Jump to content

Giving English Lessons - legally


Mutiara
 Share

Recommended Posts

Hi,

 I have been asked by two parents of some 8/9 year old children in our village, if I would give them an hour each of English tuition per week and they have offered/suggested to pay me 10 euros per hour for this in cash.

I am not 100% comfortable with this especially as our Maire lives nearby and often pops in, and I would prefer to do this legitimately and therefore was wondering how I could do this legally?  I mean could I just take the cash and put it on my annual French tax return ? Or would I have to register as an autoentrepreneur which seems such a fuss for such little work. I have heard of the cheques emploi service thingy,  but am not sure how this works either and then I assume I would have to charge more than 10 euros and hour??

Could anyone help me please and advise what would be the best solution ? Thanks!

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Than you Clair, I have had a look through the sites you posted but this poses another problem ; The CESU seems to give the onus on the employeur, (ie the mums who want to pay me ), to get the cheques from their banks, and they seem reluctant to do so, as they then come under certain regulations connected with being an employeur of my services.

 As I will be the "employee" how can I do it, without putting the onus on them to apply to their banks to set up the CESU scheme.

Can you see where I am coming from on this? I don't mind declaring the money but I also don't want the parents to get embroiled in loads of French bureacracy either!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You (the employee) cannot set it up.

The process is simple and does not require them to do anything but ask their bank to organise a special cheque-book.

You should emphasise the clear advantage they will have to deduct part of the costs from their income tax (some basic info here).

As the teaching hours will be on a "as needed" basis, this creates no obligation for them.

(A while back, I posted about terminating a CESU work contract, but this was a different situation).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Strangely enough, I was approached by my hairdresser to do this for her 15 year old only yesterday.

To begin with, I was going to say just send him around to me and I'll give him an hour or two on  Saturdays at a mutually convenient time.  I wasn't going to charge anything.

Then, I thought, well, I do have a TEFL qualification and, if I don't charge anything, the parents might think I'm no damned good.

Now that you have raised this question, I don't think I'll charge any money but I might see if I could get the mother to cut my hair in exchange for the boy's lessons.

Could you do something similar with an exchange of services but no money?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi Sweet 17, thanks for the welcome you gave me by the way!

Re the lessons/hairdressing - technically no - but why not, a freebie is a freebie, not a swap!

With CESU, you don't have to have the chequebook, the employer can also register on line, you just fill in the details of the employee and the amount and the charges are taken direct from your bank account.

Unfortunately the charges necessary are prohibitive. I registered to pay a babysitter and after paying him the SMIC plus 10%congée payé, it cost about 30 euros direct to the babysitter, then 19 euros for charges - 50euros for 4 hrs babysitting. Bearing in mind, I earn the SMIC, it was an expensive start to a rare meal out. Made even rarer by the costs of legally paying a babysitter!
Link to comment
Share on other sites

If you have a teaching qualification then I am not sure that charging so little or nothing at all really helps. After all you wouldn't expect your friend the plumber or mechanic to work for nothing so why should a teacher be any different? It takes a good half hour to prepare a meaningful lesson, plus materials.

If, however, you are not qualified then the suggestion of swapping services sounds good. Can the mother maybe do a couple of hours cleaning or ironing for you or ask her to pay for your Christmas hamper to the value of say 10 weeks' teaching?
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I thought about it, Celine, and that is why I decided to charge something especially in view of the fees, the effort, the commuting I had to do in order to obtain the TEFL cert.

I am retired and I have done a lot of voluntary work including teaching for no pay, etc and also, I enjoy teaching.  So, it didn't seem such a very big deal to me.

The mother is a qualified hairdresser and I go to her salon for my hair cut so I thought it might be a way of circumventing the matter of money changing hands.

I haven't agreed anything yet as I want to think about it first.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...