I’ve just been through the mind-boggling process of officially becoming an auto-entrepreneur in France. It took me about a month of research and meetings with various people and organisations, but it’s done, I have my SIRET (business ID), and I can officially start entrepreneuring.
There’s really only one 2-page form to fill in online to get yourself started, but it’s no simple task, so I thought I’d write a post for those embarking on the same journey to save you some headaches and reveal the mysteries of the P0 form. For others, you can probably skip this post unless you really have a fetish for French admin talk.
Ok, so if you’ve decided to become an auto-entrepreneur, here we go. To start all you need to do is fill out the P0 form online, and this you can do by going to www.lautoentrepreneur.fr and clicking ‘adhérez au régime’ on the left and then ‘déclarez votre activité’, and ‘déclarez votre début d’activité’.
First you will need to select the area you wish to work in. This should be relatively easy, unless it’s not. If you can’t find what you’re looking for in the list (like translation or tourism activities), scroll right to the bottom and select ‘Je ne connais pas mon domaine d’activité’. I know this isn’t true, I know that you know what you want to do, but they don’t, so just humour them and pretend for two minutes that you don’t either.
In the box below you can type in what it is you really do and add any additional jobs you might undertake. E.g. your main activity can be ‘traducteur’ but you can also add ‘interprète de conference’, ‘relecteur’ and ‘guide interprète’ as secondary activities. Once that’s selected a new page should open up with the form ready to be filled in. At the top you will need to choose what type of profession you are undertaking (‘commercial’ – you buy and sell things, ‘artisanal’ – you create things, or ’libéral’ – you offer services like tour-guiding or translation). If you’re unsure, check what your professional in considered as in France before making the choice (if the online form hasn’t automatically made it for you based on your choice), it’s very hard to change at a later date.
The next bit should be relatively easy if you remember your name, address, place of birth etc. You’ll also have to declare whether you’re undertaking a seasonal or ambulatory activity, and choose a start date. You can pick the date you send your application in, that way whilst it’s being processed you can begin earning. Even though you won’t yet have that all-important SIRET number, you can write your invoices with the mention – “Numéro SIRET: en cours d’attribution”. Good to know.
If your partner or spouse is not participating in the business, you can ignore section 5, otherwise you’ll have to choose whether they’re a joint business owner or registered as an employee. Essentially this means that he/she can share in the less-than-wonderful pension benefits you will have. To calculate exactly what those are you will have to contact the relevant organism – the CIPAV (Caisse Interprofessionnelle de Prévoyance et d’Assurance Vieillesse) for (most) liberal professions, the RSI (Régime Social des Indépendants) for (most) others. Have a read through the lists of professions on their websites to check which one should be covering you, or call them if need be.
Next, the ACCRE. It stands for ‘aide au chômeur créant ou reprenant une entreprise’ (help for the unemployed wishing to create or restart a business). If you’re young enough or unemployed enough then you may well be able to benefit from this tax-reduction offer. In any case you may as well tick the box and fill in the form (Cerfa n°13584*02 to be precise). The worst thing that can happen is that you get rejected and have to pay normal amounts of tax on your earnings, the best outcome is that you get a tax reduction for the first three years of your business, truly something to gloat to your French friends about.
There’s another optional form you can send in with your application, and that’s the EIRL. Filling it in would then make you an Entrepreneur Individuel a Résponsabilité Limitée, or an Individual Entrepreneur with Limited Liability. What this means is that you can declare your assets (any properties or large inheritances you may have to your name), so as to disassociate them from your business ventures and protect them in case of bankruptcy (so I gather, not that I read into it much since I don’t own so much as a car). I have little doubt that this declaration process would involve mounds of proof and paperwork so if you can, skip ticking this box and move on.
As an auto-entrepreneur, you will fall into the micro-social simplifié fiscal category, or micro BNC as it is also called, just to add to the confusion. Again, this is all supposed to make your life simpler, bear it in mind before you start fretting and fuming. You will have to declare your own earnings and calculate your own dues based on a given percentage, but you can choose whether to do it on a monthly or termly basis. The choice will depend on if you’re the kind of person who likes to always be on top of things, keep your paperwork up-to-date and hand in homework before it’s due (then go for the monthly option); or, rather, if your motto is “the less time spent on admin the better” (then I suggest the trimester option for you).
There’s a second tax-related choice to be made, and that’s the option to pay your taxes throughout the year, at the same time as you pay your social dues (pension, health insurance etc.), rather than at the end of the fiscal year. This option is called the ‘versement libératoire de l’impôt’, and there’s a ‘oui’ box to tick if you want to choose it. Again, this is largely a personal choice based on whether you prefer paying sooner or later, although the sum here will be significantly smaller than the ‘cotisation sociale’ we spoke of above. Bizarrely, whether you pay in increments throughout the year or altogether at the end can sometimes have an effect on how much you actually have to pay, as this can also depend on things like whether you pay your taxes as an individual or jointly with your partner. To check out how this can affect your taxes you can try running a simulation on the impots.gouv.fr website, or if you’re feeling patient and have a free morning, you can pay a visit to your local tax office (Centre des Impôts) and have them talk you through the maths.
Last but never least, there’s the question of health insurance. You’ll be asked on the P0 form which health insurance you currently have, and if you’re a newbie in France and not even a student, then pick ‘Autre’ and write ‘sans assurance’. As an auto-entrepreneur, you will have to pick a health insurance regime specifically for the self-employed, and a number of these local organisations will be presented to you in a drop-down menu. France has the benefit of having a strong health system so all of these will provide you with good basic coverage. There is very little difference between them and you’re easiest option is to do a quick search and simply choose the one closest to you which will make your life simpler later on. For more comprehensive health insurance you’ll have to look into getting additional coverage, or a ‘mutuelle’, which you can read more about in a future post on the French health system.
And that’s it! You just need to electronically sign and date the form and send it off with a scan of your passport or ID. Oh yes, and then print those out too, as well as any additional forms (don’t forget your ACCRE and your EIRL if you opted for them), and accompanying documents and proofs, and send those off to the relevant organism whose address you should be given at the end of your online application. I would make photocopies of all of those documents too if I were you and keep them somewhere safe, so that when a couple of weeks later you realise that they’ve been lost in the post, you have a backup ready.
The ingredients are all there, now all you need is patience. Let everything stew for a few weeks, and eventually you should receive a fresh, personalised SIRET number all to yourself. Congratulations, you’re officially an auto-entrepreneur!
A ROUGH GUIDE TO SETTING UP AND SETTLING DOWN IN FRANCE 