working in France

[gers32]

I am a UK registered builder and have been approached to work in France.  Now the client is worried that I won't be legal.  Is this true?

[Val_2]

You won't be. You must register fully to work in France and provide proof of Assurance Déçennale and Civile which is only available here. Be warned that UK qualifications count for nothing here and that you will be paying high social charges after the first two years of trading. Suggest you trawl through the archives about registering,what is involved and what you need to provide. If you do work here illegally,although many will say this is the EU,France still maintains its own regulations and your employer(householder) can be done because you will have no accident or health cover. Also to benefit from reduced rates of TVA(VAT) your client can only use french TVA registered artisans and to be this, you must be legal.

[andyh4]

I broadly agree with everything that Val has said.  However, if this is a one-off event, and if you have a registered company, it may (repeat may) be possible to get your company to send you on short term contract to do this work.  You would need to get agreement beforehand from both the UK and French authorities to do this and it would be strictly time and job limited.  The VAT thing would still apply and there would be insurance implications for sure.  So probably not worth it.

[Will]

For short-term working you would need to arrange an E101 form to give you access to the French health and social security systems while away - this is probably part of what Andy had in mind. If you had an accident while doing paid work, the EHIC alone would be unlikely to give you cover, and although questions might well be asked of the person for whom you were working, if you have appropriate cover of your own then at least it can be seen that you have made every attempt to work legally. As far as the other insurance is concerned, you would have to ensure that your public liability cover extends to France, and while you would not be able to get French decenielle cover, you should be able to stay, just about, on the right side of the law by giving a written 10-year guarantee to cover your workmanship and materials.