French Tax System vs Georgia: Why Freelancers Are Leaving France

France has one of the most generous social safety nets in the world. It also has one of the highest tax burdens for self-employed workers anywhere in the developed world. For a freelancer earning €100,000 per year, the French state takes somewhere between €40,000 and €50,000 — before you pay rent, groceries, or software subscriptions.

This is not a fringe complaint from wealthy tax avoiders. It is a structural reality that affects web developers, designers, consultants, writers, translators, coaches, and e-commerce sellers at every income level. And in increasing numbers, French freelancers are doing something about it: moving to the Republic of Georgia, registering as Individual Entrepreneurs, and paying 1% tax on their gross turnover.

This article breaks down exactly what you pay in France, exactly what you pay in Georgia, and shows the math with real numbers.

The Problem with French Taxes for Freelancers

The problem is not any single tax. It is the layering. French freelancers face three separate charges, each biting into income before the next one kicks in:

• Cotisations sociales (social contributions / charges sociales)
• Impôt sur le revenu (personal income tax, progressive)
• TVA (VAT, once you exceed the franchise threshold)

Each of these is defensible in isolation. Together, they compound into a burden that makes it extremely difficult for solo professionals to build meaningful capital — especially in the first decade of their career.

The auto-entrepreneur (also called micro-entrepreneur) regime was designed to simplify matters. In many ways it succeeds — the flat-rate versement libératoire option eliminates most complexity. But it does nothing to reduce the actual rate. Under micro-entrepreneur rules for service businesses in 2026, you pay 22.2% in social charges on every euro of revenue, plus income tax calculated on a fictitious abatement that routinely overstates your actual margin.

The French Tax Burden — Layer by Layer

Let's establish the baseline. You are a French freelance consultant or developer earning €100,000 in gross revenue in 2026. You are registered as a micro-entrepreneur (auto-entrepreneur) under the régime de la micro-entreprise.

Step 1 — Charges Sociales

Social contributions are charged on gross revenue, not profit. For a service activity (prestations de services BIC or BNC), the combined rate in 2026 is approximately 22.2% under the versement libératoire, or around 21.2–23.1% under the standard declaration regime depending on your coverage choices.

On €100,000 of revenue: €22,200 in social charges.

Step 2 — Abatement for Micro-BNC/BIC

Under the micro-entrepreneur regime, the taxable income is calculated by applying a notional abatement to gross revenue: 34% for BNC (professions libérales) and 50% for BIC service activities. This abatement is supposed to represent your business expenses — even if your real expenses are zero or much lower.

After a 34% abatement on €100,000: taxable income = €66,000.

Step 3 — Impôt sur le Revenu

France's income tax is progressive with bands (tranches) for 2026:

On a taxable income of €66,000, the income tax calculation (single, no deductions) is approximately:

• €0 on the first €11,294
• €1,925 on €11,294 to €28,797 (11%)
• €11,162 on €28,797 to €66,000 (30%)
• Total income tax: ~€13,087

Note: if you elected the versement libératoire de l'impôt sur le revenu, you pay 2.2% on gross revenue for BNC (micro-BNC) instead — which would be €2,200 on €100K. But you lose the progressive benefit at lower incomes and must qualify upfront. For this comparison, we use the standard regime.

Step 4 — TVA

The franchise en base de TVA exempts micro-entrepreneurs below €36,800 (for services, 2026 threshold) from collecting VAT. Once you exceed this, you must charge 20% VAT on your invoices. If your clients are French businesses, they reclaim it — no net cost to them. But if your clients are individuals or foreign B2C customers, VAT is an additional 20% that either comes out of your effective rate or increases your prices.

For this example at €100K revenue, assuming B2B clients who recover VAT, the TVA impact is primarily administrative. We'll treat it as neutral in the basic comparison but note that it adds compliance costs and can affect competitive pricing.

Total French Tax Bill at €100K Revenue

Charges Sociales: The Hidden 22–45% Hit

What most French freelancers discover too late is that the social charge rate is not fixed at 22.2%. That rate applies under the versement libératoire system (available to auto-entrepreneurs under a certain income ceiling). Under the standard regime — which applies to regular entreprises individuelles, EIRL, and professionals who exceed the micro-enterprise ceiling — the rate structure is completely different.

Under the standard regime for a non-salarié (TNS — travailleur non salarié), social contributions cover:

• Maladie-maternité (health): ~6.5–13% depending on income
• Retraite de base (basic pension): ~17.75%
• Retraite complémentaire: varies by profession
• Invalidité-décès: ~1.3%
• Allocations familiales: ~3.1–5.25%
• Formation professionnelle: ~0.25%
• CSG/CRDS: 9.7% on net income

Total combined charges for an established freelancer earning €100K net can reach 42–47% of net income — far higher than what the auto-entrepreneur flat rate suggests. The auto-entrepreneur regime caps at €77,700 for service activities (2026 ceiling) — once you exceed this, you leave the micro-regime and face the full TNS rates.

This is the cliff that kills the finances of growing French freelancers. You hit €78K in revenue, leave the micro-regime, and suddenly your tax rate jumps by 15–25 percentage points.

