Explore supplemental income in France through private tutoring, business activity and individual. This article highlights the practical choices and wider…
Supplemental income and a formal business activity are not automatically the same thing. In France, an individual can still receive certain income before formal registration becomes necessary, but only within specific limits that should be clearly understood.
The example of private tutoring makes the logic easier to follow: tolerated thresholds, tolerated duration, tax declaration, and the point at which a more formal structure becomes necessary. The real risk is staying too long in a grey area without clarifying the situation.
The example of private tutoring
First, let’s consider the example of private tutoring, whether in-person or remote.
The first case involves the Teaching Corps. In this scenario, private tutoring must be declared as self-employed, meaning as a sole proprietorship, one type of which is the micro-enterprise, an individual company if you prefer.
The second case, which is terribly unknown, is that of supplemental income as an individual.
In the case of private tutoring, outside of the State Teaching Corps, one can provide paid lessons and earn up to the equivalent of the RSA (the minimum State help base in France) each month in supplemental income, which is approximately €650 per month in 2025 in France. These earnings should be declared as Non-Commercial Profits (BNC in France) on the annual income tax return as an individual.
Furthermore, once this threshold of supplemental base State help income is reached, there is a tolerated period of six months during which one can continue to earn income before complying with the law. This means declaring all of one’s revenue since the income exceeded the threshold that makes it a professional activity income at the time of the first professional income declaration.
More generally, one can mow a neighbor’s lawn, run errands, cook, or clean for someone else, and perform other types of legal services, such as being a party animator or sports instructor, on an occasional basis.
These earnings can be declared as Non-Commercial Profits on the annual income tax return as an individual, as long as the income does not exceed the symbolic threshold of the minimum State help base in supplemental income.
This is little-known, and it is impoverishing not to know it and to think that everything must be done under the table against the evil State in place.
Third case: starting at age 16, with parental permission, it is possible to have income from professional activity and to personally access it upon reaching the age of majority.
Finally, still little-known, affiliate income, such as bank referral bonuses or sales as an affiliate on platforms like 1TPE in France, must be declared as Non Commercial Profits. Even if they exceed the income thresholds of a solo-enterprise, such as several tens of thousands of euros per year, which, we will agree, remains rare.
Without being a lawyer at the Paris Bar, this is what I have heard from professionals during my research and studies, and this is what I believe in.
I hope this opens your mind as much as it did for mine, and I invite you to talk about it around you so that we can finally move away from this mindset of poverty and selfishness that has prevailed for too long.
Let’s stay in touch; I may share more information with you if you wish.
José D.
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