Hi all - new by here ,
I am trying to find out what RSI percentage I should be paying, as I have just had a extra payment request for @ 4000€ for 2012. I am on the micro enterprise as an artisan builder.
Also I saw a thread where it was mentioned about being able to claim a percentage of turnover as expenses ?? I may have misunderstood as I thought this was not allowed on the Micro.
Thanks Bram
you're more than welcome, Bram ;-)
Andrew - just wanted to say thank you for your reply. I could not log back in for some reason so it was a while before I made a new account
Bram
If you include postgraduate research, I have been self-employed since 1970. The longest 'job' I had was a three month UN contract, although I have had work that lasted longer but in such cases mainly home based with a while in the field. That entails over 40 countries. I had a house for 20 years (and a few months) in England but lived much of 18 years of that between Germany and Peru. I started doing contract work after about 12 years of the 18. In the UK I did university teaching as well. For a couple of years I taught a bit in Germany. The German aspect saw me having to join their social security system but not tax since I was working on grants. The UK/German stuff was a joint research project between two universities, looking at things in Peru. I consequently have more pension entitlement from Germany than the UK. My last five years in the UK I was partially university teaching in Wales and the rest of it, the majority, contract work as ever which went on until I had been here two years, then mainly dried up.
I have explained that to the RSI, because they asked, and they wanted a list of all the organisations or people I had worked for wherever it was in the world. I gave it to them on the spot and stood there smirking. Then they asked to see all of the contracts. I had them in my folder in another folder, expecting something like that. They sighed, scratched heads, shrugged shoulders, muttered to each other whilst throwing glances at me. My folder was given back to me and I was politely dismissed. I had also done the not having documentation translated by bluffing with the EC Green Paper that day in another room. They then accepted my claim to be a research consultant and that my AE status was granted from their point of view as well as URSSAF and whoever else I had to play silly games with at the time.
Why does it all need to be that complicated? All I wanted to do was earn enough to feed my children and pets, plus a few mouthfuls for myself.
Ha ha, in exactly the same boat as you, Tracy. Just bought my 6th place in France and have rented 5 others too - that's one hell of a lot of moves in not many years, our kids are 6 and 4 so the sums are about the same - they'll fly the nest about the same time as we retire or later if they go the whole bac+5 route :-O
And yes, life is too boring being pigeon holed into a bog standard job ;-)
Allez, en avant !
Because life would be boring if we did the conventional stuff, that's why. I've already started to become staid - lived in the same house now for 6 years - believe it or not, I never lived anywhere that long, not even as a child. Until I quit my job last year, I spent exactly 3 years and 51 weeks in the same job - that is a record as well. I only stuck it so long as I worked alone, never saw my boss and it allowed me to get my AE of the ground at the same time - worked at it during the day when no one came in the cave and I mean no one in the winter.
Plans are afoot with the other half though to sell up, get a boat and drift off into the sunset when the kids leave home - problem is that's another 12 years even if they go at the age of 18 :-( and I will be 60 by then - ekkk. Just hope we've managed to hide save enough money from the RSI.
Glad to know they're looking after you, Brian. I've only ever had silly admin agro with them, they've always paid for everything they're supposed to for me too ;-)
don't even go there, Vic, unless you really have to. Been self employed in the UK and France and there's absolutely no comparison, it's soooooooo easy in the UK compared to France, nothing to do with the language, I've got a masters degree in French from a French university, it's just the system, I deal with everything, French OH says it's way too complicated :-O
AE is so much easier, Mark, I've gone the otherway, from salaried, to AE to a SNC and at times, like Tracy, I wonder why!
I ain't half glad I'm retired. There's no way I could cope with all these abbreviations. I'm sure you folks know what you're talking about but I ain't got a clue.:-) Is it code for the chosen few?
Yes, but because I have had health problems RSI have given me a fair bit of dosh! Each cheque that arrives is welcomed like a long lost friend.
Sorry, Tracy, must be hard being seasonal and yes, sometimes we all ask ourselves why on earth we're self-employed...!
Thanks for the cheerful thought Andrew, especially now it's the end of season with no money coming in till March - makes me shudder thinking about it. Maybe I should just get a job, make life easier.
I'm glad it's not just me! The number of times I have had the discussion about whether to return to the UK or not because of the outrageous demands of the RSI. I've just changed to AE for some relief though a bill has just arrived for 2012. It is endless...! There are moments in the year when I think I'm doing very well and then a bill arrives. I don't know how people make money here....
Barry, my OH is French too and this is the first time she's been self employed here, she get's me to deal with everything as I've already been self employed here before, in the UK too, she's also never left France so doesn't know how much easier it could be!
Brian and Tracy, now I'm an SNC I no longer deal with the URSSAF but depend directly on the RSI and that doesn't make things any better! I presume that had I stayed prof lib and left the system then I'd have gone direct to CIPAV, again no longer needing to pass through the URSSAF, just as I did when employed using the CPAM and OH using the MSA...! Your third year shock could be worse than most, Tracy :-O
It's stories like these that are the reason we turn away work to keep under the AE plafond!
We're seriously thinking of returning to the UK if the AE scheme is changed for the worse. If it was simply a case of high taxes we could probably deal with that but the uncertainty of it all and the stress of waiting for the next bill, hoping it isn't wrong would be too much.
Funnily enough it's my French wife who is most opposed to dealing with the bureaucracy.
Edit: This calculator is about the best one I've found, especially the 6 year simulation (expand the top left menu 'Calculateurs') however, it seems too low to be true... http://www.entrepriseindividuelle.info/Calc_CharSoc.php
Doh, these black squares all look the same to me:-)
Um, I was with CIPAV and paid everything to URSSAF. However, have changed slightly my APE making me Services des Artisanat but when the Chambre de Metiers sent off my paperwork (that they completed) to change me from AS to Entrepreneur Individuele it appears something has gone wrong quel surprise. My accountant has noticed that I have not being paying enough cotisations and have being wrongly billed, therefore will also be due a large bill when they sort it out. So long as they don't charge me the interest on the underpayment, which is what they did to my husband - grr. None of us would be in business if we made the same ---- ups as they do.
The problem is in part that nobody seems to know anything. Go between offices of URSSAF, RSI (meaning different ones of both) and get so many different answers to questions that if you have the great fortune of getting them on paper then you can start raising questions at higher levels. Since I have never, so far, actually ever yet seen any of the toiling over a 'hot' desk, it appears that they simply want a cushy life and avoid any complications (including thinking) for them. We have a friend here who has his own business, one of the usual type insurance concessions, but learned accountancy. He understands the system as well as anybody but will be the first to admit defeat trying to comprehend what the hell they are on about quite often.
That's because no one really knows - it's a mystery to everyone (and I'm talking about the French here!) AE is a doddle, standard schemes are very different. 46/48% is standard, but that's charges sociales, then you get taxed on top of that so can look at paying the state a lot more!
Hi Tracy, Barry and Bram are two different people - doesn't help both being black squares though! CIPAV is for prof libérle via the URSSAF or direct although they wouldn't take ae prof libérale when the scheme started as you know ;-)