Contribution Fonciere des Entreprises (CFE) is a small tax paid by businesses to local authorities (Chambre de Metiers / Chambre de Commerce / Town hall). It used to be called Taxe Professionnelle and can cost between 180 euros to 900 euros per year for a small business. The bill is sent by Impot in October / November time.
The amount of your CFE varies according to the size of your business (number employees, building, heavy machinery / plant etc.) and the town or village your business is registered in. A small business with no employees in a village may pay 300 euros, while the same activity in a big town like Lille or Paris might pay 700 euros.
All new businesses benefit from a CFE exoneration for their first year in business. So far all auto-entrepreneurs registered since 2009 have benefit from an exoneration (up to 4 year exoneration). This will change in 2014 as the Projet de Loi de Finance will define a new and hopefully fairer way to pay CFE.
As a new auto-entrepreneur / business, you will benefit from an exoneration in your 1st year. However you still have to complete the form sent by Impots requesting for extra information about your business premises.