> From what I can gather off frenchproperty.com the 'social charges' tax rate employees pay is very very big (29% employee, 50% employer, total would be somethi

> From what I can gather off frenchproperty.com the 'social charges' tax rate employees pay is very very big (29% employee, 50% employer, total would be something like 65%) while self employed pay 12% to 23%. Exactly how much someone will pay in social charges is complex, because it depends on their line of work, how their business is set up if self-employed and how much they’re making. But here’s one example: A typical white collar salaried employee, for example a computer consultant, who’s netting 50000 euros will be costing his employer 100000 euros after social charges are taken into account. This worker will be paying into two different pension plans and is also paying for unemployment insurance. A typical white collar self-employed contract worker who’s billing 100000 euros will have perhaps 5000 euros or so of business expenses and perhaps 30000 to 35000 euros of social charges. It varies mostly on how good their pension plan. So they’re netting 60000 to 65000 euros. The difference between these two cases is mostly that the salaried worker (currently) has a better pension plan and also has much better unemployment insurance coverage (but which is also expensive). If you’re not worried about finding work, being self-employed is a bit more profitable in this case, but not hugely so. The 12% and 23% numbers that you saw is for a what’s called a “microentreprise”. In that case, the social charges are based on total income, not profits (so no deductions). 12% is for when you’re selling goods, not services, and you don’t get to deduct the cost of the goods. 23% is for when you’re selling a service, which is great, but you can’t bill more than 70000 euros (not counting sales tax) in a year and and still be a “microentreprise”. The idea of the “microentreprise” was to allow very small businesses to get started, with lower social charges and much simple accounting procedures. It’s great for part-time or side projects or low paid work, but it’s not suitable for full-time well paid work.