Autoentrepreneur - claiming expenses

Hello, I have been told I can claim expenses as an AE when filling out my tax form. I have been an AE for over 5 years, but have never claimed anything as I didn't know how to go about it. Has anyone done this please? I'm not sure what sort of things I want to/or can claim for yet, I'm just worried that I might not be taking advantage...

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Ha ha, yep thanks Tobias - phew! :-)

Sorry, no you can't. Good thing you didn't try!

Thanks Pauline, I really appreciate your reply. Thanks for going to the trouble :-)

Point out to your OH that this is the difference between simplifé and réel. He's talking about réel. You are on simplifié. And as a travailleuse indépendante, unfortunately neither can you claim the work-related expenses that employees can claim - fuel expenses in getting to work, etc.

Hello Andrew, hello Pauline, thanks so much for your input. I really just wanted to make sure as I can now prevent the facts to both my husband (French) and other people (external to France). Both have contradicted me as I already had a feeling I couldnt claim....and these people were adamant...so now I have the facts! I will be studying my tax form with interest next time; I normally glaze over ;-) Merci!

Micro is a simplified system with a built-in flat-rate allowance for expenses, fixed at 34% per cent for professions libérale, 50% for services and 71% for resellers. This is to save you the hassle of adding up your expenses and doing complicated accounts. If you look at the RFR on your tax form you'll see that these flat-rate allowances have been applied automatically, eg if you're prof lib micro and you declare a turnover of 10,000€, this will show in your RFR 6,600€ taxable income

If your expenses are lower than the flat-rate allowance then that's good, micro suits your business model. If your expenses are higher than the flat rate allowance then it's not good and you need to either change your business model or change to a different statut. Either way, you can't offset expenses when you have already been given an allowance for all the expenses you are entitled to, that would be trying to claim twice for the same thing, or having your cake and eating it.

You read and hear all sorts, but you don't believe it all do you?

nop, Sarah :-( for the reasons given above ;-)

Pour le calcul de son revenu imposable, l'auto-entrepreneur ne peut pas déduire ses dépenses professionnelles de son chiffre d'affaires. C'est un inconvénient majeur puisque l'auto-entrepreneur devra payer des cotisations sociales et des impôts sur son bénéfice théorique, dès le début de son activité. Et ce, même s'il ne fait pas de bénéfice !

Cet inconvénient du statut auto-entrepreneur est lié au calcul des cotisations sociales et impôt sur le revenu en pourcentage du chiffre d'affaires. L'hypothèse retenue par l'État étant que l'auto-entrepreneur dégage un bénéfice dès qu'il commence son activité. Il ne peut pas, par exemple, déduire de son bénéfice une part de son loyer, ses frais kilométriques, ses frais de repas, etc. Quel que soit le montant de ses charges, les pourcentages de calcul des cotisations sociales et de l'impôt sur le revenu sont invariables.

I'm sure I read somewhere that some expenses can be claimed - in my case my internet/phone bill as I work online. However, I can't remember where I saw the information.

Oh right, thanks Brian. Good luck with that!

Oh interesting, didn't realise. Thanks Helen, thanks Andrew :-)

as an auto entrepreneur you're only paying 50% of the standard charges sociales and impĂ´ts sur le revenu because you can't claim expenses. As Helen says, you're effectively only taxed (charges sociales and impĂ´ts) on half your income ;-)

there is an automatic rabattement on what you declare as your AE income - you cannot claim any expenses as an AE

If anything, we are two AEs here, you can end up paying extra CFE-IFER is charged for each EA/micro-enterprise at one address. Just imagine if home living offspring go freelance! Expenses, hah!

Oh, thanks Pauline. This is what I thought at the beginning, but others (who aren't auto-entrepreneurs) said differently. I can now put them right! :-) Thanks for replying.

As a micro you can't claim business-related expenses but you can of course claim all the usual personal tax reliefs such as donations to registered charities, home improvements eligible for crédit d'impôt, employing people in your home to provide services to you as a private individual (not business services) via CESU, that sort of thing.