France, it seems, is full of jump coaches ready to encourage your free enterprise. Fonctionnaires, accountants, politicians, bankers, more fonctionnaires … but you can be sure that not one of them has ever been self-employed. They simply want to ensure that you pay your taxes and, hopefully, employ people who also pay their taxes but whether your business succeeds or ends in ruin is neither here nor there.

“Well you should allow for around 35% of your earnings to be deducted,” he crowed from inside his crisply ironed shirt.
“Fair enough,” I replied, trying not to sound too pathetic, “but I appear to be paying between 50 to 60%?”
“Ah yes, well.”
And then he gave me one of those famous disregarding Gallic shrugs, linguistically translated into English to mean “I’m glad I’m not you”.
Festive celebrations that year were understandably low-key. Soon after the children had un-wrapped their Yuletide lumps of coal and gorged themselves on beans-on-toast with all the trimmings, I was forced to visit the bank manager to plead for that very un-French of financial facilities: credit. Yes, I was going to have to borrow money just to pay my taxes!
How was this possible? I wasn’t lacking in clients or turnover. I was being paid by a client to commute from my home in Strasbourg to the UK every month. In any other Western economy this would have assured my survival but, in France, the sudden devalued pound coupled with a drop in earnings was going to result in a net outflow of cash from me to Monsieur le President until the end of the year; leaving me, and my family, with practically nothing to live on.
The underlying issue to my predicament was the Travailleur Indépendant system. Although to describe it as a “system” would suggest it hadn’t been conceived by someone with a sub-zero IQ and a dark sense of humour, because, under this harebrained scheme, you’re required to pay your dues before what you owe has even been determined.
It’s not unlike paying your electricity bill by direct-debit three months before you receive the bill, only to find that it’s been wildly over-estimated. Unlike EDF payments however, earning estimates cannot be corrected before the end of the following financial year. Meaning the state gets to hold on to your money for up to two years while you struggle to survive.
I soon worked out that only with a guaranteed stable or growing monthly income was I going to make it work; and once I’d realised this was impossible – I shut up shop.
Today, I have five successful years under my belt working as a Portage Salarial; the self-employed scheme that my jump coach should have recommended all those years ago, but didn’t. And therein lies the problem: there are sixteen recognised ways to work for yourself in France but no one seems motivated to help you choose the right set up.

Let me know how you get on.
Freelance in France 2015 by Barth Hulley is available to buy on www.lulu.com or in Kindle format on Amazon. Visit www.freelanceinfrance.fr for more information.