eurosnugs

Hi, I was in a similar position.  I am a quality systems auditor.  I have gone down the portage route.  It was a lot easier than I thought.  I basically get 50% net of the amount that I invoice my customers.  The other 50% that is taken off pays the portage companies commission, charges patronale + my charges sociale (statut sociale cadre).  The portage company I work with gives me my salary at the end of the month and then works on getting the money back from the customer so I know I am going to get paid.  Of course my customer is my old uk employer so there is no problems with them paying regularly.  There is one big catch, in order for me to have a net salary in France similar to the one I used to have in the UK, my employer would of had to increase my gross salary by about 40%.    After some negotiation we settled on a 20% increase so I get less each month but of course my income tax is less + I put less into a private pension due to the French national pension scheme being better than in the UK.  I also worked out the amount that my company used to pay me for private health in the UK and got them to add this to my salary as the French health system is so much better. It took me about two years to sort all of this out after a lot of time on the net and talking to different people. I looked at going down the setting up my own business route.  I worked out that I could be 10% better off a month but why not spend an extra day a month working and getting paid for it rather than wasting that time at home with mountains of French paper work and having to pay the accountant.   Good luck   Jason 

Hi, there is another option called "Portage" which I use.  I was in a similar option to you and this was the easy option.  Basically it is an employment agency that handles all of your administration and social security costs.  You find your clients and they help you write a contract between you and the client.  The client then pays the Portage company on a monthly basis when the work is done, they take off a 10% commission, they pay all of the charges patronales and social security costs and give you whats left over.   You generally get a net salary of 50% of the original invoiced fee.  This option will probably earn you slightly less than if you are working for yourself, however if like me you prefer to spend one day a week working and earning money instead of working out your invoices, calculating tax, working out social security, unemployment and retirement charges this is a relatively simpler option.   good luck,

Hi, I have been working in France for 4 years now in an auditing role for a UK based company.  When I moved out here my UK employer reqested a E101 and E106 for 5 years (as I work in a specialised area of which my company couldnt find somebody to do the job in France) from Newcastle of which I was granted the certificates and as I a result I have always had full medical cover whilst being out here in France with no questions asked from the French authorities regarding any other tax or NI issues.  I continue to pay all my NI in the UK and all my income tax here in France.   As my certificate runs out next year I am in the process of going into the French system - I have two options - portage (of which I start working for an intermediary company that pays all of my French cotisiations - I will get about 45% net salary from the sum that I give to this company as a monthly fee) or I go it alone.  What I dont understand at the moment is if I go it alone what would be my final monthly revenue.  If I work for myself as an independent do I have to pay all of my cotisiations or are any of these optional.  Whilst I am aware of the high cotisiations in France would it be more interesting to work via another company or go it along? Any advice would be welcome.   Thanks,