Does anyone know what the French equivalent to being qualified as a bookkeeper is? Similar to say membership of the IAB or ICB? I understand that 'comptable' is the equivalent job title (versus 'expert-comptable' for an accountant). Is there any legal minimum qualification necessary for setting up in practice? Or is it similar to the UK in that respect?
I'm considering relocating to France at some point in the future and I'd like to maybe start working towards passing any necessary exams in my free time. That is assuming it's viable to work as a freelance book-keeper in France!
Apologies if this is a bit vague, my French isn't yet strong enough to fully make sense of all of the information I've found on line!
This post is more of a welcome to the site and an informal chat rather than anything seriously constructive as for once you've hit a subject that I know absolutely nothing about (French law re bookkeeping businesses).
I do know people who have moved to France and whilst for the most part they love it there (and sure that you will too) from conversations with them I conclude that the French tend to be strongly pro French (and that's not a bad thing to be proud of your country and put your own people first) and I've heard that many Brits who set up shop over there tend to end up servicing other Brits who have relocated there but not as a general rule the French.
From a business viability perspective, unlike the UK, in France businesses have to have a qualified accountant which surely restricts the work of a bookkeeper only to actual bookkeeping work rather than tax work and filing accounts which bookkeeping encroaches on in the UK.
Before spending a lot of money on this it might be a good idea to ensure that you have a viable customer base... Which really creates a chicken and egg scenario! How do you find the customer base before you have a business and why build a business if there are no clients for it!
As an alternative why not remain as a bookkeeper in the UK but live in France servicing the needs of others living in France with their Businesses in Britain?... Don't actually know what the market is for that as everyone that I know who lives in France but works in England are permanent employee's rather than having their own businesses.
I'm actually making the sweeping assumption here that you are actually a qualified bookkeeper in the UK? If not then taking on learning bookkeeping AND moving to a new country / language / legal & regulatory system is way too much to take on... Personally sometimes it feels to me as though bookkeeping alone in an environment that I know is way too much to take on! Trying to do it in a different language doesn't even bare thinking about.
Anyway, welcome to the forum and hoping to see a few better responses than mine to this thread.
Don't forget to keep us all posted as you progress with this and espechially the barriers that you face. They lack of other useful information on this out there pretty much makes you the site pioneer on this one.
Kind regards,
Shaun.
P.S. Just as an aside, be very careful of French laws regarding divorce as if you've been married before French law, being Catholic in origin, tends not to recognise the divorce and if (God forbid) anything were to happen to you your estate would pass to your first Wife unless you have things tied up properly.
P.S.2 Sure that you've come accross this site already but if not you may find it useful : http://www.frenchentree.com/business-in-france/
P.S.3 Read 1000 years of Annoying the French by Stephen Clarke, all very legitimate and correct history written in quite an amusing way and giving some insight into why the idea of French fighter planes on English aircraft carriers is ludicrous
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Shaun
Responses are not meant as a substitute for professional advice. Answers are intended as outline only the advice of a qualified professional with access to all relevant information should be sought before acting on any response given.
We had a member from France posting quite a bit last year, and he commented that you had to accountant qualified to offer bookkeeping across the channel.
We also had another French accountant on here but she had already set up in London and I don't think that she ever posted much about the French system.
So basically it's not just that you have to have a genuinely qualified accountant (not QBE) accross there if you have any sort of business but everything else is illegal!
I can almost sense the ICAEW and ACCA starting their petitions to Brussels to have the French system brought in Europe wide! lol.
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Shaun
Responses are not meant as a substitute for professional advice. Answers are intended as outline only the advice of a qualified professional with access to all relevant information should be sought before acting on any response given.
Thanks very much to both of you for your help! From skimming through, this is one of the most friendly/helpful internet forums I've come across :)
After reading those links I decided to ask a French accountant for clarification/confirmation. Her reply was that you needed to be qualified as a comptable (accountant-bookkeeper) - not necessarily an expert-comptable (chartered accountant) to offer bookkeeping services. Although I'm going to double check with some other sources also.
To answer your question Shamus, I'm a Member of the IAB and have some ACCA units under my belt. It's more of a longer term pipe dream at the moment anyway. I definitely wouldn't start paying for courses until I was absolutely sure it was possible but I have a couple of books on French taxation and French GAAP that it wouldn't hurt to start reading :)
So basically it's not just that you have to have a genuinely qualified accountant (not QBE) accross there if you have any sort of business but everything else is illegal!
I can almost sense the ICAEW and ACCA starting their petitions to Brussels to have the French system brought in Europe wide! lol.
The ICB was speaking at European Parliament not long ago and it would seem most of Europe have this kind of law.
It goes a little further in some countries in that there is just one organisation and all accountants or bookkeepers must join it so they can work.
if such was brought in accross here I can see it happening on the back of the Government blaming Brussels for something that they want (we've seen that one so many times before).
If it did happen I could see there being some form of reciprocal amnesty period agreement between the bodies that exist now and those that one needed to be part of post implementation hierarchy so provided that one was already qualified with one of the recognised supervisory bodies I don't think that people would really have anything to worry about.
The one's left out in the cold to my mind are those with no qualifications or professional body. Personally I know of a senior accountant in a chartered practice who would be caught out by that one!!!!
Anyway, enough frighteners, this is just hypathetical as there's no call at the moment to change the staus quo (Only for someone to please, please, please stop them from touring... See what I did there! status quo Status Quo, lol).
Talk in a bit,
Shaun.
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Shaun
Responses are not meant as a substitute for professional advice. Answers are intended as outline only the advice of a qualified professional with access to all relevant information should be sought before acting on any response given.
