That’s because you don’t ask the right questions. I live here and operate my computer from here and travel to UK as well. I don’t see anyone in person here. But the tax people know that too. Before jumping you need to ask questions and how far I have come into the French system, and also how short a time I have been here, and that my priority is to let clients know where I live. Please calm down and ask questions before the give the right answers to the wrong questions. Nothing is hidden from the authorities, they know more than you do. I hope that I am not the subject of a detective story …
Brenda Crowther
You have just mentioned the critical thing without understanding it’s importance. You physically sit in France and work on the Internet. As far as the French tax authorities are concerned you are working in France, a French resident working in France. If you are working for your U.K. registered company while sitting in France the company has responsibilities. Anna is much more knowledgable about this than me so perhaps she can fill in the details.
The French authorities only know more than me if they have been given all of the details not just an edited highlights.
I do not cheat the system Dan. I do not work on the black. My taxes are paid already. The authorities know full well what I do and it does not come under a private enterprise. It is they who have given me my designation. I suggest that you rest for Christmas and cease giving advice when you don’t have the full story, and also I haven’t told it to you. I don’t intend to. I intend to use the French tax authorities and a private consultant to whom i can confide my business details. The website which is an advertisement for the kind of work I do, in no way relates to my tax situation. I also intend to come off this site because it is not helpful and full of people who actually know an awful lot, because of their experience here, which I hoped to benefit from, but do not seem to communicate it simply and clearly to a newcomer. Moreover, they give answers to questions which are not actually asked. I did not initially ask about my tax situation, I asked another entirely different question. But everyone pitches in with their own stuff and a great entanglement results of different opinions.
With regards to the question I actually asked, I got fed up of the replies, and asked a French person and got a straightforward answer which I was able to follow through in a simple manner.
Please do not communicate further.
Brenda Crowther
I am using the facts as presented. I repeat, the French tax authorities consider working on the internet while physically present in France is working in France wherever your clients are. For your company to operate in France it has to be set up to do so.
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Stop it Dan! And respect the words of the Lady. I don’t want your opinion, give it up, go away, and stop calling things facts when you don’t know anything about what you see!
Now go away!!
Brenda Crowther
Yes, please stop it Dan. I would be sad to loose a member for this, as we are neither tax nor immigration authority. The info has been provided and it’s up to Brenda what she does with it.
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Hi Brenda
Please can you tell us what the “straightforward answer” was… ??? 
I will tell you in the future, Stella. But I feel that if I give you this information at the current time, it will start a whole new discussion from reactions on this website, many, but not all, without reflection. I have not liked all the by-ways that people have followed in relationship to my first question, nor the copying in of my website for my information, when I know what is on it. I have decided to go with my present direction. When all is completed I will tell you, and will stay with this site for the time being until I have correct and clear information (and results) to offer. I’m sure you’ll be alright with this but it may test the patience of more reactive members.
Happy Christmas to you …
Brenda Crowther
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I have followed this thread and now see that Brenda has dipped out as she is not happy with the honest advice freely given because it didn’t tell her what she would have liked to hear.
I have also scanned through her website and what she offers. Hmmm!
Seems to me that if you dont adopt the Jung way then there is no way. I think I’ll pass.
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Must admit I found this thread slightly odd - as I don’t pay tax in France I only have the most cursory understanding but I did look at the tax implications of renting the house out and I think Dan is quite correct - if physically located in France while carrying out business activities then you are operating a business in France even if the client is in the UK, the consultation via Skype and the fee deposited in a UK account.
So, it is unfortunate that Brenda wishes to stick her head in the sand on this one because, if she wants to continue to live in France post you-know-what, it might well bite her in the backside. I imagine it could be quite a large can of worms that needs opening - not just business registration but qualifications as well.
I also think Jane was a bit out of order - telling Dan to “stop it” because Brenda doesn’t want to listen to/doesn’t like correct advice.
That said I think Jane’s observation that “The info has been provided and it’s up to Brenda what she does with it” is reasonable - we can’t make people listen to or act on advice - for instance I know one SFer who is still mulling over rather than acting on the advice he received about the SAUR regard on his property 
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Thanks for that Paul. I’ve come across a few people from the states who have refused to believe that sitting at a computer in France, often while on holiday, dealing with American clients living in America for an American company could be considered to be working in France. It was only when faced by real examples and the steep fines that they took the notion seriously.
