Trading in France

[Incepto]

I'm currently helping a friend set up a website

They are based in France, the stock is held in France,and is sold to French customers.

At the moment sales are only made through the French Ebay.

Apparantly business laws here are a lot less strict than in France, and the business just can't survive over there because of some tax that needs paying monthly- about 200 euros I think?

It's not a high revenue business, just something for a bit of extra income, but is not possible to do if it's registered in France.

Is there any way of avoiding this tax by running the business from the UK, say I run it as my own business or something similar.

The only problem is, is that I don't want to register the business in my name and therefore have the responsibility of filling in all the tax returns etc.

Any ideas, or is it best just to register in France?

Thanks!

[liamross]

No theres not any way to avoiding paying tax. You could effectively be the business in the UK, a sole trader. If your friend sends the goods over to you in the UK and you sell them, then the place of supply is in the UK so therefore the french authorities cannot do anything because you selling them has nothing to do with your friend, he has just supplied you the products. but if your friend is a legit french registered business/sole trader, he would still have to pay tax as he is sending the goods out to you, which means he is trading.

If that made any sense, overall no you cannot do anything about it as you would be registered as the business owner and in the long run you would be paying more tax and more expenses in shipments etc.

Cheers

Liam

[Incepto]

Thanks Liam,

Yes, that makes sense. Oh well, it was just a thought. The business will have to be based in France then, and try to survive against the tax over there.