In fact I haven’t met anyone yet who wanted to move to France to work harder!

The more laid-back French lifestyle is a great attraction but not all off us come to France to retire. Many of us carry on similar work to what we were doing before. Sometimes the transfer of your profession to France is easy, sometimes less so. The important thing is to sort out as much as possible before you come. If you expect to just turn up in your new French home and stick up a sign saying “builder for hire”, for example, you are going to be in for some grief.

Now I wouldn’t want to put anyone off because getting yourself ready for working in France isn’t a major headache, it just requires a bit of planning and the realization that the rules in France are almost certainly different from where you live now. There are different official bodies for tax and social contributions and these vary depending on what kind of work you do. Even for the French the RSI (the body which governs self employed people), URSSAF (social security, unemployment) and CIPAV (pensions, depending on your trade) are sometimes confusing – and that’s not including your actual income tax, regional tax, local professional business tax, etc. To be fair the French are trying to simplify things but how successful this is has yet to be seen.

Which is why my number one tip for running your own business in France is to get a French accountant. What you pay them should be much less than the money they can save you and that’s without considering the hours and hours of paperwork they will save. It’s important to know who wants a slice of your action and an accountant has the necessary experience to tell you, and when to pay. I strongly suggest a French accountant rather than an English-speaking accountancy services, some of which have dubious reputations. There are quite a few French accountancy firms which have English speaking staff so even if you’re struggling with the language at first there is someone who can help.

If it all sound monstrously complicated don’t be put off – it really isn’t all that bad once you get proper help. Find a good accountant – if you know someone in France who can recommend one, so much the better – get yourself properly registered and away you go.

How much you actually pay in contributions by comparison to where you live now will depend on your country of origin but speaking as an Englishman my overall bills are much the same as when I had my own business in the UK. The balance is different – I pay a lot more in social contributions and less in direct income tax, but the total is very similar.

Yes, the system can be frustrating at times but that’s mostly down to a lack of knowledge when you first arrive – and hence the advice to get professional help as early as possible. On the positive side, the compensations of living and working in France more than make up for it!