Lowering the VAT threshold: reform suspended until the end of 2025

As we reported a few weeks ago in this article, the Finance Act for 2025 provides for a lowering of the VAT threshold to €25,000, obliging the smallest entrepreneurs to invoice and declare VAT as soon as they reach this sales threshold. In 2024, the threshold was €37,500 for services / €85,000 for sales of goods by craftsmen, and €50,000 for the main activities of artists and authors.

This measure has given rise to a number of concerns, including

- among craftsmen whose customers cannot reclaim VAT (even though the existing system in 2024 creates distortions of competition between small players not subject to VAT and professionals with larger sales, who are obliged to pay this tax).

- among entrepreneurs who are still young, and who are frightened by the reporting and accounting formalities.

(NB: Artist-authors, whose customers generally recover VAT, were only marginally affected by this measure).

That's why the UPP joined forces with other professional organizations in various sectors (notably construction) to inform the government of the consequences of lowering the threshold.

After announcing the suspension of the implementation of this reform until June 1, Véronique Louwagie, the French Minister for Trade, Craft Trades, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises and the Social and Solidarity Economy, held wide-ranging consultations with the professional organizations concerned.

On April 30, as stated in a press release from the French Ministry of the Economy, "Discussions highlighted the lack of consensus on either implementing or abolishing the measure. This is why, in line with the method it has set itself, the Government has decided to suspend the implementation of the reform until the end of 2025, to allow for a calm and in-depth debate as part of the preparation of the Finance Bill for 2026".

A new proposal will be worked out with stakeholders over the coming months, to arrive at a balanced solution:

- which takes into account the realities of competition;

- which genuinely simplifies the system, by reducing the number of thresholds and setting an appropriate deductible.

The UPP remains committed to working with its political interlocutors to promote a VAT regime in 2026 that provides the best possible support for photographers, whatever their status and the way in which they exercise their profession.

SdR