UK Company, French Living

[shands]

Hi there,

We are permanently moving to France in January and need some tax advice if anyone could help?

I run a UK limited company (computer consultancy) from my home in Preston.

When I move to France in January, I would like to continue my work through my UK company providing consultancy to my clients via the internet.

Would I just continue with income tax, NI and corporation tax as a UK company payable to HMRC as normal or would I need to do "something else"?

Any help and advice would be greatly appreciated.

Apologies if this question has appeared many times before but this whole moving thing has been a minefield so far!!

Shands

[giantpanda]

Originally Posted by shands

Hi there,

We are permanently moving to France in January and need some tax advice if anyone could help?

I run a UK limited company (computer consultancy) from my home in Preston.

When I move to France in January, I would like to continue my work through my UK company providing consultancy to my clients via the internet.

Would I just continue with income tax, NI and corporation tax as a UK company payable to HMRC as normal or would I need to do "something else"?

Apologies if this question has appeared many times before but this whole moving thing has been a minefield so far!!

Shands

Any help and advice would be greatly appreciated.

Hi!

This may be a surprise to you.

You have 3 possibilities:

1. If you operate as an employee in France ( just over your computer ) you are subject( your firm and you ) to French Social Security costs - the firm would have to register you.

2. If you operate as an " indepedant ", you have to register at the URSAF, and that is rather penalising for small turnover - no relation relation to turnover ( in a sense low turnover, low charges ).

3. Middle solution: You piggy back on a French provider who takes care of Social Security red tape.

As regards income tax, in France in all cases you will have to declare your " world income " and the eventual taxes you have paid in other countires.


As you see it is a minefield.

Yours,

giantpanda

[Languedoc Alex]

Hello,

I have to advise you to seek professional advice! We moved to France and set up a registered SARL here - which has been fine, but I can't help thinking that it would have been better to have stayed registered in the UK - as here the TVA threshold is so low so we were forced to register very quickly, and the social charges are ramping up as our business takes of, as these charges are all linked to turnover.

Also - it can be tough starting up, as the charges are charged in advance and at first have no correlation to your income. These settle down after the first few years - but can be quite a drain on precious cash flow.

Talk to an accountant that is both French and UK registered, or failing that to one in both countries...

Good luck!