Hi , can anyone please tell me if I can ask fuel cost , and where to find how to declare it
On the auto entrepreneur, if it’s legal?
Many thanks
I don’t know about auto-entrepeneur, but for over a dozen years I crisscrossed Europe as a volunteer and all my expenses, mainly diesel, were repaid to me.
I didn’t declare it as it wasn’t in any way income, but I did keep a very accurate record of it all just in case I was ever asked. For instance some of the organisations I worked for must have a record of everything they paid out, and to whom.
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You may be able to set fuel costs against taxes, on your tax form there’s a drop-down window for it, you put in the vehicle the number if fiscal horses and the fuel type as well as the distance and they do the calculation. Might work for you.
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As a micro entrepreneur you can pass on ancillery costs to a client without including them in your turnover.
For instance, someone upcycling goods could charge a client for the carriage but only at cost price, & they need to provide that evidence to the client (& clearly, keep that same evidence for their own records).
I don’t have a link to the official words about that immediately, but it does exist.
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There is nothing to stop you asking for fuel expenses if the client agrees but this will then be part of your turnover and will be subject to cotisations and tax. You cannot offset them.
There is a very specific process that you have to follow if you want to claim expenses and keep them separate from you turnover. The important thing is that the expenses must be billed in the client’s name (invoice or receipt in the client’s name). You can then add to your invoice, but exclude from your turnover, that exact same amount. You enter it on a different line on your invoice and you attach the relevant invoice/receipt which the client needs so that they can then put these expenses through their own comptabilité.
In reality it is next to impossible to make this work for out of pocket expenses, fuel etc, But for hotel bills, airline tickets etc it may possible to make the booking in the client’s name but pay for it yourself.
The process is called frais de débours.
Les débours
Les débours sont des dépenses que vous engagez pour le compte d’un client et pour lesquelles la facture est à son nom.
Les débours devront répondre à un formalisme un peu plus important que la simple refacturation de frais. Mais cette procédure vous permettra de demander le remboursement de certaines dépenses sans augmenter artificiellement votre chiffre d’affaires.
Les conditions pour se faire rembourser ses débours :
- convenir par écrit avec votre client du budget qu’il allouera à vos dépenses (par exemple vous devez commander un bidon d’huile pour effectuer une vidange ou encore un billet de train pour un déplacement. Il convient de se mettre d’accord au préalable avec le client sur le prix du bidon d’huile / billet de train) ;
- faire établir les factures, que vous réglerez par votre compte professionnel, au nom de votre client qui vous mandate (nom, adresse…) ;
- conserver ces factures et justificatifs comme éléments de preuve pour votre client (mais aussi pour l’administration en cas de contrôle) ;
- demander le remboursement à la fin de la mission (le client devra obligatoirement vous rembourser les sommes exactes).
Afin d’assurer une transparence totale tant pour votre client que pour l’administration fiscale, il convient de faire apparaître ces débours à part dans votre facture.
Si toutes ces étapes sont respectées, le remboursement des débours s’effectue au centime près et ne rentre pas dans le calcul de votre chiffre d’affaires.
Modèle de facture avec débours
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It might get you more money than you realise. The girls of CIAS who came in their own cars to look after Fran said they were allowed over 40 centimes a km in expenses. It always amazed, but at the same time comforted, me as I know the total cost of running my vehicle is much less. Last time I calculated it was only 25c/km.
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You (and people replying to this question) need to distinguish between “autoentrepreneur” and “microentrepreneur”. They are not the same.
For microentreprises using the common accounting system of flat rate accounting, you declare your income gross, and cannot deduct any expenses from it. On the other hand what you declare is then subject to a 50% discount or (I believe) 74% discount for tax purposes, in order to account for your business expenses. The discount depends on the type of activity (services or sales, basically). So if you are a service provider, you’re only taxed on 50% of what you earn, the rest, i.e. your assumed expenses, is tax free.
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Auto entrepreneur is the old name for what is now micro entreprise. It started off as a brand new scheme called auto entrepreneur in 2009, and was tweaked a number of times as new schemes are, then in 2016 there was a general overhaul and it was rebaptised micro entreprise.
Really the issue is more one of cotisations than income tax since that cotisations is the bulk of your deductions. The scale of cotisations for the simplified micro entreprise regime has been set so that for the average business on the average turnover, they would pay the same cotisations on simplified as on réel. So for instance, a reseller with a turnover of 100k would pay cotisations at a rate of 12% (or whatever) of 100k, ie 1 200. A reseller on réel would deduct expenses and pay cotisations as around 40% (or whatever) of profit. My maths are not good but I think that would equate to a profit of around 32k which sounds about right?
I worked this out once for my profession libérale earnings and it did come to around the same so I guess my expenses were average for prof lib…
If your overheads and expenses are higher than average for your sector then micro entreprise would be more expensive for you though you might still choose it for simplicity’s sake. If your overheads and expenses are lower than average for your sector you would pay less on micro entreprise.
For tax, you have a choice of prélèvement liberatoire ie tax is deducted from each declaration at a small percentage of turnover, or paying at the end of the year as per the barème. You can choose which is more advantageous for you, it will depend what your turnover is and what other income you have. Either way, in the annual tax exercise the fisc apply the flat rate deduction to your ME turnover to arrive at your “imposable”, and that is the figure used in calculating your RFR.
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Point taken. I see that the two régimes became one in 2022. But the term autoentrepreneur is still in general use. See Le statut d’auto-entrepreneur en 2025 : tout savoir en 5 minutes ! (in French). If you have few expenses, or even virtually no expenses as may be the case in services, then the prélèvement libératoire is definitely the path to choose.
The link is very helpful, many thanks
Unless of course your total household income including the ME income is low. There is no point paying the prélèvements libératoires if using the barème would result in paying no tax at all.
Also there are certain restrictions. I cannot remember exactly but I believe that if your total household income is above a certain threshold and your ME income is only a small proportion of that, then PL is not an option, you have to use the barème.
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