In common with other EU governments, the French authorities have been waging war on the black economy for years, trying everything they can to prevent people paying for goods and services with cash ‘under the table’, meaning that taxes aren’t paid.
Of course there are laws and punishments for those caught tax dodging, but there are also some positive initiatives to encourage people to declare their earnings. Two of these are of particular interest for newcomers to France who want to do casual work or set up small (even part-time) businesses but are not confident about navigating French bureaucracy alone.
The first of these initiatives, the Chèques Emploi Service Universel (CESU) provides a really simple structure for declaring casual part-time employment in the domestic service sector.
The jobs that fall into this classification include working in private houses doing general housework, domestic spring cleaning, ironing, light gardening, baby-sitting, helping with computer problems, washing windows, giving private lessons, doing small DIY tasks like putting up shelves, dog walking, helping with homework, providing companionship for handicapped and/or older people and sorting the pc.
It is also possible to work with associations and other businesses supplying the same type of services.
The scheme does not cover live-in au pairs or professional services such as secretarial work (other than helping people sort out their domestic administrative papers and writing letters on their behalf), hairdressing, translating, installing or mending domestic equipment or professional building work.
If you are not sure whether or not your proposed activity falls within the scope of the CESU, it is worth dropping in at the local ANPE (French Jobcentre) and asking them.
Once you’ve checked that your idea is viable, the rest is simple. You find work by asking around, placing small adverts in the local press, putting up cards on the noticeboards in supermarkets, advertising on the web or whatever else you can dream up. Always mention chèque emploi service on the adverts so that prospective clients understand the offer.
With a little luck, you can build up a roster of clients all of them paying you via the CESU. Once you have worked for more than 60 hours a month for two months, or have worked for more than 120 hours in the last three months, you automatically become eligible for social security including retirement pension, maternity leave, sick pay and, all importantly, medical insurance. See www.ameli.fr for more information. The site has pages in English.
In detail, the system works like this: once you find someone who wants you to clean their windows/baby-sit their kids or whatever, your prospective employer goes to their bank and asks for a demande d’adhésion au chèque emploi service universel bancaire. This is a simple form which they fill in and return to their bank. In due course they are then issued with a special CESU cheque book which they use to pay you.
They write out the cheque and give you the top copy to pay into your bank account. Your employer then sends the copy underneath to the CESU office where your contributions are calculated. The other copy they keep for their records.
You then receive a pay slip through the post from the CESU office – which you need to prove your income to the authorities and which you use to make your income tax declaration at the end of the year – and your employer in turn receives a notification of your social security contributions which are then automatically deducted from your employer’s bank account a couple of months later.
At the end of the year, the employer receives a statement of all the contributions he/she has made which can then be used to claim a tax deduction against their annual income tax.
The advantages to the employee are obviously enormous but the advantages to the employer are also substantial: the tax deduction means the cost of employing you via the CESU is actually less than paying cash under the table; the employer is within the law; and of course their employee is properly insured for health and safety when at work.
Hourly rates are negotiated between the employer and the employee but obviously can’t be lower than the nationally set minimum wage SMIC (salaire minimum interprofessionnel de croissance) which is currently €8.44 (£6.37) an hour.
There is only a legal requirement for a work contract if the worker is to be employed for more than four consecutive weeks a year. But since the application form for a cheque book includes a very simple blank contract, it is probably as well to use it. At least that way both parties understand the agreement.
Declared salary
A second way of simplifying the process of working for yourself is commonly called portage salarial – which essentially means establishing a contract with an umbrella company who will turn your freelance earnings into a declared salary.
Up until the beginning of this year it was a slightly grey area, and suffered from an unfairly shady reputation. Since the ratification of new employment laws on 11 January however, it has been officially recognised as a legal way of organising freelance work, and is set to become increasingly mainstream.
The French government even specifically stated that this system of working was ideal for older people wishing to work part time in the capacity of adviser or consultant. It is therefore an ideal solution for anyone seeking to earn enough money in France to become eligible for health-care insurance.
This option covers all sorts of professions including party and event planning, editing, marketing, life coaching, hairdressing, estate agency, design, consultancy, journalism, interior decorating, restoration of artworks... the list is very long.
Says Zoë Pritchard, of Challenge & Co: ‘If an activity is in the intellectual sphere, there’s always a solution.’
Certain professions however are not permitted to work this way: dieticians for example, legal advisers and architects. There are also some grey areas. For example, someone managing a B&B company or looking after someone else’s second home, could work this way but someone running a B&B by letting out a couple of spare rooms in their own home could not.
Portage companies tend to specialise in certain fields. Challenge & Co, for example, specialise in activities such as IT and translation, although they do also handle other types of work. Others specialise in hairdressing, engineering, security, etc.
To get started, you sign a contract with an umbrella company – a société de portage – who also supplies you with blank contracts that you can present to your clients. The umbrella company doesn’t find you work, or advertise your services; you do that for yourself.
Once you’ve got some work, you then do it, bill your clients and send the cheques to your umbrella company. They deal with all the paperwork and send you a ‘salary’ and a pay slip at the end of the month: ie the money you have earned minus your contributions and a small cut for the umbrella company. Roughly speaking you end up with approximately 50 per cent of the money you have made.
At the end of the year, you don’t have to struggle with complicated accounts – you simply use your pay slips to make out your income tax declaration in the same way as every other employee in France.
The advantage is that you don’t have to understand or deal with your social security contributions, health-care insurance, retirement pension, VAT, or anything else. The company does it all for you, leaving you free to find work and earn money.
Another advantage is that, unlike being the boss of your own independently established company, you only pay contributions on money you have already earned. If you don’t earn anything, you don’t pay anything.
Another advantage of this system is that you are not confined to working only in France. You can use this system even if you have clients all over the EU, so it is ideal for freelancers with international contacts.
You can set this system up while you’re searching for clients and it shouldn’t cost you anything before you start earning. The Fédération Nationale du Portage Salarial has a list of members on its site which might be a useful place to start looking for an umbrella company.
All of which means it’s easier than ever before to live and work in France.
Fact file
For more information on chèques emploi visit:
www.cesu.urssaf.fr
www.servicesalapersonne.gouv.fr
www.travail.gouv.fr/dossiers /remuneration/cheque-emploi-service-universel/cheque-emploi-service-universel-mode-emploi-2549.html
www.particulieremploi.fr
There are sometimes job offers paid by chèques emploi via the ANPE (L’Agence Nationale pour l’Emploi) website: www.anpe.fr or go to one of their offices
For more information on portage salarial:
www.guideduportage.com
A handy guide to the system:
www.fenps.fr
Fédération Nationale du Portage Salarial:
www.freelanceinfrance.com
Challenge & Co, (English)
www.eca-assurances.com
A mutuelle or top-up health insurance company especially for people working via portage salarial
When searching for clients, try www.offres-emplois-stages.com which has links to all sorts of work-related sites
And finally. . .
The CESU cheque book is free
When looking for work paid by CESU, you are allowed to place advertisements in supermarkets, shops, local newspapers and magazines and in fact wherever else takes your fancy
There is no need for a SIRET Number (which is usually needed if you are advertising a small business)
Advertisements must be in French, although they may contain English translations