Auto-entrepreneur IFU in Algeria: 0.5% since 2024, not 5%

Since the 2024 Finance Law, an auto-entrepreneur in Algeria pays the IFU (flat-rate single tax) at 0.5% of turnover, with a yearly minimum of 10,000 DA. A guide that says 5% was written before 2024 or is describing a different regime. The status ceiling is 5 million DA a year, and CASNOS comes on top: 24,000 DA flat, or 15% of a minimum base if you choose the standard contribution.

What it looks like on one real-sized case

Take a designer invoicing 2,500,000 DA over the year (an illustration, not a real person). IFU is 0.5% × 2,500,000 = 12,500 DA, above the minimum. Add the 24,000 DA CASNOS flat option and the total is 36,500 DA, about 1.5% of turnover. With the standard contribution, the base for a flat-tax service provider is 35% of the previous year’s turnover, or 875,000 DA, and 15% of that is 131,250 DA: the total rises to 143,750 DA, about 5.75%. At this level the flat option saves more than 100,000 DA a year (a calculation to confirm with CASNOS, see below).

For other turnovers, IFU alone works out like this:

The 10,000 DA minimum is paid in one go when you file the provisional declaration. Paying in instalments (50%, then two payments of 25%) only applies to the rest.

Why the guides contradict each other

5% or 0.5%? The 5% rate is real, but it belongs to the general IFU regime, for producing and selling goods (other activities pay 12%). Auto-entrepreneurs have their own rate. Article 18 of the 2024 Finance Law cut it from 5% to 0.5%, and that is what the tax administration (DGI) publishes today.

5 million or 8 million DA? The 8 million figure is the threshold of the general IFU regime. The auto-entrepreneur status stops at 5 million. According to the DGI, exceeding 5 million three years in a row means you must register in the commercial register to carry on; Law 22-23 speaks of removal from the auto-entrepreneur register in that case.

24,000 DA, 43,200 DA or much more for CASNOS? The standard contribution is 15% (7.5% health insurance, 7.5% pension) of a base between the annual minimum wage (SNMG) and 20 times it. For flat-tax (IFU) taxpayers, Executive Decree 24-49 (Official Journal no. 4, 23 January 2024, in force since 1 January 2024) sets the base at 35% of the previous year’s turnover for a service provider, and 25% for producing and selling goods. The same text created, as an exception, the choice of a 24,000 DA flat amount for auto-entrepreneurs. Executive Decree 26-257 of 15 July 2026 (Official Journal no. 53, 23 July 2026) rewrote article 14 and kept that choice, and it adds that in the first year the base is the annual SNMG and that from the third year the contribution cannot fall below the average of people in the same activity and wilaya (an average set by a ministerial order we could not find).

The SNMG has been 24,000 DA a month since 1 January 2026, so 288,000 DA a year, and 15% of that is 43,200 DA. That is the floor of the standard contribution, not its usual level: for a service provider it only applies below about 823,000 DA of turnover, because 35% of that figure is 288,000 DA. The 288,000 and 43,200 figures are our arithmetic, and we have not confirmed with CASNOS that the 35% base applies to auto-entrepreneurs. We also could not find what the flat option does to your pension rights.

Dates and penalties

The provisional declaration (G12) is due by 30 June. The final one (G12 bis) is due by 20 January of the following year and must show the net income made. A new taxpayer files only the G12 bis. Late filing adds 10%, 20% or 25% depending on the delay, and late payment adds a 10% penalty plus 3% for each month started, capped at 25%.

What is not settled

Three questions have no written answer in the texts we read. Is income received in foreign currency for a service rendered abroad subject to IFU, or exempt? Does turnover count when you invoice or when you are paid? And does the 5% withholding the DGI lists for operations through digital platforms reach a freelancer invoicing a foreign platform? Until someone answers, the safe course is to declare that income and ask your tax office for its position in writing.

To run your own numbers

The freelancer net-income calculator applies IFU, CASNOS and an exchange rate, and the ceiling tracker warns you before you reach 5 million. For the banking side, see the guide to the foreign-currency account. For an employee you might hire, the net salary, IRG and CNAS calculator does the salary side.