France ends the simplified VAT regime in 2027

01The date is already in the statute

More returns for the same tax: the State has already written that into the statute. A store that keeps its own sales figures is a different job. The plans for one that an AI launches and runs are on the AirPunk pricing page.

Article 38 of the finance act for 2025, act n° 2025-127 of 14 February 2025, comes into force on 1 January 2027. Légifrance records that it repeals the simplified VAT declaration chapter and amends article 287 of the tax code. The act says it applies to operations for which the declared tax becomes due on or after that date. For a business whose accounting year is not the calendar year, and which on 31 December 2026 is still on the simplified regime in the goods-and-services code as it stood before this act, the new text applies to operations carried out after the end of the accounting year that includes 31 December 2026.

On 22 October 2026 the news page on impots.gouv.fr about this repeal returned a maintenance page. This article does not quote the email some firms say they received. What follows comes from the act, from article 287 in the version dated 1 January 2027, from the Economy Ministry page written on 27 May 2026, and from the Service Public sheet verified on 13 March 2026. People search this under the short name “RSI”. Here that means the simplified VAT regime, not the old social-security fund for the self-employed.

02Who is on the simplified regime today

The Economy Ministry page, written 27 May 2026, describes three VAT regimes: the exemption (franchise en base), the simplified regime, and the normal actual regime (réel normal). For the simplified regime it gives a band of annual turnover before tax: between €85,000 and €840,000 for sales of goods, takeaway or eat-in food, and lodging other than furnished tourist lets, rural gîtes and guest rooms; between €37,500 and €254,000 for services. It also requires annual VAT under €15,000. The same page says the regime applies by right inside those bands, and, further down, that you opt for it with your business tax office, with effect on the first day of the month of the option. Both sentences are on that page. If your own file is unclear, the tax office decides, not this reading.

On that regime the page describes two provisional instalments, in July and in December, on form 3514, with a remote payment. July is 55% of the VAT due for the previous year. December is 40%. Then one annual balancing return: for a calendar year, form 3517-S (CA12), filed at the latest on the second working day after 1 May of the next year; for any other year, within three months of the close, on form 3517-S (CA12-E). Any balance is paid with that return. That is the calendar the repeal replaces. This page does not print a date for a “last CA12”, because neither the act nor the ministry page printed one.

03What changes is the rhythm

The ministry page says that, under the 2025 finance act, the simplified VAT regime will be repealed on 1 January 2027. From that date, businesses that are not in the exemption are all placed under the normal actual VAT regime, with a monthly or quarterly return, depending on turnover. The rate of the tax is not what those sentences change. A seller who filed twice in instalments and once a year will file every month, or every quarter. That is more paper from the administration, for the same kind of sale.

The precise test is in article 287 as it will read on 1 January 2027, amended by article 38. The return is filed every month or, when paragraph 3 applies, every civil quarter. The quarter applies when turnover plus taxable acquisitions did not exceed €1,000,000 during the previous calendar year, and did not exceed €1,100,000 during the current year. The article defines that figure by reference to article 293 D, plus the amount, before VAT, of operations for which you are liable under listed provisions. This page does not rewrite that calculation. If you cross €1,100,000 during the year, you file monthly from the first day of the month of the crossing, and the first monthly return covers what you did since the first day of the current quarter.

If you qualify for the quarter, you can opt for a monthly filing. The option takes effect on the first day of the month of the following civil quarter, or on the first day of a later quarter you name. It lasts at least four civil quarters. You exercise it, and you revoke it, with the tax office you depend on. The two ceilings are indexed on inflation every three years, under the goods-and-services code, and the revised values are rounded to the nearest thousand euros. This page does not invent the first revised number. Article 287 also says the return is filed within the time set by ministerial order. The article page does not print a calendar day for 2027, so neither does this one.

Do not mix that test with a sentence on the same ministry page about the normal regime as it works today. That sentence says that if the annual VAT due is under €4,000, you can opt for a quarterly return, filed monthly otherwise on form 3310-CA3. That is how the page describes the regime now. The text that takes effect in 2027 uses the €1,000,000 and €1,100,000 test, not the €4,000 line.

