French freelancers often quote a TJM in euros. Everhour gives rate reports that keep hourly math tied to real work.
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A France hourly rate calculation turns a daily target, annual income goal, or project price into a usable euro-per-hour figure. The result helps you quote work that is often discussed as a taux journalier moyen, or TJM, while still checking whether the underlying hours support the price. France-wide freelance benchmarks commonly use daily rates, with TJMètre reporting a 2026 median of €560/day from 5,597 filtered self-reported responses.
The calculation matters when a client asks for hourly support, when you compare a project fee against expected delivery time, or when you convert a day-rate benchmark into a contract line item. Malt lists €576/day as the average daily rate for experienced active developer freelancers in France, but specialty, city, seniority, and contract scope change the final number. Your rate needs to reflect your own billable capacity and tax wrapper.
Start with the annual amount you need to keep before personal spending decisions, then divide by the share of revenue that remains after turnover-based charges. For an unregulated BNC micro-entrepreneur using the versement forfaitaire libératoire, the 2026 load is 25.6% URSSAF social contributions, 0.2% training contribution, and 2.2% income tax collected with URSSAF. That totals 28.0% of turnover, before VAT handling and CFE overhead.
Example: you want €57,600 left after those turnover-based charges, and you expect 1,280 billable hours in the year. Revenue must be €80,000 because €57,600 divided by 72% equals €80,000. The hourly rate is €62.50 because €80,000 divided by 1,280 billable hours equals €62.50. At 8 billable hours per day, that converts to a €500 TJM.
A micro-entrepreneur rate in France needs threshold checks because the invoice treatment can change while the service price stays the same. For 2026 income, micro-enterprise status for services and liberal BNC activity applies if relevant turnover did not exceed €83,600 in either 2025 or 2024. Exceeding the threshold for two consecutive years ends the regime the following year, so a rate that scales past the cap needs a different tax model.
VAT also needs a separate line in the calculation. For service and liberal activities in France, the VAT exemption continues when prior-year turnover is at or below €37,500, while exceeding €41,250 in the current year ends the exemption from the first day of overrun. The standard French VAT rate is 20% unless a reduced rate applies. Treat VAT as tax-exclusive invoice pricing, not as take-home income.
A calculator is enough for a one-off quote, a quick TJM-to-hourly conversion, or a sanity check before sending a proposal. It also works when your activity, VAT status, and expected billable hours are stable. Add CFE as overhead where it applies, since micro-entrepreneurs may owe cotisation foncière des entreprises even from home, although the minimum CFE is not due if N-2 turnover did not exceed €5,000.
A managed workflow becomes necessary when several people, projects, rates, and client billing rules feed the same invoicing process. Everhour Reporting can group time by project, client, member, task, billable status, date range, and money columns, then export CSV, Excel/XLSX, or PDF reports. That gives you a repeatable handoff from time capture to French invoice preparation without rebuilding every calculation from notes.
This content is for general information only, may not be fully up to date, and is provided without any warranty or liability.
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French freelance benchmarks commonly use the taux journalier moyen, or TJM, because many consulting and technical contracts price work by day. An hourly rate still matters for short tasks, retainers, support work, and project profitability. Convert the TJM by dividing the day rate by the billable hours in that day, then check the annual billable-hour total.
Use the rate for your activity category. For 2026, micro-entrepreneurs pay 21.2% for BIC services, 25.6% for unregulated BNC, or 23.2% for CIPAV BNC. Service and liberal activities also add the 0.2% training contribution. Eligible micro-entrepreneurs using versement libératoire add 1.7% for BIC services or 2.2% for BNC income tax.
VAT changes the tax-inclusive amount a client pays, but it is separate from your tax-exclusive service rate. For service and liberal activities, the VAT exemption continues when prior-year turnover is at or below €37,500, and exceeding €41,250 in the current year ends the exemption from the first day of overrun. The standard VAT rate is 20% unless a reduced rate applies.
The common mistake is dividing desired annual income by all working hours instead of billable hours. Proposals, admin, unpaid discovery, training, collections, holidays, and quiet weeks reduce paid capacity. A second mistake is ignoring turnover-based charges and CFE overhead. The rate must recover those costs from paid client hours, not from total calendar availability.
Include CFE as annual overhead when it applies to your business. Micro-entrepreneurs may owe cotisation foncière des entreprises even when working from home or at client sites. The minimum CFE is not due if N-2 turnover did not exceed €5,000, and the 2026 minimum base starts at €250-€597 for turnover up to €10,000, then rises by turnover band and commune.
Everhour Reporting provides customizable reports with 45+ columns, including billable time, non-billable time, labor costs, profit, invoice status, budget metrics, and project metadata. You can group and filter reports by client, project, member, task, and date range, then export CSV, Excel/XLSX, or PDF files for pricing reviews.
Everhour Billing & Invoicing turns uninvoiced billable time and expenses into invoices, calculates amounts from rates and billable expenses, and excludes non-billable work. Invoices can be exported to QuickBooks Online, Xero, or FreshBooks as drafts, with status, number, issue date, and amount syncing back to Everhour.
Track billable work, compare it against French rate assumptions, and export grouped reports from Everhour so recurring client prices reflect actual time and profitability.
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