The status of ’auto-entrepreneur’ has been available since 2009, allowing individuals to set up small businesses in France, and designed in theory to simplify the process of registering and running a small sole-trader businesses.
It is very similar to the status of ’micro-entreprise’, with limits on turnover, etc but there are several differences which make it worth checking both regimes out before deciding on the status of your potential enterprise.
In August 2013, small businesses Minister Fleur Pellerin accepted that some people were using the auto entrepreneur status “as a way to disguise the fact they were earning a wage” rather than to create a business, and stated that the regime should be simplified even more.
After much talk in the press, and horror amongst those registered with the auto entrepreneur regime, it seems that any changes to the scheme are intended to be strictly positive for the auto entrepreneur.
