UK Ltd Co and Micro Bic or not....?

[Glenn]

Having read through all the previous posts, i'm still uncertain how much applies to my situation which is:

For the last 5 years a friend and i have run a small, office based UK Ltd Co that provides a service to its clients.
I am now looking to move to France and run it from there, with my friend still handling their aspect from the UK. There are no other staff and we both fall under the standard tax bracket. Closing the UK Ltd Co is not an option for us.

Can i set myself up in France as consultant under a micro bic and invoice the UK Co on a consultancy basis? (I will need to return to the UK for a day or two every couple of months for work reasons.)
If so, how much allowance am i granted for expenses, as i understand it is the turnover less this figure that the cotisations are based on.
How long can a micro bic trade for? (i read somewhere that after 2 years a micro bic had to be turned into a different type of company)

If a micro bic is not appropriate for me, what is and approx what % cotisations can i expect to pay?

I have spent hours looking at numerous sites trying to understand this, but all the micro bic info seems to apply to B&B's. Any advice on my situation would be hugely appreciated.

[Will]

LAST EDITED ON 17-Jun-04 AT 08:22 AM (BST)

It is a very complicated subject, for which you really need professional advice. APCE (http://www.apce.com) and the various regional chambers of commerce (the French Chamber of Commerce in London may be worth talking to) or http://vosquestions.service-public.fr/professionnels/fiche/997.html are good starting points.

After having looked at these sites, plus others, or consulted the leaflets I think, once your brain has stopped whizzing round, you will see why profesional advice (from a French accountant) is essential. Even then it's far from cut and dried as there are so many different answers to the questions.

The important thing is not to get it wrong at the beginning - there is a very real danger that unless you are very careful you could end up paying UK company taxes, French company taxes, and both employer and employee social security charges for your consultancy business (micro-bic is a taxation regime geared to supplementary income rather than a means of reducing social charges for your main business). The French system does not favour the self-employed and small businesses.

My only other advice would be to avoid the very expensive UK/France taxation and law specialists. They either charge very heavily for little more than stating the obvious (that you can find for yourself, free, on the sites above) or are only able to advise on taxation, having little or no knowledge of the far more important social security aspects (they deal mainly with people retiring to France with a healthy lump sum rather than those who want to work here).

Will (50)
Forum moderator

[Bannon]

I have a UK company and work in France - and although a "one man band" I found it necessary to set up here as a micro enterprise after going on a one weeks course with my local Chambre de Metier first. A hard slog as my French is worse than may Welsh (and I don't speak a word of the latter!)

Well worth it though and lots of help. It also allows me to now fully engage with the Social Security system a lot easier.