'Actual eligible costs'

[Dinks]

I am attempting to fathom out certain aspects of setting up a business in France and have found some very useful info on http://www.french-property.com. In their 'starting a business' guide they state that "Under the regime réel your social security contributions are calculated from your turnover less actual eligible costs". However, for the life of me I cannot find out exactly what are counted as 'actual eligible costs'. Can anybody point me towards a web page that can clarify this for me please, as my research is drawing a blank. Many thanks

[Will]

I am sure somebody will prove me wrong but I don't think you would find an all-encompassing list on the internet. There are too many varaiables.

It's just another way of saying 'costs incurred wholly and necessarily in connection with the business'. For my business, for example, it was necessary to visit clients in London at least once a month, so the accountant put ferry fares, mileage, meals on the ferry, etc down as an expense, which was allowable. For other types of business though, there is likely to be no need to go to England, though the business owners might wish to do so several times a year - their fares etc would not be allowable. Do you see what I am getting at?

I've often said that many people on the micro regime could well be better off under the less-restrictive réel, even including accountant's fees, but most forum users don't see this. It certainly worked for me.

There are many guidance sheets published by HMRC, the French probably have something similar but I think you would need an accountant or a lot of Googling to find them. Examples from HMRC are:

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/manuals/bimmanual/bim47820.htm

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/manuals/pimmanual/pim2015.htm

and

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/guidance/480.pdf (big file, containing a lot that will not apply to you, being more concerned with tax on benefits, but some good basic rules in there)

[Dinks]

Thanks for that Will. My interpretation is that direct and indirect costs as well as fixed costs such as salary would be 'actual eligible costs'? I wish I could find an 'Expert Comptable' in the Ariege who is experienced in both UK and French business matters with whom I can run through the various options! It really is a minefield, although I think I have pretty much decided that a EURL arrangement would be the best option for my business. I certainly wouldn't fit into the micro-entreprise or autoentrepreneur bracket, unfortunately.