3 month stay in France?

[Ofallthebarsinalltheworld]

Hi, not sure if this is the right place to post. Basically we are thinking of staying in France for 3 months over the winter (all being well covid wise)

We have our own business so can work from anywhere. We have a supervisor who can run the on the ground bits.

Dd is homeschooled so that would continue in France.

I have itchy feet and after covid feel like I/we need an adventure. It would be a fabulous opportunity and life experience.

We would cut or cloth and save like mad to cover the 3 months and rent out our home as a holiday home to cover our Bill's here.

Am I mad? Is this possible?

All opinions/thoughts welcome 😊

Thanks averylongtimeago 😊

makingmammaries to us it's something different a life experience. I am not expecting dd to mix with other children but if she does then great. We all speak French so not sure about language barrier. We are very much open minded people so if we integrate or not that's life. We have experience of moving from a city to an extremely rural area and how people can be so it wouldn't be a shock. I would have no intention of "Rocking up to France" and not paying taxes if need be. I will email my accountant for advice on tax. And I don't work for a UK company, I own the company. Many thanks for your post.

Hi, you should be able to find other home edders in France. It's been a long time since I was in that world but I remember a strong European contingent at HES FES, for example. There would be occasional reports from other countries coming through on the YAHOO groups etc. It would be worth contacting Education Otherwise and generally putting out feelers. Go for it! If you can make it work it sounds great plan.

You could join a home swap site. So you’d swap homes with someone in France who wants to come to UK. There are various clubs/sites like lovehomeswap

www.theguardian.com/travel/2015/dec/07/10-best-home-swap-home-sharing-websites

An article on it.

hunneylove thank you 💐

And you have hit the nail on the head. We don't have expectations or grand plans we just want to go and experience the good and not so good. It's all learning and memories 💖

Since you own the company, you’ll need to be extremely careful about the tax and legal ramifications of effectively running it from France.
Unless you speak French fluently, and your DD also (in which case you might not be on here asking questions about France), then realistically you are facing a language barrier.
I’ve been here rather a long time and perhaps I am jaded, but I think you need to organize your stay around a plan (what to see, what activities you might want your DD to do) rather than expecting a change of country to be exciting enough to sustain you for three months in the winter.

I did this last year in Bergerac with my toddler! Lot's of brits do this. They have second homes here. I don't see why you couldn't rent. Don't forget many places are dead in winter. It can get dreary. If you need a doctor you just pay something like 25€ for the appt. I did last month. I don't have health insurance.

How long can you be out if the UK before you see no longer considered resident on the UK for the purposes of NHS care. Is there a possibility your GP could de-register you and you have to re-register? I know that some ex-pats here in the US have the mistaken idea that if they touch UK soil every 90 days they can maintain their NHS access.

Can you work in France? I don’t know anything about France but here in the US performing any work, even remotely for a company based outside this country, is illegal without a work permit or green card. Is not about who’s paying you, but where the work is being performed.

How confident are you of being able to let out your house for 3 months through the winter? Does your mortgage allow you to let it?

If this is all only achievable by “saving like mad” and banking on your house being rented out, with respect you can’t really afford it.

GuidonianHand fantastic thanks for your wisdom.

PlanDeRaccordement I didn't know about this will look into it. Thanks.

LunaLula83 thank you. Hope you had a fab time.

BritWifeinUSA , All this isn't only achievable by saving like mad and renting our house out.

Wow, so many people with downers on this thread.

Basically it will be a long holiday. I think sorting out the insurance/mortgage on your own house will be the trickiest but, as well as finding somewhere you want to be for three months. Don't under estimate the effort off packing up everything in your house and preparing it to be a holiday let, then putting it all back!

Regarding working while you are on your long holiday- I can't see that being a problem tax wise. (How many self employed people don't crack opens their emails when they're abroad?) The notion that a French tax man would come running after you for working while on holiday is laughable.The issue would come if you were to stay for longer than three months.

Personally I'd go somewhere snowy and do lots of skiing! Have fun!

