Emily, so far they seem to have done it on trust. Neither OH or I ever checked at all, otherwise as Ricky says - that quarter and nothing else.
Emily, in response to your query the AE scheme is based on cash receipts i.e. for your 3 monthly declarations, it is payments you actually receive during that 3 months that will be declared (not what may have been billed and be outstanding).
That being so if, for example, you billed in GBP it would be the conversion rate for GBP to Euros prevailing at the date the funds reached your account. The actual conversion rate to be used is issued daily by the French central bank, the Banque de France, known as the 'Parités quotidiennes'. You can find the GBP/Euro conversion rate - or any other conversion rate for that matter by following the link in this post. Parités quotidiennes
Hi Emily,
This is what I use on the day I invoice the client. Don't know the advantages or disadvantages, just seemed like a common sense rate to use and able to justify it to the fisc if necessary. I believe there is an official rate you can have from the Impots if you need/prefer to use a standard rate for the whole year. http://www.xe.com/ucc/convert/?Amount=200&From=EUR&To=GBP
When the invoice is paid into my UK account, I simply mark it as paid in cash on my accounts and take the hit (or gain) myself.
My undersatnding is that you must use the exchange rate for the day the money hits your account
Good luck. They're very few and far between in this area, I only know of two in Dordogne, might be different where you are. You could ask your local Chambre de Commerce/Metiers, URSAFF, a 'maison des associations', maybe pole-emploi if you're stuck. I found the one we joined by chance really, via a third party assessment/training session set up by pole-emploi. Co-operatives might be another possibility, but they probably have 'over 18' rules as well, and besides which because they are large organisations overall they tend need to charge VAT, which is not good for anyone with small individual customers rather than company customers. Let us know what the UK tax office say, although I can't see the French being happy with that type of solution!
@Hayley We went through all this last year. I can't remember the ins and outs but remember that we found that it IS possible for a 16 year old to be an AE but needed a court judgement/permission from a judge or else the minor had to be 'emancipated' ie no longer under parental protection. Either way, although do-able, it was complicated and we felt it wasn't for us. However... we got my son registered with an association 'couveuse' , ie incubator scheme. I was in the same scheme at the time, and it required a special meeting and permission from URSSAF and the conseil general to include my son, but they passed it easily. The advantage of the couveuse scheme is that you work under their SIRET and their insurance. it's designed for people to 'test' their business idea without risk. They do the bills and collect the payments, you claim 'expenses' but this seemed pretty vague too so we were paid back most of what we had earned. You don't pay tax or cotisations whilst you are on the scheme. Then at the end of the scheme, when you leave, either deciding that it's not worth it or setting up as an AE or business yourself, any balance payable to you is liable for tax. My son didn't continue with it but I did, I eventually left and set up on my own. So... well worth looking into in your area. Not easy to find, tricky forms to fill in to be accepted, but a great way to start if it works for you,
HTH, Heather
it really is that simple Valerie, that's the neauty of the scheme, it's so easy compared to others ;-)
Shame about the age limit Hayley - we've had this one before, it's as if nobody should even imagine they can work under 18, let alone be self employed :-O One of those daft things about France!
Thanks Andrew. I just put in the earnings and it calculated for me (it was so simple, it makes me worry!!). I'm sure if anyone else expects paying, they'll come knocking on my door.
@Valerie - you just pay the flat rate for your cotisations, nothing else until the fourth year when the CFE (what was taxe professionnelle) kicks in, it'll be between 200 and 2000€ depending on your commune and taxe foncière rate.
@Hayley - if you're tax resident in France then regardless of where your clients are, the AE scheme is for you and I suggest you get registered pronto because it may be frozen, in which case no problem if you're already registered. If it's scrapped then you won't have lost anything either and may be transfered to any amended scheme they come up with. You register as whatever you'll be doing - enseignement supérieur et traduction in my case ;-)
I've just declared my pittance online at Net-Enterprises in the auto-enterprise section. There were two other boxes: DUC (I think) and a Commune thing. Anyone know if I should be paying something to the others as well, or would all my taxes, sociale contributions etc be taken from the AE section? I just work at home, freelance, no employees.
Hi everybody, post just arrived. I have an 'Enquête de satisfaction 2012' in my hand. I looked through it thought how innocuous and anonymous it looks. So, I thought I could fill it in to show my view that URSSAF are all totally incompetent zhombies, etc. Then I noticed such details as a number and a bar code with a numbe on both, thus whilst my name and address is not on the form, the last thing this is is anonymous. Thus people show your contempt politely if you must or the buggers at ACOSS might just pass it on to URSSAF and then life may no longer be as easy. Nothing like being careful...
Quite Suzanne, many people here don't realise how hard it used to be getting into the systems without a CDI. I know from experience and spent hours at the cpam with all sorts of cdd and other contracts trying to cobble something together - it worked in the end but would have been so much easier if the AE scheme had existed back then!
I've signed it & my oh too. Totally agree with Andrew - if you're not already signed up to AE but plan to do so in the near future - don't hang around too long. It certainly has meant us settling in France easily even if we end up changing to a Micro later.
Although I've been banging on about Hollande wanting to scrap it since his statements back in April and earlier, I think it'll end up being frozen meaning everyone here can continue which is why I've tried to push several people into registering before any change comes about!
I have signed and shall twist my OH's arm to do so as well. If AE is scrapped we will be finished, broke in a couple of months.
Yes, I have only just started as one and dont know what I would do if it was scrapped.
Yes, I definetly did. I don’t know what I would do if the AE system was scrapped!
Yes I did - I'm already on minimum wage so can't afford to lose any more if they change the tax system, although I understand some of the arguments on both sides.
I exceeded the turnover for AE and am now un travailleur indépendent. Has anyone 'moved up' and what are the best souces of info/problems/advantages etc? By the way, I'm a translator/proofreader, so prof. libérale.
I'd be interested to know this too, if anyone has experience of this.