British living in France, how do I contract in the UK?

Banking & Financial Tax & Social charges
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I am a British national living in France with a French Limited company, can I work through this in the UK, my role is predominantly remote, with occasional travel to the client site in the UK. What if any are my tax liabilities?

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Welcome @PhilJ !

Others with more knowledge will be along soon, but my understanding is that if you live in France you are liable to pay tax in France, regardless of where you earn the money.

There are some things like UK local authority pensions that are taxed in the UK, but you still have to account for those to the French Impots.

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Thanks Chris - I guess my biggest question is around contract and tax liabilities/risk, but if he pays his tax in France then all is good?

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If you are employed by a French limited company then they are the best people to advise you on the details, but I would think that if you live in France and your employer is French then that’s where all the tax stuff happens!

HMRC in the UK aren’t going to come after you for tax if you are not paid by anybody in the UK, and your main residence is in France.

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Hi @PhilJ

Perhaps I’ve misunderstood, when you say you’re “living in France with a French limited company” do you mean the French limited company is registered in your name or that you are currently an employee of someone else’s company?

PS - welcome to SF :slight_smile:

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Sorry yes, should have been clearer - I have set up a limited company in my name

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Ahh, I see.

In that case, you need to be careful that you don’t fall foul of the salariat déguisé regulation.

In my case, instead of me becoming a contractor who was set up as an AE but who only worked for one client, my employer ended up creating an entreprise sans Ă©tablissement en France.

Perhaps worth looking into in your case too.

Edit: I should’ve linked to the English translation of the TFE site, in case you need to share it with people back in Blighty… It’s The Foreign Firms Service (TFE) - Urssaf.fr

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Thanks Gareth - the TFE is something similar to an EoR?

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Sorry, I’m not sure what EoR stands for.

TFE is a department within URSSAF, specifically for helping foreign firms. Briefly, URSSAF is responsible for collecting social security payments. Their Wikipedia page is here… URSSAF - Wikipedia. TFE helps non-French firms navigate the various processes and procedures that are in place.

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There’s no equivalent to an Ltd in France. So is it a SARL or you set up as an AE? I assume AE given you need an accountant to sort a SARL etc.

How many clients - or more accurately - are there several. The same rules as underpin IR35 apply but without the loopholes. Be wary of an AE with a single client it’s not really acceptable.

Otherwise - there specific bits of legalese that no one reads have to be included on the invoice (in theory there should be a French version as well as an English one).

You can invoice in sterling but your AE declaration has to be in Euros (every quarter) and same for your personal tax declaration. If it’s all done through a French “entity” there’s no UK declaration.

It gets more complicated if you breach the limits for AE/TVa exemptions