The hardest bit will be sorting your own house out to rent - mortgage provider may be uneasy about short term rentals so I would suggest looking into the option of a six month let though short term is more lucrative (but you will need a cleaner between lets)

And once you've done it once, you'll be set up to do it again another year, in another area, and see more of the world.

Regarding working while you are on your long holiday- I can't see that being a problem tax wise. (How many self employed people don't crack opens their emails when they're abroad?) The notion that a French tax man would come running after you for working while on holiday is laughable.The issue would come if you were to stay for longer than three months.

Seriously?

www.politico.eu/article/eu-citizens-detained-uk-work-visas-brexit/

That article is about EU nationals being detained on entering the UK when seeking short term, low paid employment without having a visa , not people who have rented a holiday house and intend to stay for less than 90 days. The article states: LONDON — EU citizens are being detained and held in immigration removal centers after trying to enter the U.K. for work without visas or residence status

Diplomats said most cases concern young people, many of whom try to enter the U.K. to work as au pairs or to find low-skilled jobs for short periods of time

Going to France to work as an au pair without sorting out a visa is very different to going to stay for under 90 days and working remotely while you're there. The OP is not travelling to France for employment.

@LynetteScavo, you’re encouraging her to work illegally in the EU? Because that’s what it is.

Provided you continue to pay tax in the UK the French authorities will not tax you in this situation.

I homeschool my dc in France, there are lots of very welcoming homeschooling groups for very young children, but it peters out significantly as they grow older.

Provided you continue to pay tax in the UK the French authorities will not tax you in this situation.

That depends on a bunch of things, but if the OP works without a work permit she’s breaking immigration and labour law.

OP, I got this from the Juritravail site, hope it helps you evaluate the situation:

Pour les ressortissants d'un Etat tiers, c'est-à-dire qui ne font ni partie de l'Union Européenne (UE) ni de l'EEE (Espace Economique Européen) ou de la Suisse, une autorisation de travail est exigée.

Celle-ci est obligatoire quelle que soit la nature du contrat de travail ou sa durée. Il en résulte que nul ne peut embaucher, employer ou conserver à son service un étranger démuni d'un titre de travail en cours de validité (4).

I have done similar, but I wouldn't choose France for the winter, I'd go somewhere warm

@makingmammaries that says no one can hire, employ or keep in their service a foreigner without a valid work permit.

The OP won't have a work permit; she'll be on holiday, because she'll be staying less than 90 days. She won't be hired or employed. She's self employed running a business that's not in France, and will be paying UK taxes in the money she earns whilst on holiday.

Your links don't offer anything of substance to the OPs situation. If you can show me anything that says you need to pay tax in France on money earned in another country while you are holidaying in France I would be very interested.

If the OP were to stay in France longer than 90 days there would be all sorts of issues and she'd need to apply for residency permit etc, - but when she says three months, I'm assuming she means less than 90 days. She'll be a tourist, not an expat.

@LynetteScavo, she is not holidaying and does not even claim to be. If she is doing work for a UK business, hers or not, OR self-employed, the employer - that’s her business - or she, if self-employed needs to make social contributions to France, and she, as a non-EU national coming to WORK, as she states clearly, needs a work permit. Coming on holiday is a different proposition. But actually all the OP needs to do is call the French consulate, and then she can choose whether to listen to them or to randoms on the internet.

@LynetteScavo

From the OP:

We have our own business so can work from anywhere.

OP is going to work from France.

And so? Who will know whether the time theOP spends on line is work ? Do you think they'll put a key trace on her computer?

OP if you fancy it then why not? I agree with the idea of somewhere cold for lots of skiing but winter on the Med might be fun too. My only reservation would be covid and associated restrictions.

Th OP said Basically we are thinking of staying in France for 3 months over the winter (all being well covid wise)

We have our own business so can work from anywhere.

OP you should indeed ask the French consulate to ask about whether you need to pay social security payments during your stay of less than 90 days in France. Please let us know what they say!