being a self employed artist and selling from the studio

[keith]

I am an artist living in UK at present.  I have a house and separate studio in France.  I am intending to move permanently to France in about 2 years time.  I need some advice about:

1) Using my studio as retail outlet - who do I need to get permission from

2) Registering for self employment/income tax in France

3) Also I have concerns about registering in the French health system

 

Is there a good book that covers all of this?

Any recommendations or help gratfully received.

Keith

[Sue56]

There is a book "Living & Working in France" D.Hampshire.  This should be able to answer your questions.  Can't help you myself - sorry.

Good luck.

[Nick Trollope]

IMHO, David Hampshires books are always a little out-of-date, and a little vague on esoteric matters (god, I miss the spellchecker).

As I have oft advised (as have others), your best bet is to talk to someone who knows (such as a French accountant), but for my penny, I would suggest;

Don't assume that you can use a dwelling for commercial purposes, often you can't. Before you buy/rent a house, ask the Mairie.

Do a search within the Forum for "artist", as an Artisan, I must register with the Chambre de Metiers. I reckon that there is a "Chambre" for Artisits, someone will know.

Your registration with the health system is automatic, once you register as "something", with the organisation mentioned above. They will be able to advise you.

[Will]

I would agree with Nick that the best thing to do is to ask a French accountant, or if you don't feel able to commit any money at this stage look at www.apce.com or www.urssaf.fr. There are special arrangements for artists, but still a bizarre list of things you can or cannot do and potentially heavy charges if you get something not quite right about registering. Books and forums can only give you the basic knowledge unfortunately and there is no guarantee that they are right.

Nick - if you miss the spell checker, try www.iespell.com, or alternatively (if you don't use internet explorer) the Google toolbar has a spell checker that is nearly as good.