Auto-entrepreneur limit is dumped

PLANS to limit auto-entrepreneurs to a maximum turnover of €19,000 have been dropped from the proposals going before the Cabinet on August 21.

The move comes after loud protests from auto-entrepreneurs who said the revenue limit for artisans and professionals spelled the end of the simplified business regime – which last month saw

a record 893,000 auto-entrepreneurs in business.

Businesses which exceeded the limit would have had to switch to a much less advantageous classic business regime with more bureaucracy, tax and social charges to pay. The limit had come

after protests from established artisan businesses who claimed unfair competition.

The government had decided in June to set limits of €19,000 for artisans and €47,500 for traders (down from the present €32,600 and €81,500) but newspaper Les Echos, which got a copy of the

bill, said the turnover limit had been deleted from the final text.

If applied, the €19,000 limit would have affected just 11% of auto-entrepreneurs but one in two businesses already declare no income and business groups say it would have killed off the

simplified regime. Last year auto-entrepreneurs accounted for business totalling €1.3billion.

• Les Echos also said that the government had published a bill on changes to the law on public services which barred public servants from running an auto-entrepreneur business.