adamfox

Afternoon, hope you are all well. Just posting out of curiosity to the potential of starting up my business in the south of France. I have a long established business here but want to move abroad and set up. If you have business skills, knowledge of the French system and interesting in working together I'd like to hear from you.

Alternatively, if anyone has job recommendations within IT / desktop support be good to hear from you too!

Thanks!

dmu

Hi, and welcome to the forum!
I don't know what category of business structure (micro-entreprise, limited company, ...) would suit your IT business, and others more in the know will come along to give practical information.
What I do know is that the social charges are crippling for the boss - they haven't changed since my day and you can count on paying a substantial percentage (50% for me) of your income to the State, one way or another, before you can put money in your pocket. Social Security contributions certainly cover healthcare and future Pensions, but all the other taxes and dues are hard to digest...
How is your French, in order to cope with French Bureaucracy? And will you be bringing a family, too? Important factors to take into account while you're contemplating....
HTH

cyrian

Hi Adam
I met a Frenchman several years ago who had a similar business.
He said that if he was younger then he would move out of France because of high taxation (including social charges) and red tape.
I think that it would be better if you could find employment.
Have a look at Sophia Antipolis near Nice where there are many international companies including tech companies.
HTH

USBC

Hi adamfox

I have an IT background and I'm curious to know if you made any progress towards living in France or otherwise?

Hope things have gone well in any event :- )

#T

EuroTrash

Hi Ted, if you are considering freelance work, this is one of the sites where projects are posted
https://www.motamot.com/missions/
you can look at the project listing but the catch is that like most French freelancer sites, it won't let you register or apply for missions unless you are registered as freelance.
I think you said in the other thread that you were looking at immo work as a fallback. Had you thought about registering as a micro entrepreneur (costs nothing to register, and if you earn nothing you will pay nothing for the first year at least) and trying to build up some freelance work alongside the estate agent work?
Maybe keep an eye on motamot over the next month or so and if there seems to be a regular trickle of missions that could be up your street, might be worth exploring further?

USBC

Hi EruoTrash
Thanks for posting the hyperlink. This will be very useful to me. Workwise or even just for research to start gaining a better understanding of my niche in the freelance market. Definitely a site for regular visits. Thank you.

Coincidentally, within the last week, I have read a little about registering as a freelance micro or auto entrepreneur. It looks like something I’ll have to complete as soon as possible. Your comments here have encouraged me to progress further with this. I’ve been told I will need to do the same for the “immo” work. So, no time like the present to uncover the challenge of more French bureaucracy.

Thanks again

#Ted

EuroTrash

Ah. You might have to tread canny with that one. One person can only have one freelance registration, and combining different activities within a single registration is possible in theory but there are a few pitfalls. Can't remember exactly what the catch is now but with a certain combination of activities, you can end up paying the higher rate of cotisations on all your earnings. If you google "activités mixtes micro entrepreneur" you will find a chart that explains how the cotisations work.