Being a sole trader with an overseas address?
Thread poster: Camille Gondral
Camille Gondral
Camille Gondral
France
Local time: 16:49
English to French
+ ...
Dec 17, 2019

Hi everyone

I hope this question is okay, I've searched the forums but couldn't find anything, or it was quite old and things might have changed since then.
Here's my "problem". I am French but, since I was living in the UK, I registered as a sole trader here in October 2017. But my partner and I are going back to France in early April, permanently. Since we won't have a UK address anymore, is it possible to rem
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Hi everyone

I hope this question is okay, I've searched the forums but couldn't find anything, or it was quite old and things might have changed since then.
Here's my "problem". I am French but, since I was living in the UK, I registered as a sole trader here in October 2017. But my partner and I are going back to France in early April, permanently. Since we won't have a UK address anymore, is it possible to remain a sole trader registered in the UK but with a foreign address, just for a few months? If it's possible, we were thinking about settling and then, during the summer or in September, "close" our sole trader status here in order to register in France (France being very "bureaucratique", we thought this way we would have more time to do that properly, after settling and everything).
I can't find anything on the HMRC website explaining if this is possible or not. I know you can work abroad for a few months, but then you still have a UK address. So if someone has ever been in the same situation or just happens to know the answer to my question, I would be very grateful!

Thank you in advance.

Camille
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Samuel Murray
Samuel Murray  Identity Verified
Netherlands
Local time: 16:49
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
+ ...
@Camille Dec 17, 2019

Camille Gondral wrote:
But my partner and I are going back to France in early April, permanently. Since we won't have a UK address anymore, is it possible to remain a sole trader registered in the UK but with a foreign address, just for a few months?


I don't know UK law, but it is my understanding that, for tax purposes, in most countries, if you relocate and it is your intention to relocate permanently (i.e. become a resident of your new place of living), your residence status kicks in from the moment that you relocate, and not e.g. three months later or 6 months later, or not e.g. at the start of the new calendar year. If this applies here, it would mean that you would stop being a UK sole trader as soon as you emigrate. I'm not sure if it may be possible to "go on a long holiday" in France, before returning to the UK, and then emigrate to France.

...in September, "close" our sole trader status here in order to register in France...


In the Netherlands, where I currently live, it is highly beneficial to "start a business" on 1 January or as soon as possible thereafter (and very unbeneficial to start it late in the year), because some tax credits are calculated on the calendar year and not on the number of actual months of the first year of your business' existence. I did not know this when I started my "business" in the Netherlands in September, but it meant that my taxes for the last 4 months of the first year were quite a bit higher per month than they would have been if I had started on 1 April or 1 June or 1 January. Check if a similar thing applies in France.


[Edited at 2019-12-17 18:35 GMT]


Maggie WAKEFIELD
 


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Being a sole trader with an overseas address?






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