One of the restrictions of the ME/AE system is that you must work for more than one client. If you only work for ‘your’ U.K. company you will be considered to be an employee of the U.K. company with all the paperwork and expense that that involves.
We have an Express-U in Roumazierers, and I’ve only recently found out that some items are more expensive than the Super-U in Chabanais. Possibly the Hyper-U in Saint-Junien is the cheapest of the lot.
That’s the one.
To import your car into France you will need:
- a MOT or French CT;
- Certificate of Conformity;
- car purchase invoice;
- headlights & fog lights adjusted.
There are at least a couple of threads in this forum explaining the process in detail.
The Crit’Air certificate may be required - depending upon where you will be driving in France.
Agreed - you can mix and match your income streams but an AE being paid solely through a UK company isn’t a goer - think IR35 the rules aren’t that different.
I still run my UK company and have an AE status - my work outside France is through the Ltd - work in France is via the AE. I do bill between the two - but its a small part of a larger job. All my stand alone jobs are billed via the AE.
You can bill in £ from a multi currency account/ME so most clients don’t even notice unless they read the small print in the footer.
Its not as tax efficient as you think either - I’m closing my UK Ltd this year after 5 years here - doing it again I’d be a French employee of my UK Ltd or just trade via the AE. I came with existing contracts that meant it was simpler to keep my Ltd.
There are a few complications in theory - but there’s ways of managing all that without too much pain
There is no point in getting a Crit Air certificate for your car before registering it in France unless the route to your new home will take you through a restricted town. The certificate stuck on the windscreen displays the registration number so would need replacing once the car was a French registered anyway.
Somebody once said that there used to be a bar in every village and now they’ve been replaced by pharmacies.
I’m in Brittany Ronald - which has the highest concentration of bars in France, and of left-wing voters (no jokes please).
Yes Jane, shorthand. We’ll each establish ourselves as Auto Entrepreneurs. But thanks. (My understanding that under this scheme you pay a fixed tax of, from memory 24%) The rest of the income will come in the form of UK dividends, which carry a fixed tax rate of 30%.
We’ve not bought a house yet; we’ll begin that process in the next month or so hopefully, but may rent for the first six months.
Life Assurance, is simply insurance to cover the mortgage.
Sometimes, I read posts on here and wonder how on earth the French have survived (with longer life expectancy) but then I remember that you can actually buy very good food in France. 
Thanks! I’ve spoken to multiple accountants in the UK and France and no-one has mentioned that! I’ll need to go back and get advice on that.
Thanks Chris,
I definitely need to raise this again. Moving the company isn’t an option; it’s two big and we have employees in the UK. Most of my income will come in the form of dividends (not tax efficient, but simplest) but all the advice I’ve had is to set up as a consultancy, rather than create a payroll in France.
You will recall I mentioned that I only do these ‘care packages’ out of UK when making up to a shipping weight of a box that’s coming anyway.
A friend who had some 50 years experience of FR, including 20 as a full time res, was extolling the ‘much greater choice’ in UK supermarkets.
I was tempted to repeat the put-down on R4 The Food Programme, by the forthright Clarissa Dickson Wright when the chairman of the UK Supermarkets Consortium said the same thing
“Cheap shit!”
He was so discombobulated that she repeated it - louder.
1 Like
Hi. Can I ask how many years documentation do u need in each case? 5 years for bank accounts or wage slips? Thanks, Ben
I’ve only needed my (old) UK wage slips / bank statements for:
- refund from HMRC of UK tax paid;
- completing my first French tax return (French tax year runs from 1st Jan);
- proof of income / assets as part of CdS application.
So I’d say that 1-2 years would be enough, although I usually keep my financial records for 10 years.
1 Like
Thanks for answering my question.
1 Like