CorinnaM

Hi all,
my husband (British) and I (European passport) are thinking of moving to France.

I have an internet business here in England (providing counselling/coaching to people around the world via skype) and I am a book author. Earnings around 50.000 to 70.000 a year.

I have very few expenses and obviously would work from home.

I understand I am earning too much to register as a micro-entrepreneur and I am not sure what I would register as instead.

I also understand that I cannot call myself a psychotherapist (even though I have the qualification) because it is regulated in France but I can work as one. Currently I call myself a Buddhist therapist, so that would not be a problem anyway.

Do you see any problems/obstacles? Do you have any idea who I can ask if I can work in this way in France?

thanks for answering

EuroTrash

My 2penn'oth:

So you have 2 activities, the online counselling/coaching, and the books.
If income from the books comes in the form of royalties, then that particular activity would need to be registered with Agesssa Accueil | Sécurité sociale des artistes-auteurs and this is probably the page you need to start with Vous avez plusieurs activités professionnelles | Sécurité sociale des artistes-auteurs

For your online business you have a choice of business structures, so you need to work out which will work out best as part of "the bigger picture" - family circumstances, total household income (because tax is paid per household not per individual), business model, future plans etc. As you say your turnover is too high for micro, which is the simplest, so either you would need to limit your turnover or choose a different structure. Really you need to sit down with a business advisor on this one.

Re the psychotherapy, my understanding is the same as yours, you can't call yourself one unless you acquire a recognised French qualification. Can you work as one - well, but be careful how you do your marketing and what services you actually provide, make sure it doesn't in any way give the impression that you're offering medical treatment to cure people. I believe there are quite a few UK qualified psychotherapists working in France but exactly how close to psychotherapy they go and what precautions they take, I don't know. Buddhist therapy shouldn't be a problem as long as that's what you practise. But be aware that the French authorities can, and do, unilaterally "requalify" people's activities if it comes to their attention that a person is not doing what they are registered/authorised to do, and the consequences can be quite heavy.

CorinnaM

Thanks! Where would I find such a business advisor?

EuroTrash

All depends where you live business support provision tends to be local/regional. Some towns / communes have a Centre de Formalités d'Entreprise which is a business advice centre usually run by the communauté des communes; sometimes the mairie has a business advisor available one day a week or something; failing that go to your CCI ie chamber of commerce and industry and ask what advice is available, or you can often access help online via the CCI website or other local business support networks. Some communes have a far better provision of business support than others. Google will be your friend to find out what's available near you.

Failing all else, a paid business advisor or expert comptable, but some are better than others.

CorinnaM

thanks, Euro, that is all really helpful.

dmu

Hi again, I've just picked up this point. You haven't mentioned where you were intending to buy your holiday home, but, before you decide on the location, check carefully that the internet coverage is sufficient. It's certainly not 100% everywhere in France....
Do a google search for "thérapistes Buddhistes/psychothérapistes en-ligne" - you may find a forum (in French, of course!)

Lavers69

Hi Corinna
I would echo DMU's point about the Internet. There is a very good french website where you can check the internet speeds by department and commune. The website is called ariase. com

In terms of business set up, the earnings limits on auto-entrepreneurs/micro-enterprises are going to be updated during 2018 to up to €64,000. This was an election promise from President Macron and we have looked into this ourselves because my partner is about to hit her limit this year.

One other option to consider is that you could keep your online therapy/counselling covered by your UK Company. In terms of getting into the French system for health coverage, if you were to buy a French holiday home and run this as a Micro-Enterprise; you could put these earnings through the French system and this would entitle you to the French carte vital.

<snip>

Novocastrian

Welcome to BE. I think we have a valuable new member here.

EuroTrash

Yes the increase in ME threshold is potentially interesting. The main trouble is that the TVA threshold is not being raised so if you exceed the current threshold you'll have to register for TVA, which takes away a lot of the simplicity that makes ME so attractive. Plus, I'm a bit sceptical that ME is the way to go for high turnover businesses, since cotisations are a percentage of turnover. I would have thought that most businesses turning over anywhere near 66k (165k for resellers) would be looking to reinvest some of that back into the business to set against income tax liability which you can't do on ME. Cotisations of 25% on 66k would total not far short of 16,000€ a year, ouch, no thanks! and with higher rate income tax on top too because it would give you an RFR of over 42k, no way round that either.

Keeping the therapy under the UK company is OK up to a point but not entirely, because carrying out an unregistered activity in France won't fly. It's not just a case of getting into the healthcare system, it's a case of you can't operate an unregistered business of that type without a siret number. Some people keep a UK reg co and register as a freelancer in France to get the siret number and and pay themselves as a contractor from the UK company, not sure exactly which situations make that beneficial but it certainly makes it more complicated.

Chatter Static

An election promise is not fact and until it has been passed it can only be promoted as a slight possibility they currently need all the tax they can get here so there may be some opposition.

Would you be offering letting services as well?

EuroTrash

True but I can't see that Macron's actually giving anything away here. I can only think he was offering it as a large carrot to encourage more start ups. But for Macron it does seem a remarkably badly thought through idea. If he'd offered a smaller increase and been able to match it with an increase in the TVA threshold, then he would have been giving something away and micro entrepreneurs would have been over the moon. But as I understand it he can't unilaterally change TVA so as it is it seems a bit of a two edged sword and I can't see actually see any great advantage to anyone.

I nearly asked that too!

BEVS

Morning to you.

Could you contact me for a username change please.
Also , have a bit of a read of the site rules.
Thanks.

EuroTrash

Morning ??? It's mid evening. Exactly how many hours did you put your clocks back BEVS ?

PS did anyone else forget last night, or was it just me...

Pulaski

She meant Monday morning.

Chatter Static

We forgot woke and thought I was up early....