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Self-employed in UK and living in France


TarnGranny
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At the beginning of last year someone said on this forum "..........If you are self employed in UK and living in France you can get an E106 for 5 years......."

I now see on another forum that someone is saying "You cannot be a French resident and continue to be self-employed in the UK, your business would need to be registered in France."

Although these two statements may not exactly refer to the same thing, I am a little confused, so can anyone tell me what the rules are about self-employment in the UK and living in France (I'm not interested in the E106 part of it, unless this makes a difference!).

Thanks everyone!

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It all  depends where you are doing the self employed work.

You can be resident in France, and be self employed in the UK, as long as you physically return to do the work in the UK.

Its where the work is performed that counts.

What you shouldn't do is live and work  in France whilst funnelling the money through some form of UK self employment.

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  • 4 years later...

Well you would have to be registered in France to work. That is the way it works basically.

I'm sure that someone will tell you all the options to be registered in France, or you can look through the old threads.

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Regardless of the internet you must pay tax where you are physically doing that work, so if you sit in an office in France doing work for a UK company over the internet you must pay tax in France.  The law is very clear on that point.
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  • 2 weeks later...
[quote user="NuBeginnings"]Depends is you are seconded to France for a limited period, a good example would be a ski rep.

They are employed for three months payed in the U.K and pay UK tax and NI and are bound by a UK employment contract.[/quote]

The way the above works is that you receive an E form - used to be the E101, now it's one of the A1/S1 variants. This allows you to pay UK tax and NI while working in another EEA country, and gives you access to that country's health service. The catch is that the form is valid for one year. The form can be renewed to give a total of five years 'secondment', but different countries have different policies. DWP/HMRC and CLEISS (the relevant French department) are only likely to allow one renewal, and that is not automatically assured. It's much the same principle as, though slightly different from, the old 'worker's E106'.

Under the ski-rep example above, you would have formal contract with a UK employer, so it's a reasonably clear-cut situation. As a self-employed person you certainly can 'second' yourself, but you may have to convince HMRC/DWP of your entitlement.

So it's a good way to do things if you think you may only be working in France for a limited period, or if you are not sure that you want to commit to joining the French system. It's of far less use if your intention is to stay in France permanently (and if you sever to many of your ties with the UK you may find it difficult to convince the authorities that you are seconded rather than emigrating).

I have been self-employed in France both under this system, and as a registered French business, so I can speak from personal experience.

Autoentrepreneur is a good and simple way into the French system, but beware of the turnover limitations, and, like all the 'micro' regimes, it may not be the most suitable if you have high costs.

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  • 1 month later...
Hi,

my situation is a bit different. I'm french and I opened my auto entreprise one year and a half ago (surely not the best type of company, but quite OK when you start a new business with not too much expenses). I'm a landscape and garden designer working in the north of France but I have more and more clients in London. The thing is I lose quite a lot of money because british clients pay me in £ and I have to pay for transactions fees to the bank as well as currency change.

I am now thinking of setting up as self employed in England for the British clients, but I want to keep my french company for my french clients.

I live both in France and in London, but can't really say in which country I spend more time (maybe UK).

Can I set up as self employed in UK or do I need to live more than 6 months in the country?

thanks for your help.

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