You may have received an email from Direction Générale des Finances Publiques asking you to validate and pay your Contribution Fonciere des Entreprises (CFE). This is not a spam and you need to take some time to go and validate this tax on your business impots account. If you have not created a professional impot account yet (this is not related to your personal income tax account), you have until the 30th November to do so. Your CFE bill should be available on your impots account by 16th November 2018.
What is Contribution Fonciere des Entreprises (CFE)?
Contribution Fonciere des Entreprises (CFE) is a small tax paid by all businesses to their local authorities and collected by the tax office. You benefit from a CFE exoneration for your first year in business, but must pay it every year after that. The exoneration is based on a calendar year. So, if you registered your French business in January or November 2018, the exoneration will be for 2018 and CFE will be due in December 2019.
How much does CFE cost?
The minimum CFE amount is determined by the municipalities and EPCI (Etablissement Public de Cooperation Intercommunale). The minimum CFE rate applicable on 1st January 2017 is split up into 6 categories based on the business turnover:
- Less than €10,000 HT (without TVA) – CFE from €216 to €514
- From €10,000 to €32,600 – CFE from €216 to €1,027
- From €32,600 to €100,000 – CFE from €216 to €2,157
- From €100,000 to €250,000 – CFE from €216 to €3,596
- From €250,000 to €500,000 – CFE from €216 to €5,136
- Above €500,000 – CFE from €216 to €6,678
CFE exoneration in 2019 for small businesses
The good news is that small businesses with a turnover below 5,000€ per year, will be exonerated from CFE in 2019.
Deadlines to declare and pay your CFE tax
- You need to create your professional impots account by 30th November 2018.
- Your CFE tax will be posted on your account on the 16th November at the latest.
- Your CFE bill must be paid by 18th December 2018.
How to create your account to pay your CFE
This step needs to be done by 30th November if you want to be able to pay your CFE tax in time.
- Go to www.impots.gouv.fr and click on Votre espace professionnel / Créer et activer mon espace personnel (both in red boxes).
- You will be redirected to a blue website, click on Vous souhaitez créer un espace pour votre propre entreprise : 1ere etage Créez votre espace.
- Enter your SIREN number (1st 9 digits of your SIRET number), your personal details and click on "valider".
- Impots will send you a temporary password by post; this can take 2 weeks to arrive.
- Once you have the temporary password go back to the account creation page and enter your password.
How to validate and pay your CFE tax
- Once your professional impot account is fully set up, log back in on www.impots.gouv.fr.
- Look for your tax bill under Mes services/Consulter/ Avis CFE (on the right-hand-side).
- You can then check your CFE bill by clicking on Accès aux avis de CFE (blue box below the menu) or via the menu Accès par Impot/ Cotisation Fonciere des Entreprises.
- You will have a list of bills for each year in business. Click on 2018 /Avis d'Imposition (bold text in the 2018 table).
- Your 2018 CFE bill appears with the amount to pay Montant à Payer.
- Click on the blue box Payer positioned above your bill to validate a bank transfer on 18th December.
How to add your bank details to pay your CFE tax
The ergonomy of Impot's website is not great and you sometimes have to keep going back and forth, looking for some information. Adding your bank details to pay your CFE Tax is the toughest part! Here is how to add your bank account to pay your tax. The validated amount will be taken at the end of December 2018.
- Log in www.impots.gouv.fr.
- Click on Mon espace/ Gérer mes comptes bancaires (on the left-hand-side).
- Click on Mes services en ligne/ Adhérer aux services
- Add your SIREN number in the pop up window and click on Valider.
- Under Vous agissez pour le compte de cette entreprise en tant que click on Représentant légal then validate.
- In the table select Payer autres impôts et taxes and validate.
- Confirm again on the next page by clicking on Confimer et valider la demande d'adhésion.
- You can print or download a copy of this attestation
Once this is done, you can go and add your bank details. I did warn you that it was slightly complicated... Please note that it might take a day before you can add your bank details.
- Log in www.impots.gouv.fr.
- Click on Mon espace/ Gérer mes comptes bancaires (on the left-hand-side).
- Add your bank details
If you have managed to do all this, well done! This is as tough as it gets in terms or administrative red tape... everything will be a breeze atfer this.