Living in France, Employed in UK
Can anyone help? Bev? Just deciding whether to move the family to france for a year and Im getting confused about tax because of the nature of my job. Im a self employed full time voice over. All the commercials etc i voice are in the uk. I do this via a special isdn line which would allow me to be living in france but link up with uk studios to do the recordings. And heres the query... with the 183 days in france or over and you count as resident yes? Would I pay French tax or UK tax as my business is in the uk? Also do the french take off income tax from your gross earnings and then the cotisations on top of that? And is the cotisation from your net or your gross? I think Bev said for a self employed person the cotisations are a high as 40%? Im just thinking after all the tax what on earth would be left!
Thanks again folks.
You have various options, Gayanne:
a) Live and work in France (for British employers). Register with a portage company e.g. Challenge. They will act as your French employer but yes, you will then have to pay the high French cotisations. Allowing for tax deductible expenses, I was walking away with about 52% of my gross salary.
b) As you are essentially self-employed, register as an autoentrepreneur. You will then pay 23% of your income as you earn it. I have concerns, however, as to what will happen to the autoentrepreneur regime once Hollande and his boys get in. This regime is so simple, so fair, so un-French and I don't think the civil servants are happy with it.
c) Do what I eventually had to do. Commute to England for work, in which case, I am "tax domiciled" in France (i.e. have to fill in a tax return in France), but the salary I earn when I am physically in England is taxed in England and while declared in France is not taxed in France.