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Legal

Getting paid legally from abroad: the auto-entrepreneur route in seven steps

Valid as of 18 October 20264 min read

The simplest legal way to invoice a foreign client and keep your earnings in foreign currency is to register as an auto-entrepreneur, open a trader’s foreign currency account and declare each project to your bank before you’re paid. The paperwork takes a few days. After that, you pay 0.5% tax on your turnover.

How a payment gets to you, in seven steps

  1. Get your auto-entrepreneur card
  2. Join CASNOS and confirm your tax number (NIF)
  3. Open a trader’s account in dinars and in foreign currency
  4. Declare the project to your bank
  5. Invoice your client and get paid into your foreign currency account
  6. Bring the money home on time
  7. Declare and pay your IFU
Each step links to its own guide.

Take Yasmine, a web developer in Oran. She lands a €2,000 project with a startup in Paris. Here’s her route, from signing up to the first euro in her account.

The seven steps

Legal

The auto-entrepreneur route

Each step rests on a legal text, and each one has its own guide with the details.

  • Cost: no known registration fee; your bank’s fees; 0.5% IFU tax (at least 10,000 DA); CASNOS contributions.
  • Timing: three working days at most to get your card, then however long your bank takes to open the account.
  1. Get your auto-entrepreneur card. Sign up online on the ANAE portal. You get an answer within three working days (Law 22-23; guide 5).
  2. Join CASNOS and confirm your tax number (NIF). Do both within ten days of starting work (guide 5).
  3. Open a trader’s account in dinars and in foreign currency. You need three documents: your auto-entrepreneur card, ID and proof of address (Banque d’Algérie Circular 2024/01; guide 6).
  4. Declare the project to your bank. Do it before the first payment. Describe the project and give the unit price and the date it goes online (Reg. 07-01, art. 57; guide 7).
  5. Invoice your client and get paid into your foreign currency account. The client pays straight into your account in Algeria.
  6. Bring the money home on time. Your client has up to 120 days after you deliver the service to pay, and the money must arrive on the day they pay. You then get 100% in foreign currency (Reg. 07-01, art. 61; Instr. 06-2021, art. 4; guides 8 and 9).
  7. Declare and pay your IFU. It’s 0.5% of turnover, with a 10,000 DA minimum. File form G12 before 30 June and G12 bis before 20 January (guide 13).

For Yasmine, that looks like this: ANAE card at the start of the month, account open the following week, project declared, a €2,000 invoice, and €2,000 in her foreign currency account, minus bank fees.

Where this route stops

  • The ceiling. Above 5,000,000 DA of turnover a year, you can’t use the status any more (guide 13).
  • Payment platforms. If your client pays through Payoneer or a freelance platform, nobody has settled when the payment counts as “made” (guide 9).
  • Your personal account. No rule says you can move money from your trader’s account to your personal foreign currency account (guide 6).

Key points

  • ANAE card, trader’s foreign currency account, project declared to your bank: three steps before your first invoice.
  • Project declared and money home on time: you keep 100% in foreign currency.
  • You pay 0.5% IFU, up to 5,000,000 DA of turnover a year.

Sources