TL;DR: You must declare the cessation of your professional activity online or by post, depending on your tax regime. Deadlines vary: 30 days for VAT taxpayers, 60 days for micro-businesses (6 months in case of death). Include in your declaration profits, acquired but unrecovered receivables, capital gains, and professional capital losses. Use the impots.gouv.fr website for forms and authentication.
Who must declare the cessation?
Taxpayers under the micro-business regime must declare the cessation within 60 days (6 months in case of the operator's death). They must also provide a statement specifying the net amount of taxable capital gains, if applicable.
VAT taxpayers (including those under the simplified regime) must declare the cessation within 30 days of the event.
In the case of conversion of an SCP into an SEL (a company subject to corporate tax), partners must declare their share of non-commercial profits within 60 days of the conversion date.
Declaration methods: online or on paper
Declarations are available online on impots.gouv.fr under the "recherche de formulaire" section. For taxpayers under a special declarative regime, the declaration must be sent to the Service des Impôts des Particuliers (SIP) responsible for their place of residence.
To declare online, authenticate yourself in your "Finances publiques" space using your tax number and password. If this is your first online declaration, you can obtain your credentials from your SIP.
Information and documents to include
Your declaration must include:
- The effective date of cessation.
- The profits earned up to that date, including acquired but not yet recovered receivables (for non-commercial professions).
- Capital gains and professional capital losses to be considered for immediate taxation.
- For micro-businesses, the turnover to be declared includes, where applicable, income from the global sale of stocks at the end of the operation.
Deadlines and corrections
- Micro-businesses: deadline of 60 days (extended to 6 months in case of death).
- VAT taxpayers: deadline of 30 days.
- SCP to SEL conversion: deadline of 60 days for partners.
If you declare online, you can correct your declaration even after signing it.
Special cases and exceptions
The immediate taxation of profits must take into account capital gains and professional capital losses. Acquired but not yet recovered receivables are included in the taxable profit, unless their amount or due date remains uncertain (e.g., lawyer's fees for cases not yet judged).
In the case of company transformation (e.g., capital company into SCP), if the operation does not result in the creation of a new legal entity, taxation under corporate tax applies only to the profits of the current financial year.
Penalties and adjustments
If you do not meet the deadlines, the administration may assess the tax bases ex officio. For VAT taxpayers, the declaration of cessation must be accompanied by the necessary adjustments (e.g., repayment of VAT deducted on goods not used for operations entitling to deduction).