Impôt sur le Revenu: The Progressive Rate

Unlike social contributions, income tax is progressive — meaning higher earners pay higher rates on marginal income. For a French freelancer earning €100K, the marginal income tax rate on the last euros earned is 30%. At €150K, the marginal rate is 41%. At €200K, it's 45%.

This stacks on top of social contributions. A freelancer in the 41% marginal bracket who also pays 22% in social charges is giving up 63% of the last euro earned. This is not hypothetical — it's the tax situation of every French consultant, developer, or advisor earning over €150,000 per year as a sole practitioner.

TVA: When You Lose the Franchise

The franchise en base de TVA — the VAT exemption for small businesses — provides temporary relief. In 2026, service providers with revenues under €36,800 are exempt from collecting and remitting VAT. But this threshold is low. Any freelancer billing €3,000+/month exceeds it within a year.

Once you exceed it, you collect 20% VAT from your clients (which they recover if they're VAT-registered businesses) and file quarterly or monthly VAT returns. The administrative burden is modest for experienced operators but adds real cost for freelancers who don't have an accountant.

In Georgia, by contrast, the VAT registration threshold is 100,000 GEL per year — approximately €37,000. That's similar to France. But the VAT rate is 18% rather than 20%, and the filing process is simpler. And critically: the overall tax regime is so much lower that you have far more cash to pay an accountant.

The €100K Example: France vs Georgia Side by Side

At higher French income levels (if the freelancer exceeds the auto-entrepreneur ceiling and moves to the standard TNS regime), the gap is even more dramatic. A €150,000 revenue freelancer under the standard French regime might pay €55,000–€65,000 in total tax and social contributions. In Georgia: €1,500.

Georgia's 1% IE: How It Works

Georgia's Individual Entrepreneur (IE) with Small Business Status is the legal foundation for this comparison. It is not a loophole or an aggressive tax planning scheme — it is a statutory regime codified in Article 88 of the Georgian Tax Code, designed to attract entrepreneurs and foreign income to Georgia.

Key features:

• 1% tax on gross turnover up to 500,000 GEL per year (~€170,000)
• 3% tax on turnover above 500,000 GEL (instead of the standard 20% personal income rate)
• No mandatory social contributions (voluntary pension available)
• VAT threshold: 100,000 GEL (~€37,000)
• Monthly declaration and payment
• Registration: 2–5 business days, fully remote
• No minimum capital, no annual audit requirement

The only hard requirements are that you actually establish tax residency in Georgia (183 days per year minimum) and that your income is genuinely received by the Georgian IE. If you are running a legitimate freelance business and are willing to live in Georgia, this is entirely above-board and OECD-compliant.

Who Is Actually Making the Move?

Tbilisi has developed a significant community of French-speaking freelancers, consultants, and remote workers over the past four years. The profile is varied:

• Web developers and engineers — often the first movers, highly mobile, client relationships fully remote
• Digital marketers and SEO consultants — location-independent by nature
• Business consultants — especially those whose clients are in the EU or US rather than France
• E-commerce sellers (Amazon, Shopify) — where the business revenue comes from platforms, not a French client base
• Content creators — YouTubers, newsletter writers, course sellers with international audiences
• Translators and copywriters — particularly English-French, where international clients are standard

The common thread is that these are people whose income is essentially location-independent. Their clients don't care where they live. Their work doesn't require physical presence in France. The only thing keeping them in France was inertia — and the 35%+ tax bill was finally enough to overcome it.

Is It Legal?

Yes — but with important conditions. The legal analysis depends on where you actually live. The key principle in international tax law is that individuals are taxed in their country of tax residence. If you genuinely move to Georgia — meaning you spend at least 183 days per year there — France has no legal basis to tax your Georgian-source income from your Georgian IE.

The relevant factors:

• 183-day rule: Spend at least 183 days per year in Georgia to establish Georgian tax residency
• Formal exit from French tax residency: File a departure declaration with the French tax authority (Centre des Finances Publiques), update your permanent address, close or move your bank accounts
• No permanent establishment in France: Don't maintain a French office, don't employ staff in France, don't have your principal clients in France if it could be argued you're really working from France
• French-Georgia tax treaty: There is currently no comprehensive double taxation agreement between France and Georgia. This means you must rely on domestic French rules for establishing non-residency, rather than treaty provisions. See our article on French exit tax for the full analysis.

Moving primarily to save taxes is legal. Tax avoidance (using legal means to reduce your tax burden) is different from tax evasion (hiding income). Provided you genuinely relocate, the move to Georgia is fully legitimate.

How to Start

The practical path from France to Georgia is well-documented and achievable. The key steps are:

1. Decide on your timeline — most people allow 3–6 months for the transition
2. Engage a service like StartGE to register your Georgian IE remotely (can be done before you move)
3. Open a Georgian bank account (can often be done with the IE registration package)
4. File a fiscal departure from France once you have established residency in Georgia
5. Move your freelance income to the Georgian IE — inform clients of the new invoicing entity

The full step-by-step is covered in our guide: How to Move Your Freelance Business from France to Georgia.