UK national, tax resident in France looking to work remote contracts in UK

[frasw46]

Hi,

Following on from the thread title, I am a UK national, I live in France with a family member. I have been here a couple of years now so before the pandemic and just before Brexit indecisively pulled up the drawbridge.

Being as I don't speak French my intention is to begin taking on contract work - fully remote, for companies in the UK but I am stumped as to what I should be looknig to do and would appreciate some advice.

My current situation is that I have been issued a residency permit (carte sejours) but probably won't have a social security number until the middle of next month. Since I will not be working on a PAYE basis for a French company I will be required to self-report my income to the tax authorities, over here there is a scheme called Auto-Entreprise which gives a certain amount of leeway for the self-employed when it comes to running a small business.

Now my understanding, albeit rudimentary, is that I could register a Ltd comapny in the UK find an accountant in the UK and open a business bank account there also. I could then pay myself in dividends into my French bank account, reporting those earnings to the French tax authorities under the Auto-Entreprise scheme and leaving the rest in my UK business account and/or investing it on behalf of the business.

So my question is as to whether there is anybody on this forum who already does this, anything similar or even knows about this, is this the correct approach? I have never done anything like this before so I don't know whether I should be looking to do it in this manner or not.

Also, being as I'd be a French resident working for a UK company would that preclude me from the restrictions imposed by the IR35 regulations in any way?

Any information would be greatly appreciated, I doubt contacting any of the government departments around France or over in the UK would garner any significant results when asking about this.

Many thanks,
John

[Lance]

Also, being as I'd be a French resident working for a UK company would that preclude me from the restrictions imposed by the IR35 regulations in any way?

I'll answer the one question I know the answer to.

IR35 won't apply if you're French resident. You will pay personal tax in France, and double tax treaties mean you won't be liable for UK personal tax.
However...... Finding a UK client who will make that determination (as they will still need to) is not going to be any easier for you. If you do find a client who will allow outside IR35 then great stuff.

IANAL
IANAA

[BlasterBates]

You will be working in France, so it won't be legal to work directly for a UK Ltd company. You have to register in France either as self-employed or a company. What you can do is bill a UK Ltd directly from your French company.

[Fred Bloggs]

It's the same old, same old. You pay the tax where you sit and do the work. The location of the client is not relevant. It isn't difficult to understand.

I would think the chances of doing this through the "normal" worker > agent > client relationship is next to nil. OP needs to deal directly with clients. Perhaps he/she already knows that.