self employed in France: a rant

For the last few years I've lain low, using my non-profit-making association, Chemins du bien-être, as a way of organising my official shiatsu work. "Non-profit-making" means I can't take money out of the association for anything other than activity-related expenses. So I can't actually eat. But I can finance my own shiatsu training, equipment and so on. (Well, that's my entirely challengeable interpretation!)

The reason I've chosen this route was from discovering, early on, that it was impossibly expensive (charges = national insurance = €€€, way higher than anything I might earn) to be fully self-employed as an indépendent. It only works if you have a very high hourly rate and are full-time. And even then it's tough - the charges set at around 50% of what is invoiced. It's why TWO dentist friends have quit. And why my doctor receives, after tax, just 6€ for a half-hour consultation.

Then, in 2008, one of Sarkozy's reforms gave reason to hope: the auto-entrepreneur statute was announced, with "just" 22% charges. Suddenly, everyone was setting themselves up in business. There's currently an estimated million auto-entrepreneurs. So where's the problem? The artisans - plumbers and other tradespeople - working under the old system see the auto-e as unfair competition. So, under pressure from this group, the auto-e is gradually being undermined. The charges have crept up to 24% and there is talk of it being available to people for a maximum of 2 years, after which time they are forced onto the fully indépendent statute.

So far so bad. And it's worse. Because all that charges business is before taxation. I have a husband with a Swiss bank account and a fat salary. Well, that's what the French see. So, after he's paid Swiss tax, flat rental and travel costs, the French take another bite. And - this is the crunch for me - I am taxed at his top-level rate. So if I earn 50€ for a one-hour class (yes, a class at that rate! - the residents' assos has a policy of access-for-all - never mind if the therapist goes bust) the other side of Grenoble that involves a round-trip of 35km, the state takes 24% in charges and a further 40% in tax. I can't offset expenses. And I take home ??? Easier to call this unpaid voluntary work.

All this came to a head this week. A gift fell out of the sky: a residents' group near where I teach phoned me to ask if I could replace a teacher who had dropped out of teaching a relaxation and shiatsu class. I was just experiencing the bruising aftermath of promoting my own lunchtime class: leafleting 60 companies + 40 individual houses adjacent to the venue, and a vigorous email campaign. All this to find just one punter on the day - plus dear Kelli, without whom the "class" (ha ha) couldn't have taken place.

That it did, and I enjoyed it (quand même!), is fuelling my continued energy towards various irons in fires. And the manna-from-heaven residents' group was timed perfectly. I was deliriously happy. But alas, they won't work with my association. Hence the need to re-investigate the other options.

Meanwhile... my own village won't work with me because there is too much demand for space in the village hall, and the surrounding villages won't work with anyone who isn't from that commune.

And the one attendee from last week's class has just told me she can't make it this week.

Aieeeeeeeegrrrrrrrrrrrraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Breathe. 
Feel cool air coming through your nostrils on the in breath and warmer air on the out breath.
Count breaths to ten.
Relax your face muscles.
Smile.
The sun is shining.
The garden is beautiful...