Association bars: 81,051-euro receipts ceiling and new fair-stall filing

Associations running a bar or buvette face two updated figures and one changed procedure: the annual ceiling for accessory lucrative receipts now stands at 81,051 eurosService Public, and a temporary bar inside a fair or exhibition is opened by declaration, not by request, with the fair commissioner's binding opinion attachedService Public.

Bar and buvette takings need no special step with the tax administration as such, but they can count as recettes lucratives — receipts that bring money in — and fall into reporting and tax from the first euro where they dominate the association's budget, or above 81,051 euros a year where they remain accessoryService Public (up from 78,596 euros). The association must therefore still test whether it can be qualified as non lucrative: disinterested management, no competition with the commercial sector on comparable terms, and non-lucrative activities remaining significantly preponderant.

Inside a foire ou exposition, an association can run a temporary buvette serving any type of drink where three conditions meet: the fair or exhibition is organised by the State, a public authority or an association reconnue d'utilité publique; the association has received the commissioner's favourable opinion; and it declares the opening to the mairie — the préfecture de police in Paris — at least fifteen days before the buvette opens, with the avis conforme of the commissaire général de la foire ou de l'exposition attached to the declaration.Service Public The conforme opinion is the binding one: the opening is conditional on itLegifrance, and the paper travels with the filing rather than inside an authorisation request.

The surrounding cases are unchanged. A buvette at the association's own public event serves groups 1 and 3 drinks (up to 18 degrees of alcohol) with the mayor's authorisation, capped at five authorisations a year — with the préfet able to allow fourth-group drinks up to four days a year in Guadeloupe, Guyane and Martinique. A temporary buvette reserved to members (pot associatif, third half, buffet reception) needs no particular step and follows no specific bar rules. Sports-venue stalls keep their own derogation quotas, and a permanent public bar needs a licence de débit de boissons de 3e catégorie, with the members-only bar exempt only where it seeks no profit and serves groups 1 and 3 alone.

Legal basis is articles L. 3334-1 and L. 3334-2 of the Code de la santé publique on temporary bars at fairs, exhibitions and public events, read with the franchise d'activités lucratives accessoires framework (disinterested management, preponderant non-lucrative activity, annual receipts ceiling) described on impots.gouv.fr.