oh no we're agreeing again.. I agree with Brian on this!
Finn, I am not so sure they consider it a threat, as much as the 'wrong class' of people have done it en masse. If it had been the 'nice' middle class artists, craftsmen and women and their like it would have been fine, but the diversity has stunned the system and they have many, many more times the number originally anticipated. Now the understaffed and not exactly competent authorities who have to run the scheme are at odds with each other because they are never sure who is responsible for what and if they are try to avoid taking it because of overwork anyway. The government people, politicians and senior civil servants both, should have looked at neighbouring countries to see how their schemes work. Indeed in France's present closest friend they almost welcome each new self-employed person into the working world with 'incentives'. Many of my German friends cannot understand why I describe such a mess here when for them it is often easier than having an employer as long as the paperwork and accounts are well kept. Here they demand we keep accounts but then how often does anybody look at them? So, it is something that needs not abolition as Hollande's lot are proposing but total reorganisation top to bottom and a dedicated department with adequate staff to run it.
Dear Finn,
Thank you fro such a concise piece. I have pasted into a text Doc for future reference. I, like many, after a long 'gardening leave,' am having to contemplate becoming an AE at the age of 60, to balance the ravages of inflation, the exchange rate, and like many, the depletion of a Pension Pot by some 50%.
I'm not moaning, but would prefer to focus on 'what to do' rather than' how to administer.' Thanks again.
Yet another proposal, this time aimed at builders who are working as Autoentrepreneurs, M Jean Louis Christ wants the Autoentrepreneur régime to be limited to two years for those in the building trade. Full report in French from FEDEAE: http://www.federation-auto-entrepreneur.fr/auto-entrepreneur/actualite/2011/12/16/actualite-alerte-les-d-put-s-veulent-limiter-le-r-gime-de-l-auto-entrepreneur-2-ans.html
Hee, hee! My french friends already think I am radical enough by being self employed!
I think your radical AE party could be gaining ground here Brian, Tracy are you up for it (the party I mean!)
Bravo Finn, yes French AE friends will agree 200% with that. As for prosperity, which is a dream at present at best for the self-employed, as system that virtually prohibits it is as self-destructive as anything could be and has the potential for driving French innovators to leave their country. We have seen that elsewhere and time to wake up or go down the proverbial pan.
Very well put Finn, it drives me potty when people have a go at AE's saying their charges are cheaper and that's why they undercut 'proper artisans'!
yes very true they're all tared with the same brush (including my sister in law who deserves it!!!) and yes private schools get state subsidies, my OH is paid by the agricultural ministry but they've just threatened to close the school next year and she'll be out of a job - if they were closing a state school and she was a fonctionnaire they couldn't sack her and would have to find her another post or leave her at home and pay her (which does happen believe me and that's why there's so much bitterness)
Yes, that's true and I see your point. However, I feel that a lot of good work is tarnished by the label fonctionnaire, particularly in the field of healthcare.
Functionnaire include all teachers in state schools but not private schools, even if paid by the ministry! Doctors are usually independant etc... "civil servant is the acknowledged term as they are paid by the state to do a function hence fonctionnaire, BTW many Uni profs aren't functionnaire either often more than half the staff are vacatairse or prestataires de service ! but we could go on for ages here - it was just to give the over all idea ;-)
Yeah, but fonctionnaires include all the teachers, university profs, public hospital workers, and not just the tax collectors and local bureaucrats..... So not quite the same as a UK civil servant.
Andrew - let's start a radical AE party with a paysan core. That would scupper the whole bloomin' lot of them. I love French politics with all its contradictions and any contribution to that would fit in just nicely.
Yes, you too, mouths and all and right now ain't the best time to be in this leaky boat. My children's duals are their insurance in a way, so that if at least the younger can follow me into British higher education, esp through Cantab connections, if the tutorial scandal is ended then I shall encourage her. British qualifications fortunately transcend gender issues better than some other countries where people say 'oh but women only study soft options' (because men are gatekeepers and prefer to keep the 'girls' out) where all faculties and departments have at least opened an even playing field in the UK. Otherwise not much earthly use.
@Emily - I've past the 5 years residency but I think you only need 2 as you say as you're married (I'm not neither are we pacsés and our kids, like yours and Brian's no doubt, theoretically have dual nationality). as for christmas parties - christmas day with anything up to 30 round the table is enough for me although they aren't too bothered about the whole Europe thing so I don't get too much "hassle", most of the time they all forget I'm English which is nice!)
