UK Employer but wish to be based in France

[MaryLegs]

I work for a charity in the UK as a full time employee but work mostly from home.  My employers, who have no business interests in France, have agreed that I could make a permanent move to France and still be employed by them, as long as I agree to fly back to the UK for meetings occasionally.   I understand that as I would be deemed to be resident in France I would pay French taxes and social security.  My employers are having difficulties finding out how to set this all up and cannot seem to get a clear answer from HMRC.   Has anyone any experience of this either as an employee or employer?  Thanks.  Mary

[cooperlola]

It is complicated and expensive.  Can you work freelance for them and set yourself up as a business?  The evidence seems to suggest that this is the least bureaucratic (that's comparative - this is France!) and least expenisive.  The alternatives, afaik,  are for your company to set you up as a French subsidiary or to use a portage company.

One way of setting up your own business here is this:

http://www.theautoentrepreneur.com/

There are others if your turnover is high, but this is the most simple one to set up.

[EuroTrash]

just a little caveat to the auto entrepreneur option:

http://aideautoentrepreneur.com/auto-entrepreneur-1-seul-client-attention-42

[pangur]

Hi

You can set up as a sole representative of the company in France. My husband has done this for the last 5 years and it is relatively straightforward and as far as I know, free. The issue is that under this regime you are responsible for paying both employer and employee charges and as both are much higher in France than in the UK, your net wage is lower.

My husband gets paid gross by his UK employer and about 60% of this figure goes on social charges and tax. Of course, your employee may volunteer to pay gross in a way that includes the full charge they would need to pay in France... You need to do the maths before you jump.

Regarding the self employment, you might get more per month but you have the set up issues and the advice we have received is that you will lose out at retirement as you won't be able to get as big a pension. We pay for a French accountant to issue monthly pay sheets and deal with some queries that have arisen.

Hope that helps - link in English below.

http://www.anglais.urssaf.fr/index.php?option=content&task=blogcategory&id=276&Itemid=5493

[pangur]

Oh, just some other things that have arisen over the years...

I would imagine French labour laws apply but my husband works to UK law - e.g. takes UK rather than French bank holiday. I am not sure of the legality of this and would imagine that at a push French law would supercede. You would need to set things like this up in advance with your employer.

He no longer gets a private pension contribution from his employer - addtapparently for tax relief reasons it is not possible for this to happen.

Set out how often you need to return and who will pay! It can be more often than you think and depending on where you are located can be extremely expensive.