on the CPAM du Rhône (payee identity and cheque number 0048291 recorded). June total: EUR 1,660. She carries this figure to line BL of form 2035-A and verifies it against her BNP Paribas Pro bank statement, annotating the two salary transfers made that month from her professional to her personal account so they are not mistaken for undisclosed receipts.

How to fill out the form

  1. Open a new line in the register as soon as payment is received — not on the invoice date. Record the exact date funds arrived (bank credit or cash in hand), the supporting-document reference (invoice or fee note number), and a brief description of the service provided.
  2. Enter the gross amount received and the payment method in full: cash (itemise amounts above EUR 50), cheque (number, bank, and drawer's name), bank transfer (payment reference), or card (TPE terminal ticket reference or terminal ID number).
  3. Record the client's full identity — name, first name, and address — for any non-cash payment and for any cash payment exceeding EUR 76. This is the first field verified by a tax inspector during an audit and its absence is treated as a deliberate omission.
  4. Calculate and record the monthly cumulative total at the bottom of each page or column. This figure feeds directly into line BL of form 2035-A (the income statement component of the liasse fiscale — the annual tax-return package) and allows straightforward reconciliation with your professional bank statements.
  5. Archive the completed register — paper original or a non-editable PDF export — together with all corresponding supporting documents (invoices, bank statements, cheque stubs) for six years from 31 December of the relevant financial year.

Good to know

  • Cash-basis trap: BNC accounting is cash-basis (comptabilité de caisse). Always record the date funds actually arrived — never the invoice date. Systematically mis-dating entries is classified as a deliberate breach at audit and can artificially shift income between tax years, triggering a 40% surcharge.
  • Cash-payment ceiling: transactions in cash exceeding EUR 1,000 per payment between a professional and a private individual are illegal under Article L. 112-6 of the Code monétaire et financier. Refusing cash above this limit is both permitted and recommended; non-compliance attracts a fine of 5% of the amount involved.
  • Monthly bank reconciliation: tax inspectors cross-check the register against your professional bank statements. Any bank credit not recorded in the register is presumed to be undisclosed income, taxed with a minimum 40% surcharge. A monthly reconciliation annotating internal transfers eliminates this risk entirely.

Frequently asked questions

Who is legally required to keep a registre des recettes BNC in 2026?

Any self-employed liberal professional subject to the régime de la déclaration contrôlée (full real-income regime, form 2035) must maintain this register under Article 99 CGI. This covers professionals whose annual gross receipts exceed EUR 77,700 in 2026, those in regulated professions ineligible for micro-BNC (lawyers, chartered accountants, notaries), and anyone who has voluntarily opted into the full real-income regime regardless of their turnover level.

What information must appear on each line of the register?

Each entry must include: the actual date of receipt (not the invoice date), the gross amount received, the payment method (cash, cheque with its number, bank transfer, or card), and the supporting-document reference (invoice or fee note number). The client's full identity — name, first name, and address — is mandatory for any non-cash payment and for any cash payment exceeding EUR 76.

Can the register be kept in digital format?

Yes — French law imposes no specific medium. The register may be maintained on paper, in a spreadsheet, or via practice management software, provided all mandatory fields are present and the document can be reproduced at any time. If kept digitally, regular external backups are essential: a lost or inaccessible register at the time of a tax audit is treated the same as an absent one.

What are the penalties for not having a registre des recettes?

Failure to produce the register on demand carries a fine of EUR 5,000 per financial year under Article 1734 CGI. The absence of the document can also trigger a taxation d'office (a deemed-income assessment where the tax authority imposes its own figures) and a 40% surcharge on underpaid tax where a deliberate breach is found, rising to 80% where active concealment is established.

How long must the register be kept?

The register must be retained for six years from the last entry recorded, in line with the standard tax-authority audit window set out in Article L. 169 of the LPF (livre des procédures fiscales — France's tax procedures code). Where tax litigation is pending at the end of that six-year period, the retention obligation extends until the proceedings have been finally resolved.

Does a micro-BNC professional still need to keep a register?

Yes, but in a simplified form. Under the micro-BNC regime (annual gross receipts at or below EUR 77,700 in 2026) a daily total of receipts is sufficient, without individual client identification, provided each cash payment remains below EUR 76. Above that cash threshold, or for any non-cash payment regardless of amount, the client's full identity must be recorded.

Official sources

Updated on 2026-06-27

A question about this form?

Ask Solva, ActioFin's AI finance advisor — answers sourced from official texts.

5 free questions per day with a free account

Ask Solva

Useful calculators

Related forms

French BNC Revenue Register Template (Mandatory) — ActioFin