04The exemption is a separate case

A micro-entrepreneur who stays in the VAT exemption is not the person this repeal moves onto a monthly return. The ministry page says the businesses concerned in 2027 are those that are not in the exemption. Article 287, as it will read in 2027, says that supplies and services covered by the exemptions in articles 293 B and 293 B bis are not shown on the return, with an exception it states for part of the foreign exemption. If you do not charge VAT, this change of rhythm is not your filing calendar. It becomes yours the day you leave the exemption, by crossing a ceiling or by opting to charge VAT.

Service Public’s sheet on micro-entrepreneur tax, verified 13 March 2026, still describes the exemption. It applies on 1 January of year N when prior-year turnover did not exceed €37,500 for services, or €85,000 for trade, restaurants and accommodation other than tourist furnished lets. During the year, the higher ceilings on that page are €41,250 and €93,500. The same sheet says the French exemption ceilings are unchanged for 2026, and that the proposal in the 2025 finance act for a single exemption ceiling of €25,000 was dropped. For a micro-enterprise, the sheet places the simplified VAT regime, on 1 January 2026, between €37,500 and €83,600 for services, or between €85,000 and €203,100 for trade and accommodation, and only if prior-year VAT due is under €15,000. Above the upper turnover line, it says you leave the micro income regime. The ministry’s wider band, up to €840,000 or €254,000, is the general simplified regime, which can apply to a company that is no longer a micro. Read the sheet that matches your status. The two pages are not a contradiction once you see they are not describing the same taxpayer.

One neighbouring line on that Service Public sheet is not this repeal. From 1 September 2026, the invoice mention that points to article 293 B of the tax code is to be replaced by a mention of article L. 223 of the goods-and-services code. The sheet says a tolerance runs until 31 December 2027, during which the old mention is still accepted. The filing rhythm and the sentence on the invoice are two different changes. Both can touch a small seller in the same winter.

05What you can do before 2027

1. Read which regime your last VAT position actually is. The bands above are the published rules. Your file can be an option, an exclusion, or a year that is not the calendar year.
2. If you are in the exemption and you mean to stay there, watch the ceilings on the Service Public sheet. This repeal does not, by itself, put you on a monthly return.
3. If you are on the simplified regime, plan for a monthly or quarterly return from the switch date in article 38, instead of two instalments and one annual balance. Keep a running figure of the turnover-plus-acquisitions test, because crossing €1,100,000 changes the rhythm inside the year.
4. Do not treat a blog, including this one, as the filing. Open the act and the ministry page again closer to the date. On 22 October 2026 the dedicated impots.gouv.fr news page was down for maintenance. It is still the page to reopen.

A separate page on this site runs the published rates on an amount you type. It is indicative. It is not a return. It is what the State takes from 100 €. The 2027 budget bill, which is not this VAT act and is not law, is tracked on the note for freelancers. A separate change, already in force, is how some Urssaf sums are paid: the card ceiling and the PIS transfer.

06The forms multiply. The income still has to be built.

Four returns a year, or twelve, in place of a balancing return and two instalments: that is the practical weight for a small seller who was on the simplified regime because the volume did not justify a monthly accounting ritual. The statute does not raise the VAT rate in the articles cited here. It shortens the period. You will need the sales figure earlier, and you will need it often. A later finance act can still rewrite article 38 before 1 January 2027. Until it does, the text in force on that date is the one Légifrance already shows.

07Turn the reform into an operations checklist

A change to a VAT regime affects more than the name on a tax form. A store owner needs to know which rule is enacted, which filing period is affected, how invoices are recorded and who will prepare the return. Do not change a process because a bill is discussed before the final rule is published.

• Separate adopted law, proposed text and administrative guidance in your notes.
• List your sales countries, taxable products and current VAT setup before mapping any new filing rhythm.
• Confirm the transition date and first affected period with the official tax guidance or your accountant.

For a young ecommerce brand, the practical risk is a checkout price or invoice that no longer matches the reporting rule. Put a test order and invoice review on the same checklist as the declaration itself.