Earning a living in France or UK
Discussion
TLDR, I need to earn a living while living in France and I don't know what the best approach is. Please help and point me at good resources that a creative type like me will understand.
The long bit:
I am in a new position for me, which is that I currently don't have a permanent job (thanks Covid!) and thus I have options for earning while living in France. I don't like options. I like to know what to do.
For context I am a front-end web developer. A very good one, with 20 years of experience, and until Covid-19 destroyed my industry I was the head of tech at a leading marketing agency in London. If I was to work in a permanent job again it would be this. I'm kind of loath to throw that career away, but it may no longer by my choice.
Option 1 was always PAYE in the UK, live in France, and make a decision as to where to do the work. My wife will be doing this, but as she is a university professor who's time is almost all spent on research she never really has to go back to the (UK) campus to work. If it was me I would be coming back to London every week or two.
Option 2 for me is to contract remotely instead of going permanent again. If I do that, and the client is right I can work anywhere, and so should I set up a company in France, or the UK? Currently I freelance as a sole trader, no limited co, and just pay normal amounts of tax and NI. What is the best setup here for me should I continue to freelance? I have only just got used to self assesment, so I'm new at this.
Option 3 is live in France and work in France. My French is improving but lets not kid ourselves here, I have a lot of catching up to do and I am nowhere near fluent. I can't follow French TV very well for example. So what actual things can I do enough to earn a living? I see a few small web design businesses around the Charente and Dordogne areas who seem to cater for the smaller business/gite owner, but would you think any of them to be able to expand and take on / partner with a developer? I'd go it alone but I am not a good designer. The advantage for me if I do manage to earn enough doing this is that I don't have to keep travelling back to London.
What would you do?
The long bit:
I am in a new position for me, which is that I currently don't have a permanent job (thanks Covid!) and thus I have options for earning while living in France. I don't like options. I like to know what to do.
For context I am a front-end web developer. A very good one, with 20 years of experience, and until Covid-19 destroyed my industry I was the head of tech at a leading marketing agency in London. If I was to work in a permanent job again it would be this. I'm kind of loath to throw that career away, but it may no longer by my choice.
Option 1 was always PAYE in the UK, live in France, and make a decision as to where to do the work. My wife will be doing this, but as she is a university professor who's time is almost all spent on research she never really has to go back to the (UK) campus to work. If it was me I would be coming back to London every week or two.
Option 2 for me is to contract remotely instead of going permanent again. If I do that, and the client is right I can work anywhere, and so should I set up a company in France, or the UK? Currently I freelance as a sole trader, no limited co, and just pay normal amounts of tax and NI. What is the best setup here for me should I continue to freelance? I have only just got used to self assesment, so I'm new at this.
Option 3 is live in France and work in France. My French is improving but lets not kid ourselves here, I have a lot of catching up to do and I am nowhere near fluent. I can't follow French TV very well for example. So what actual things can I do enough to earn a living? I see a few small web design businesses around the Charente and Dordogne areas who seem to cater for the smaller business/gite owner, but would you think any of them to be able to expand and take on / partner with a developer? I'd go it alone but I am not a good designer. The advantage for me if I do manage to earn enough doing this is that I don't have to keep travelling back to London.
What would you do?
If you want to live in France then do that and get yourselves properly into the French systems for tax, health etc. We have friends who have tried to do the 'foot in both camps' routine and they seem to have to rush back to the UK every five minutes to get more pills or sort out the house there, just crazy. Can't comment on employment as I know nothing about your industry but Linkedin keep sending me lists of assorted and varied vacancies in France even though my profile has said 'retired' for years so there are jobs out there. Good Luck!
If you are thinking of moving full time and want into the French social security and health system you need to be living in the country before the end of the transition agreement. When I say living I mean resident in the tax sense. After this it will become much harder for Brits to do this. So you would need to get moving.
On the business side, I am in the process of doing this now and making the same decision. UK, obviously sttaightforward. France relatively easy and online if you are starting as a micro-entrepreneur but that implies an earnings limit of just under 80k euros pa. If its more than this then you ned to form a company and that is more complicated, you would need to take advice.
On the business side, I am in the process of doing this now and making the same decision. UK, obviously sttaightforward. France relatively easy and online if you are starting as a micro-entrepreneur but that implies an earnings limit of just under 80k euros pa. If its more than this then you ned to form a company and that is more complicated, you would need to take advice.
whitebeard said:
If you are thinking of moving full time and want into the French social security and health system you need to be living in the country before the end of the transition agreement. When I say living I mean resident in the tax sense. After this it will become much harder for Brits to do this. So you would need to get moving.
On the business side, I am in the process of doing this now and making the same decision. UK, obviously sttaightforward. France relatively easy and online if you are starting as a micro-entrepreneur but that implies an earnings limit of just under 80k euros pa. If its more than this then you ned to form a company and that is more complicated, you would need to take advice.
Yep, that is exactly why we are doing this now. We're looking at houses next week. Finance wise the timing isn't great but it does at least give me all the flexibility.On the business side, I am in the process of doing this now and making the same decision. UK, obviously sttaightforward. France relatively easy and online if you are starting as a micro-entrepreneur but that implies an earnings limit of just under 80k euros pa. If its more than this then you ned to form a company and that is more complicated, you would need to take advice.
The micro-entrepreneur option is a good one, as I cannot see myself earning more than 80k euros in my first year or two.
Decent internet isn’t a given in rural areas, in my experience
From your other thread: I actually quite like Angoulême itself, I lived there for a year way back when
I would recommend finding work that you can do remotely, before you commit to the move. Tech jobs seem very much concentrated in the big French cities (notably Paris) although I once did a 6 month database design gig in Limoges (nothing like as nice as Angoulême)
I do however get the sense that tech hiring is going to remain in the doldrums for the next year, so maybe it’s time to really work your network for opportunities and be prepared to accept rates that you wouldn’t have considered at the start of the year. I’m a hiring manager at a global tech company here and the market is flooded with strong candidates
From your other thread: I actually quite like Angoulême itself, I lived there for a year way back when
I would recommend finding work that you can do remotely, before you commit to the move. Tech jobs seem very much concentrated in the big French cities (notably Paris) although I once did a 6 month database design gig in Limoges (nothing like as nice as Angoulême)
I do however get the sense that tech hiring is going to remain in the doldrums for the next year, so maybe it’s time to really work your network for opportunities and be prepared to accept rates that you wouldn’t have considered at the start of the year. I’m a hiring manager at a global tech company here and the market is flooded with strong candidates
Tell me about it!
I would normally be competing with 3-5 other people for any given job at the level I've reached, but now I'm basically competing with everyone who got made redundant from every creative agency in the industry.
We shall see. If all else fails I shall fix up old Range Rovers in my barn.
I would normally be competing with 3-5 other people for any given job at the level I've reached, but now I'm basically competing with everyone who got made redundant from every creative agency in the industry.
We shall see. If all else fails I shall fix up old Range Rovers in my barn.
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