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Registering as handy man with Autoentrepreneur


je79

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I have started looking after a gite, changeover, pool and garden care, and originally registered with Autoentrepreneur as a gardener (this was my primary role at the gite to start with). However, I was told by AE that gardeners could not use AE and they told me to register as a handyman. I have now received a letter from the Chambre de Metiers et de l'Artisanat demanding to see my handy man qualifications, carte nationale d'identite and deeds to my house. As I  know there are other people doing the same job, has anyone else had problems registering this type of business? All I want to do is earn my money and pay the correct taxes!

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For the initial registration I was given the code 8130Z (services d'amenagement paysager), but I was later told by UESSAF to change the job type to a handy man and after changing my registration I was given the code 9529Z (reparation d'autres biens personnels et domestiques. I have had the help of a french friend to do the phone calls, etc, but she can only act on what we have been told by the various departments involved.

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MSA who are the organisation gardeners have to belong to, have not signed up to AE. Why should they when they can charge a minimum of about 4k per year in cotisations, or roughly 50% of your profit/turnover depending on the regime). So as an AE if you only earn 10k, with the AE system you be giving away around 25% - with MSA its 50% or 5k.

Steve

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Homme toutes mains is what I have registered as. I will have to talk to my french friend who has been helping me to sort it out, but she, like most of France, is on holiday at the moment! Thanks for your thoughts.
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I see your point. I am only looking after one gite and then doing a couple of other small gardening jobs so my turnover will be low. For this reason, AE seems the most appropriate option. As I said before, having earned the money, I just want to make sure that I am paying my taxes, etc correctly.
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[quote user="steve"]MSA who are the organisation gardeners have to belong to, have not signed up to AE. Why should they when they can charge a minimum of about 4k per year in cotisations, or roughly 50% of your profit/turnover depending on the regime). So as an AE if you only earn 10k, with the AE system you be giving away around 25% - with MSA its 50% or 5k.
Steve
[/quote]

Not stirctly true Steve, in the first couple of years there is an assumed level of income on which cotisations are charged, you are at liberty to inform the agencies of your actual expected turnover and your fees will be adjusted accordingly.  Once you are established the difference between the AE and the micro is minimal, 2-3% only in fact. 

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In fact, if I were to become a gardner in France (not vey likely) I would go for a Sarl or other set up which allowed me to claim back all expenses, gardening must have high expenses, machinery puchase and maintenance being high as well as vans and petrol.  You must be better off being able to offset that lot surely?  The AE or Micro dont fair well for any business with high expenses IMO.

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When we first started up we were a Micro and paid something like 1300€ a year for the first 2 or 3 years until we increased our customer base - we found after making a claim for medicine, that we were not covered by MSA as we didnt pay enough into the system! The 1300 didnt give us medical cover .....In year 3 we also recived a bill for 5k to catch up on the last 2 years . They have a minimum cotisation of about 4k (to give you the 70% medical cover). Each year is  worked out on the previouse 3 years declared revenues, so if you have 3 great years and a rubbish one you could end up paying more than you earn.............

Oh the joys of the MSA. We have been with them for 8 years now and reckon we could have sussed them out by next year!

Steve

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Hello

There's something odd about that Steve, cover for medical is peanuts compared to the other agencies, just 8% of your income after allowances so you are not paying that much just to ensure medical cover at 70%,.  I was up to the max on the micro earnings wise and paid about 600 for medical cover, the rest of the charges are general social charges which include pension (the biggy for me). 

Its all a bit of a black art but you should not be paying more than about 25/26%  of total income for everything, if you are then something is wrong either in your declarations or their calculations.

P

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Sorry, didnt make myself clear - total min cotisations are 4k - MSA I think are the only ones who do all the extras for you - Med, pension, etc etc - they are the only agency we pay anything into - whatever we declare (now in the 'real' regime) its about roughly speaking 50% - so if we declare 10k we pay 5k TOTAL cotisations to MSA

Steve

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Hello

What do you mean by declare, do you mean that this is your net revenue after expenses etc (as in the real regime you get to deduct actual expenses and account for VAT), if yes then that's probably about right, if you mean 50% of gross then that is more than you should be paying.

It was a long while ago but I did the calculations on my own income to compare the two countries regimes and it came our almost exactly the same as in if I was earning the same in the UK I would have paid a lot more in tax but less in NI, in France hradly any tax but high social charges, nothing in it really, a percent or two, it was quite an eye opener as I always felt the french system was higher, I think it's down to the way the bills come in, they look lumpy compared to PAYE. 

P

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[quote user="Panda"]

Hello

What do you mean by declare, do you mean that this is your net revenue after expenses etc (as in the real regime you get to deduct actual expenses and account for VAT), if yes then that's probably about right, if you mean 50% of gross then that is more than you should be paying.

[/quote]

Yes. Like wise, we always get a  tax rebate even though we have never paid it (low income, poverty line etc etc)

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