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Taxe Professionelle as an English teacher


Sue50
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Hi Folks,

I know there are some freelance English teachers out there and I hope someone may be able to help me with my query.

Briefly, I am a trained TEFL teacher living and working in the Languedoc, I registered as a "trainer" ( Formation des adultes et formation continue) and I work only a few hours a week.  Apart from the usual liability for cotisations which I was expecting, I was hit earlier in the year with a lump sum payment into the pension fund which I wasn't expecting and now to top it all a demand for Taxe Professionelle for over 500 euros which I certainly wasn't expecting!!  I wrote to the tax office concerned to verify that I have to pay bearing in mind I don't have an office or any employees and they have confirmed that this does not negate liability for the tax.  Is it possible that proof of low income will exonerate me or is this just wishful thinking?

I'd be grateful for any advice on this.

Sue

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[quote]Hi Folks, I know there are some freelance English teachers out there and I hope someone may be able to help me with my query. Briefly, I am a trained TEFL teacher living and working in the Languedoc...[/quote]

Low income exonerates you from most taxes. Best advice is to blow 250€ on an accountant - he should be able to save more than his fee!

 

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Hmm yes, thanks for that, however it's advice from a so called "expert" that has got me into the situation I'm in.  I have learned a huge lesson though and that is, "You will only get the answer to the question you ask"  At huge cost (far more than your suggested 250 euros) my accountant told me there was no way around paying cotisations even though I told her that I was unlikely to earn more than 4,000 euros and she said that everyone pays up front.  I now know this to be untrue.  Because of her advice I never even asked the question of URSSAF when I registered and out of my meagre earnings of 3,800 this year I have paid 1881 euros in cotisations to URSSAF and RAM Gamex, 625 euros to basic pension and now this demand for Taxe Professionnelle for 550 euros.  So, for 380 hours of work this year I am left with a total wage of 796 euros which works out at 2,09 per hour.  Mad?! Yes I'm hopping.  I'm particularly cross that I now have to go back to all these places and find out how I can get refunded .  Sorry but in this country more than any other I have lived in I feel I can trust no one but most particularly anyone who claims to be an expert.

I'm off to eat chocolate now!

Sue

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Oh dear, how sickening for you. I hope you manage to get refunded. I'm also freelance; I got into some bother with one of the caisses demanding money for a period I hadn't worked. The caisse itself wouldn't listen to me, but the local URSSAF were extremely good and faxed something to the caisse to prove I didn't owe the money. It might be worth arranging a face-to-face meeting at your URSSAF office and going through everything with them, including exemptions for low earnings. They may be able to communicate with the other caisses for you.

Re the taxe professionelle, I've had a demand for EUR 150. We live in a low-tax area (middle of nowhere) but have a large house. EUR 500 seems steep. A friend reckons taxe professionelle should relate to the area of the house that you use for business - maybe they initially assume it's the whole house? As you say, you need to ask the right question. I plan to ring the hotel des impots to tell them I only use 10 sq m for business (true). It's worth a try.

Best of luck with it. BTW, are you a microentreprise? If so you get a flat % (at least 30%, can't remember exactly) allowed for expenses and should only pay tax on 70% of your turnover; I understood that this applied to sec sociale cotisations as well - please nobody tell me that it doesn't

Jo

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Yes you are sort of right.

It's not registering as a Micro Enterprise so much as registering your tax regime as a Micro Biotic which is seperate and does not require you to be registered as a Micro Enterprise. Sorry reading this back sounds a bit double Dutch but I expect you get the drift.

As a Micro Bic (Biotic) you will not pay not pay tax on 72% of your earnings just on the 28% after your personal allowance is taken. You are allowed to earn a maximum of 78,000€ per year under this system. This is quite a lot considering the type of businesses they are aimed at i.e. small.

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I'm not sure those figures are correct. Providers of services are allowed a turnover of 27000 Euros and the deduction for costs is 52%. The figures that you mention are for activities such as buying and selling, and for some weird but wonderful reason, letting furnished properties.

Steve

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