You have declared your activity as an artist-author. Thus, you are subject toincome tax (IR) and must report your income to taxes on the tax administration website, via your Special area.

Taxes: access your Special Space

Copyright is taxable in the category of wages and salaries when they fully declared by third parties (e.g. publishers, producers, collective management organizations, local authorities, companies).

The other artistic income the artist-author (e.g. sales of works, award of a prize, award of a scholarship, ancillary income) are taxable in the class of non-commercial profits (NBC).

Your tax system depends on your 2023 revenue (CA) reported in 2024 (threshold set at €77,700).

Applicable VAT rates

The VAT rate to be applied varies depending on the nature of the operation :

• Sale of an original work by the author or his successors in title: 5.5%
• Assignment of copyright (right of representation, reproduction, adaptation, exploitation and interpretation): 10%
• For all other operations : 20%

The start-up aid or grants paid by various public or private bodies are exempt from VAT. Thus, the VAT rate is 0% except where they are consideration for a supply of goods or services or where they are additional to the price of a taxable transaction.

VAT rates for ancillary income depend on the service concerned. For example, when they are paid directly by the students, course given in the artist-author's studio or studio and the workshops artistic or writing practices, are exempt from VAT.

VAT exemption

The exemption from VAT you exempt from VAT declaration and payment on your artistic recipes (copyright, sales of works...).

Your right to benefit depends on the turnover (CA) from your artistic activities in the previous year (N-1)

The withdrawal of the exemption from VAT shall have the following effects:

• VAT assessment of transactions made on or after 1^er the day of the month on which the overrun occurred. You have to declare the VAT and invoice it to your customers. Invoices issued in the month of overrun, before the day on which the overrun occurred, must be corrected to include VAT. For example, a trader exceeds the VAT threshold on 15 December. He must then charge VAT in December. If it has already issued invoices between 1^er and on December 15 without VAT, it must amend them to add VAT.
• You are now entitled to the deduction of VAT on your business purchases. You can ask the tax authorities to deduct the VAT paid on your business purchases at the time of your VAT return on 1^er month of overrun.
• You must apply for intra-Community VAT number and show it on your invoices. To obtain your intra-Community VAT number, you must contact your company tax department (SIE) on your business account at impots.gouv.fr and inform them of your departure from the VAT exemption scheme:

Online tax account for professionals (EFI mode)

Option for VAT payment

Regardless of the amount of your annual turnover (even less than €47,700), you can opting for VAT payment and charge your customers. This allows you to recover deductible VAT on business expenses.

The request for an option must be made in writing to the company tax department (SIE) on which you depend.

The option takes effect to 1^er day of the month in which it is declared.

The option must cover a period of 2 years renewable (including the request). Thus, an option formulated on 1^er November of year N shall take effect until 31 December N+1.

Withholding tax on certain copyrights

The VAT withholding tax system exemption from VAT declaration when you collect copyrights from publishers, producers or collective management organizations (Adagp: titleContent, SAIF: titleContent, Sacem: titleContent, etc.).

The broadcaster declares and pays VAT on your behalf and then withholds the VAT paid on the copyrights it pays you.

This exemption applies to both artists-authors eligible for the exemption on a basic basis and artists-authors liable to pay VAT.

You can waive the withholding tax system, at any time. In this case, you pay and declare VAT yourself.

The waiver must be formulated in writing and forwarded by registered letter to company Tax Service (SIE)). You must then immediately send a copy of the waiver letter sent to the tax department to all publishers, duty collection and allocation businesses and producers from whom you collect or are entitled to collect duties.

This waiver shall apply for a period of 5 years.

The companies' property levy (CFE) is a local tax payable by traders who habitually engage in self-employed occupation on 1^er January of the taxation year, irrespective of their legal status, activity or taxation regime.

The following artists-authors are exempt :

• Painters, sculptors, engravers and draftsmen considered to be artists and authors of graphic and plastic works and selling only the product of their art. This includes graphic artists provided that their activity is limited to the creation of graphic works. On the contrary, it excludes graphic designers who carry out works based on models supplied by third parties, or operate an establishment in which industrial work is predominant and secondary artistic work.
• Photographers of art for their activity in the making of photographs, the transfer of their works of art and the transfer of their property rights in relation to their photographic works
• Authors of literary and dramatic, musical and choreographic works, as well as co-authors of a collaborative audiovisual work and authors of a radio work
• Lyrical and dramatic artists

On the other hand, software authors shall not benefit from of this exemption.