It’s always been said that France is not “digital nomad” friendly. Yet I came across this recently. It seems that you can work remotely while on a VLS-TS visa?
Seems pretty “Digital Nomad” friendly to me 
I’m probably missing something - I usually do.
I think “digital nomads” are usually freelancers who work for more than one client - they are not employees. That infographic seems to me to be about people who are directly employed by one specific firm outside France?
OK, I am sure that someone who wanted to work remotely could set up a UK company and work via that - clearly they would have to be careful to be an employee not a director but odds are it can be done to be within the above definitions..
However I always thought this was completely impossible.
This is a positive spin on the Ministry of the INTERIOR Statement - note that it was not endorsed by the fisc.
So the devil is in the detail. Yes according to this people here on a visitor visa can work for foreign employers and live in France. However should you become fiscally resident then you will have to file your tax declaration and pay any necessary taxes and social charges. And may well then find URSSAF breathing down your neck for cotisations.
So it really would only apply in very narrow circumstances - such as someone here for less than 6 months - and should not be seen as a lifetime approach. Needless to say many will, think this gives them carte blanche, and many will be fine. But there will be some who get extremely badly stung when URSSAF and the fisc catch up with them.
(If you run a UK company from France you could well be hit with Corporation Tax)
Oh, it always is
But I’m suddenly wondering if my employer would mind me doing, say, six months remote and telephone work just after I retire - it could be very profitable for me.
You’d definitely have to set things up so that you were an employee so I don’t think you could successfully do that and be considered as “running” the company. But perhaps with the right client load and a couple of mates to do the actual running it could fly. As you say narrow circumstances perhaps.
Maybe, but note you will have no health cover, no accident protection, nomprofessional insurance possibly or any of the other things that come with a proper French job.
You need to sort health insurance anyway for VLS-TS don’t you?
And your UK employer should cover any liability for clients in the UK (or wherever). I can’t see how you could incur liability in France working remotely (waiter trips over your leg while you have your laptop on the bistro table perhaps?).
Who said I was after a proper French job
I think the point is that it isn’t a French job - it’s a “wherever” job where you just happen to be on French soil when doing it. It was mainly that I’d always believed (based mainly on SF conversations but also on a bit of checking French government sites) that you couldn’t do actual work on French soil without incurring French tax and social charges - but this suggests that you could.
I can see you are getting quite excited about this bulletin - and why not! It seems very doable - you could have someone else be the company director, even if anyone in France would notice - because you would be on PAYE for that company. I did that for some work I did for my old employer after retiring - tax free money for using up my unused personal allowance. Adjust your PAYE as benefits yourself and dish out the remains as dividend payments. (I think you can have shares in the company without being a director).
Or even receive contributions into a personal pension paid by the company - then withdraw in one lump sum in France at 6.5% - what I did with my remaining funds in the company.
And register as self employed also just to get the (voluntary) Class 4 NIC’s.
And if you did play it right, you can get an S1 as a ‘frontalier’. (Who’s going to check your actual pattern of travel?)
Tax wise, just declare the employment income in France and receive the tax treaty credit. Employment income minus NI and minus your own pension contributions.
Only caveat is you’d have to ensure a minimum income for the visa ??
There is quite a bit of frenzied argument about in tax circles, as a strong social security emphasis that people who are physically in France should contribute to the system.
Intrigued rather than excited.
Which is something that I have a lot of sympathy with.
But if the rules fall out in your fvour why not exploit them.
It has indeed caused a lot of excitement and not sure it helped much versus confuse as you can be in the slighly wierd position of - for immigration not being seen as working in france - whilst for tax purposes you are resident and have to pay tax. Which doesnt make a lot of sense and is not joined up thinking at all.
I tend to say “talk to an immigration lawyer” on this as its all well and good in year 1 - then when you are proving your income for visa/permit renewals it comes out you were working remotely but phsycially in France - I can almost see the bureaucracy going “hmmmm”.
Don’t umbrella companies in the UK do that? I detest them but Giant in the UK were good at that. That way you’re not a Director.
I thought of mentioning them, and then thought why not just have your own ‘umbrella’ company.
You presumably need a couple of trustworthy collaborators but if you have that I would have thought it a good idea.
I just remembered, remember IR35 (though with your comment on right client load you seem aware). It was never an issue for me, because I never took dividends. I did do the HMRC IR35 checker - it came up as ‘not employment’ for me. Detail is in the contract I suppose.
There is a definition of ‘close company’ though so e.g. wife a director - it’s still a close company for you (I think).
In some ways this is “reverse IR35” because you want to be seen as an employee not an independent contractor.
“you want to be seen as an employee not an independent contractor.”
Yes, not difficult to do with HMRC !
Recommend you read The Local’s most recent article on all this. Verified directly with govt officials and immigration attorneys. May have to subscribe to access: https://www.thelocal.fr/20260625/digital-nomads-french-government-clarifies-rules-on-remote-working
Can you summarise the key points? I don’t subscribe to The Local since their journalism is often completely wrong, but perhaps this time they have written something worth reading.
Which government department did they clarify with? I hope not just ministry of the interior as that’s where this started.
This is the actual written answer which leaves so much open to question
https://www.assemblee-nationale.fr/dyn/17/questions/QANR5L17QE11730.pdf
