French Taxation
Discussion
I'm thinking about starting a small business in France, turnover probably wouldn't be more than €50-60k per year.
Is there an English language taxation guide available online? Obviously before taking the plunge, I'd be talking to a qualified accountant, but I was just trying to get a feel for the levels of tax.
I presume that the laws will be similar to the UK laws, and that the majority of the differences will be in the percentages?
Is there an English language taxation guide available online? Obviously before taking the plunge, I'd be talking to a qualified accountant, but I was just trying to get a feel for the levels of tax.
I presume that the laws will be similar to the UK laws, and that the majority of the differences will be in the percentages?
Some of the principles are certainly similar but applied quite differently. If you take your example with €55k turnover and assuming that it's a service type company with little costs apart from you. I run my own consultancy based here and that's how it is for me. Once you strip out bank costs, fees, insurance etc you're left with say €50k that you want to pay yourself. Out of this maybe €10k will go to the state as the employers social security contributions leaving you with a salary of €40k. You will the pay another €10k to the state as employees contributions. The good news is that you won't pay much tax on the remaining €30k. Tax rates here are not too bad but what is most important is that you are taxed as a family and not as an individual. Each household gets a number of points dependent on its composition and then the total income is shared between those points. So I live with my wife and three kids. The first two children are half a point each and the third counts as one so we have 4 points. This means my net income is divided by 4 and each tranche gets a tax free bit, a lower tax bit and so on. Tax isn't usually a worry, social charges are.
There are also all the usual supports for starting a business in France and they are pretty generous if you are already in France. Depending on your situation you should look at these. If you have any specific questions feel free to PM me.
This is worth a look and mostly correct https://www.frenchentree.com/living-in-france/runn...
There are also all the usual supports for starting a business in France and they are pretty generous if you are already in France. Depending on your situation you should look at these. If you have any specific questions feel free to PM me.
This is worth a look and mostly correct https://www.frenchentree.com/living-in-france/runn...
I was under the impression that as a service type business that you could not exceed 32,900€ per year under the Micro-Entrepreneur system, that said it can be doubled if you are married and are both set up individuals (Commercial sales 82200€ per year) all figures based on gross turnover
If you set up anything other than a Micro Entrepreneur the contributions can be prohibitive unless you can offset lots of cost
Terry
If you set up anything other than a Micro Entrepreneur the contributions can be prohibitive unless you can offset lots of cost
Terry
Terryg4 said:
I was under the impression that as a service type business that you could not exceed 32,900€ per year under the Micro-Entrepreneur system, that said it can be doubled if you are married and are both set up individuals (Commercial sales 82200€ per year) all figures based on gross turnover
If you set up anything other than a Micro Entrepreneur the contributions can be prohibitive unless you can offset lots of cost
Terry
As a micro en. your turnover is capped as you say but if you provide a service you are charged 27% of your turnover for contisaions etc. and nothing is tax deductible. If you set up anything other than a Micro Entrepreneur the contributions can be prohibitive unless you can offset lots of cost
Terry
Many expats see micro en. as the easy option as it can be done online and you don't have to meet with anybody or pay any start up costs but it really does depend on what you do and how you do it.
Terryg4 said:
Hello
At that level of turnover , it depends whether your business is a selling type business or a service type business
Terry
Thanks for all the replies so far.At that level of turnover , it depends whether your business is a selling type business or a service type business
Terry
The business would be occasional renting of sports cars, so I think that would be classed as selling rather than service?
smifffymoto said:
If you rent out cars,I would class that as a service not sales.You say you are thinking about starting a business in France but don't say if you are resident or prospective resident.If you just want a carte vitale there are less expensive ways to get one.
Thanks for the feedback.I am not a resident, but currently spend about 4 months a year there. This would possibly increase to closer to 6 months per year in the next year or so. I presume I'd need to register for tax etc if I went over 180 days?
No real desire to become a resident, I work overseas and spend the majority of my time off in France. We just like spending time there, and renting out a couple of cars might be a good way of paying for it all.
magooagain said:
Can't help with the taxation questions,but would the rental cars be lhd and French plated? If not you could be into a world of insurance pain.
One is LHD and on French plates, but the other one is RHD and currently on UK plates. I can get it on to French plates, but can't (won't) change it to LHD. Trying to get insurance for any rental vehicle is proving to be challenging!
Yes. Getting a uk car on uk plates insured in France is easy,but to use that vehicle in a car hire business would be very difficult.
Maybe try a uk insurance company as it is part time so to speak.
I thought about starting up an airport taxi business here in France once. After some early research I just gave up as my pockets were just not deep enough.
Maybe try a uk insurance company as it is part time so to speak.
I thought about starting up an airport taxi business here in France once. After some early research I just gave up as my pockets were just not deep enough.
We used to run a business renting out sports cars in France (from 2003-2009). We gave it up in 2009 and focussed on our main business primarily because the insurance costs were so high. If you do it all above board (as we did) then we were paying about 16,000Euros per year if I remember correctly for insuring 4 sports cars on comprehensive insurance.
It was a good way for us to promote our main business but the finances just didn't work out, for it to be a viable business in its own right, especially if you take into account the value of the assets too.
If you are intent on doing it and want to pm me I would be more than happy to tell your about our experiences.
It was a good way for us to promote our main business but the finances just didn't work out, for it to be a viable business in its own right, especially if you take into account the value of the assets too.
If you are intent on doing it and want to pm me I would be more than happy to tell your about our experiences.
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