If you have a small business in France, be that the simplified Micro Entreprise (ME) system or other business structure, you will know that your time and energy is not always used efficiently. One finds that you are pulled in many directions and a lot of time is wasted on paperwork and resolving red tape issues. We often feel like just giving up when it comes to dealing with the government organisations.
This was exactly the case recently when LBS was involved in a case where the customer had decided to change their ME business activity from an artisanal activity (manual activity) to a commercial activity. As this was a completely different activity, the organization dealing with the modification (the CFE) was different. The customer went directly to the appropriate CFE to make the modification. Perfect! This should be the end of the story, alas not….
LBS became involved when the customer realized 6 months later that she was still classed as an ‘Artisan’ and she was actually been asked for 2 lots of business taxes (CFE). The customer contacted LBS at this stage to try and find out what was happening and initially just booked a Clarification Package to do some troubleshooting.
We found out very quickly that the modification had been dealt with as a creation and hence the two different activities with two different addresses (there had also been address change along the way). Something that was going to take a while to solve! At this stage, the customer became one of LBS’ Serenity Pro Pack members to benefit from their experience in this domain.
What followed was 3 months of work involving the Chambre de Metier where we had to go to close down the artisanal activity however we had to keep the commercial activity going. Communication of information between CFE’s is a problem on occasion, like this one! They had difficulty understanding and initially closed everything down so this involved 2 visits to the Chambre de Metier. Then of course this new affiliation had to be given to the RSI to ensure that social charges & health care status was updated on the customers’ file. This involved a visit to the RSI and email follow up.
I’m happy to say that the case was resolved and my customer is now correctly affiliated with the correct CFE and has only one professional tax to pay. She remains a loyal member of the Serenity Club.
If you need help or are looking for information on the Serenity Pro Pack, contact Tracy Leonetti directly at tracy@lbsinfrance.com
If you are looking for information on the Micro Entreprise business set up, then check out the mini e-guide here