@Brian, my father in law is supposedly retired but still works full time on the farm, my Dad's 73 and only just talking about retiring. I'm struggling too to get enough years between the UK and France for something at the end of the day, I've come to the conclusion that I need to do it myself as at this rate there won't be anything left in the pot at the end of the day anyway. Your situation must be infuriating regarding Lehman Bros and with a 4 and 2 year old I know a little about the worries of assuring their future: four muths to feed and all that, then studies (punished for starting late? who cares!)
à +
With you Andrew there too. If the UK pulled out I would look at the ancient 'auld alliance' pact between the Scots and French and claim exile until changing nationality. I can get Swiss like that because of my wife and both children being dual nationals but personally I am far more pan-European than being CH would allow.
As for retirement, well I am already 63 with a much younger OH and young children. Lehman Bros legged it with my private one and working for non-stipendiary grants and so on for years I was exempted so have little in the way of pension to wait for. People say 63 and STILL working, shock, shock and yet here I am surrounded by farmers in their 80s and so on who can do no other than work their pensions are so meagre. I'll have to schuft and until verpufft, as those of us who mix languages and metaphors would say.
Not too bothered about working into my 60s and 70s either but would like to have some time to do what I want (like you with kids it's often difficult!) OH's school has been threatened with closure at the end of the year and the crisis isn't helping me either - we're looking at buying a tabac-presse, the only type of small shop that still seems to be able to make a profit but it'll mean selling the house and everything to then work 7 days a week...!
You can set up as an AE in anticipation of business - that's what I did in April 2009 and continued working on the existing teaching contracts I had until the end of the university year (2009) then in the September/October I started invoicing as an AE. with the delays in getting paid (up to 6 months with the uni!) I didn't declare any income until my third trimestre so I think it could be worth doing.
Yes France is a very "no you can't" country where as the UK is more "go on then, have a go and see" and before anyone reads this and starts on again about "France bashing" it couldn't be further from the truth - we're looking for ways to earn a living and I for one will never be moving back to the UK - the thought of the UK pulling out of the EU has pushed me into enquiring about being naturalisé français !
Ha ha Brian - sooo true!
A French president keeping a promise? Emily, have you been reading fairy tales recently?
Oh yes, Andrew's response and especially the RSI applies to my wife and I too. An anthropologist and sociologist who work as international consultants for NGOs and UN agencies, who are paid in foreign currency (mainly US$) and do much of their work outside France anyway are viewed with suspicion and scepticism as it is. RAM, RSI, etc jump about with bags of excuses for not having us but are stuck with us because nobody else will have us and there is no coordinating authority to tell any of these chaotic government agencies what they MUST do and who they MUST accept. Boring at times but can also be immensely amusing at others. We have 'read all the contradictions' days sometimes if we are a little bored!
but the country runs on jealousy - with so many systems it's not surprising CPAM, MSA, RSI, CIPAV (who refused to take AEs at the outset which is why I'm with the RSI evern thoush I'm a profession libérale!) etc. and as for brother in law who's always taking the piss out of sister in law who's a fonctionnaire while he works 60 hours a week plus... there's no level playing field so jealousy will always be there, why should a train drivers, primary school teachers etc retire at 55 when we're told we need to work until we're 65 plus, it'll soon be 70 at this rate!
Most of the others can't become AE as their turnover is too high, it is also not viewed as being as "professional" as the more standard regimes - man from the chambre des metiers confirmed that in a talk the other day: example - I teach at Uni as a vacataire, was a prestataire de service but they won't accept AEs doing that anymore and they will only accept AEs as vacataire who have been trading for at least three years - the scheme opened in 2009! My head of dept has haggled for months and finally got them to accept me based on everything else I do as a main job. Unfortunately I don't think the AE scheme is out of the woods yet. If Hollande gets in he's already said he wants to more or less scrap the scheme as it is today and make AEs pay the standard cotisations which will drive at least half of AEs out of business. They can't ease up on business without finding the money from somewhere else - France is a great country to live in but it costs a fortune to run and we all have to pay for that (except expats who retire here having earnt their income in a far easier/more generous system - jealous or what!)