Daughter working as a teacher ‘freelance’ , registered as AE, has siret number & does monthly returns. Earns approx 900 pm. Being taxed at 27% per month. Seems a lot to me??
Comments appreciated
regards
Is this mainly cotisations? As for prof liberale it will be 24.6% just for social charges.
Apologies but I’ve never worked here so I have no idea what cotisations are. I just do not understand why she pays high taxes on not a high income? Is it because she is covered for health or penion? Regards
France is a country with high social security contributions, and the self employed are quite hard hit. But one has to remember that France also has universal state healthcare, some of the highest state pensions in Europe, generous maternity, paternity, childcare, and family benefits, and protections for long-term illness, disability, and unemployment.
The help available to people can be remarkably good.
Personally I am happy to live in a country where there is a functioning social care and health system.
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It’s about right if she elected to pay actual income tax as well as the other contributions (loosely like UK PAYE). This means she won’t have anything further to pay on those earnings when completing the annual tax return.
@MyfriendLouis you are correct that actual income tax she is below the starting point for if that figure x12 is her calendar year full income.
However as JaneJones says, like quite a few other countries, as well as income tax there are other deductions for social charges= cotisations. Those do kick in at lower salary levels even if the minimum has not been earned, to pay income tax.
As she’s freelance so income may vary, it’s probably a good idea for her to keep track of all her expenses for work in case she does find herself earning more and needing to set them against tax depending on which tax regime she may come under. Also when she has time she could also look into any allowances or sponsorship she could claim eg business development or training costs.
France does take a lot, but also can give but it seems to work that the person needs to keep up to date themselves about things they can apply for.
We find this all the time with our local artisans. Sometimes they don’t cash our cheques for months and it’s because they don’t want to cross an income threshold.
It’s not only the artisan / AE who has to keep a close watch but also the writer of the cheque! Otherwise a few months down the line there can be a nasty shock!
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That explains a lot. This has happened to us twice recently when long forgotten cheques have been cashed. Now I understand why. Thanks for clearing that up.
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For some regimes this may be the case but AE/micro entreprise doesn’t really work like that. Cotisations are a flat rate of turnover, there is no barème. Although they may delay cashing the cheque simply in order to delay paying their cotisations by another quarter. But in fact I think most artisans are not AE.
If she is registered as an AE/micro entrepreuse then she pays cotisations, i.e. social taxes, at a flat rate of turnover. You may think that twenty-odd per cent of turnover (which for the average business equates to around 45% of profit) is high, but that is how it is in France. If she earned twice or three times as much her cotisations would be twice or three times as high because they would still be the same percentage of turnover.
Depending on her personal circumstances she may be eligible for the prime d’activité. Google ‘CAF prime d’activité’ to see the eligibility conditions.
How does your daughter view this?
Many thanks to all that sent information. I appreciate that cost are higher here & why. Just trying
to understand!
regards
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