When Jane made her comment I thought it was out of order but upon reflection I thought perhaps she was making a valid point. We had taken the horse to water there was no longer any need to repeat the same message.
I hope that the OP does get her tax situation regularised not only to avoid the aforementioned fines but, as Paul has hinted, it’s best to avoid putting any unnecessary obstacles in your way if you’re hoping to prove that you qualify for a CdS to allow you to stay in France.
Thing is it’s not at all black and white. If a sole trader operates across three countries, as this one does, the tax authorities have to agree between themselves where the activity will be taxed - they’re not going to expect you to apportion your liability between the three countries.
What’s unusual is that if one lives in a country and carries out “significant” business activity there, that’s normally the country where your sole tradership is considered domiciled, since it’s where you yourself are resident and by default your business lives where you live. So it all depends how they define “significant”. It may well be that the French and Swiss tax authorities have agreed that there is no significant business activity in their country and essentially the business is carried out in the UK. But that being the case, it seems to be tempting fate to give the impression on the website that the business is actually based in France.
I have seen first hand cases where the French tax office has used what a business says on its website to argue that that business should be paying taxes in France.
Which is true, but I’m not sure how much Brenda works/has worked in Switzerland - while she claimed to in this thread her website clearly suggests that she is now based in France and it previously claimed she was based in Bexhill-on-Sea; the switch having been been between March and April 2018 (the first version of her website that mentions the move being the one from April 21 last year, the version from March 26 stating Bexhill). When Switzerland is mentioned it is more as a location that she received training, than practised psychoanalysis.
It could easily be that Brenda actually has it all sorted but, in trying to keep details private has given us half the story and left us confused, however, I have a feeling that when the French tax authorities said that they were “happy about my continuing to pay tax in UK for the moment” it might be because they erroneously thought that the business activity that produced taxable income was based in the UK.
It does sound as though she has engineered a complex situation for herself - I genuinely hope that she has it/gets it all straightened out with both CPAM and the French impôts.
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@anon14704272 Thank you, I really did think that it had been said clearly and didn’t meed repeating.
I do not consider Tournus close to the Swiss Border.
We live half an hour from Macon and an hour from Tournus.
If you are in France when you are working on the internet you pay tax here.
Simples!
So according to your simplified rules, if you work on the internet in France you pay tax in France.
But if next week you go to the UK and spend the next few weeks working there, giving consultations and invoicing clients, where do you pay tax on that?
It’s simples if ALL your work is done in France but as said above, it’s not so simples if you work in different countries. All kinds of factors come into it. You have to look at each country’s rules, you have to look at tax conventions, and sometimes you can’t find a clear answer and you have to ask the tax authorities to make a decision.
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France considers that work carried out in France should be taxed in France. For a French resident with a business in France it is inconceivable to believe that the work carried out in France could be taxed elsewhere. The work carried out elsewhere is a red herring.
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But Dan, you have to look at all sides not just France, and you just don’t have enough facts to know how UK tax rules will be applied.
Have you read the UK residency rules? If you don’t completely cut your ties with the UK, it’s not easy to escape HMRC’s clutches.
"You’re automatically non-resident if either:
- you spent fewer than 16 days in the UK (or 46 days if you have not been classed as UK resident for the 3 previous tax years)
- you work abroad full-time (averaging at least 35 hours a week) and spent fewer than 91 days in the UK, of which no more than 30 were spent working"
The person in question is probably not automatically non-resident.
They don’t appear to work full-time abroad.
They could easily have spent more than 16 days in the UK.
Therefore there is a chance that HMRC will consider them tax resident.
So are you saying they should ignore UK law? That’s not how it works. If HMRC has a claim on you then you can’t just ignore them and call them a red herring. Well you can but it could wind up expensive.
Why on Earth are you showing me gov.uk information? I’ve been talking about a French resident with a French business working in France.
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Because she also works in the UK, which means hmrc is also involved which potentially changes the picture.
If a UK resident spent a few hours a month working at home on their compter, but earned the majority of their income running a practice from their office in France, would you say ‘what has that got to do with the fisc’?
You really do have to take all the factors into account.