Contracting in France

[g00ner]

Hi all,

I have done a search, but could not turn anything up on the board.

Am thinking of accepting a contract in France for 6 months. I know nothing of the tax system out there and would like to know the best tax avoidance schemes to use. I currently run my own Ltd company, but get the impression it might be better to go through an umbrella.

[northernladuk]

B- for effort and go stand at the back class!!

Here is a thread oddly titled 'Contracing in France'

Oh here is another...

France stuff

and

More French stuff

and so on.

I much prefer the term tax efficient though, avoidance sounds, well, so dark and naughty.

p.s. the add rep button is on the bottom left and looks like a star... I thanqew

[SueEllen]

If the contract is only for 6 months and you come back to the UK regularly so you spend a maximum of 183 days there, you should be able to avoid the French tax system all together.

You need to prove that your centre of economic interest is not in France.

So if you run your own limited you need to get another director who is resident in the UK, that way it's clear that your limited is run from the UK and that the employee doing the work in France is on secondment from the UK.


Edited to add: If you can't find update information on these boards there is information that can be easily found via google including the fact that there is now a dual tax treaty between the UK and France.

[SallyPlanIT]

If the contract is only for 6 months and you come back to the UK regularly so you spend a maximum of 183 days there, you should be able to avoid the French tax system all together.

You need to prove that your centre of economic interest is not in France.

So if you run your own limited you need to get another director who is resident in the UK, that way it's clear that your limited is run from the UK and that the employee doing the work in France is on secondment from the UK.


Edited to add: If you can't find update information on these boards there is information that can be easily found via google including the fact that there is now a dual tax treaty between the UK and France.

Providing that you have an Enlish or Welsh registered office address for companies registered in England and Wales (Scotland for Scottish incorporations), it is acceptable that the director can live overseas. You should change your director's service address to the one in France. You do not need to have an additional director residing in the UK.

[LisaContractorUmbrella]

With a contract for only 6 months you will not be outside of the UK taxation system and therefore you will still be liable for UK taxation - as others have said there is no reason why you can't use your Ltd company provided that it is UK registered. There would be no benefit to you joining the French tax system as their taxes are higher than ours and no benefit to using an umbrella company as you would be paid via PAYE. 'Avoidance schemes' are readily available - just look in Google for "85% take home no risk compliant legal" and you should find just the thing

[ASB]

There would be no benefit to you joining the French tax system as their taxes are higher than ours

Actually in a lot of cases French taxes can be considerably lower. There are some quite easy ways of becoming tax resident in France (whilst simultaneously being tax resident in the UK - this is probably not an issue but I don't know the terms of the DTA). Owning property which you live in is enough, renting also used to be (though there were easy and legal ways round it).

The killer can be social security contributions. However you can elect to remain within the uk NI system for 3 (maybe 5) years.

French companies can be reluctant to take invoices for services provided in France from small companies which are not French. This can make the "using the UK company" route difficult sometimes.

[ASB]

Forgot to mention. If you personally earn any money in France it is taxable there (same is true of almost any european country). The question is whether the money the supplier earns (e.g. MyCo) as a result of you providing your services is classed as your income.