# Self employment tax



## Nightsoad (May 30, 2012)

Dear all 
I am a dual US-French citizen living in France. I have almost never lived in the US (was born there and left when I was 3). 
I am currently employed in a private company. I have been filing my income tax returns for the past 12 years now. 
I am considering leaving my company and become a freelance consultant as an "auto entrepreneur", hence, self employed. 
I understand that as such, I would have to pay the self employment tax (approx. 15% of my net yearly profit) independently of any foreign earn income exclusion. Do I understand properly ? Is anyone in that situation and can provide some return on experience ? 
Many thanks in advance for your help.


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## Moulard (Feb 3, 2017)

The US and France have a totalisation agreement in place. So long as you do not have the US government as a client, you should only have to make French contributions and would therefore not have to pay US Self Employment taxes.

You would need to obtain a certificate of coverage and attach a copy of it to your tax return each year that you are filing as self employed.

Per the pamphlet that summarises the agreement, write to the local French agency that collects your French Social Security taxes.



https://www.ssa.gov/international/Agreement_Pamphlets/documents/France.pdf



No doubt Bev will pass by shortly and give a more France specific view of it. These things tend to be a little more difficult when trying to get a certificate of coverage when self employed


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## Bevdeforges (Nov 16, 2007)

As Moulard says, you don't need to worry about the "self-employment" tax as long as you are set up properly as an auto-entrepreneur (or some other business entity here in France) and are registered with URSSAF to pay your cotisations. They mention obtaining a "certificate of coverage" - you should be able to get a form from URSSAF (online, even) that recognizes your enrollment in URSSAF and that you are up to date on payments that will do the trick. (I don't remember the name of the form, but it is fairly easy to obtain online once you are duly registered and paying your cotisations.)


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## Harry Moles (11 mo ago)

While it sounds like you have things under control, someone in your situation really should not have entered the US tax system, unless you have plans of moving to the US at some point in the future. Though if you received the stimulus benefit in the past few years, that will have made the paperwork somewhat worthwhile. 

If US tax rules ever become problematic for investments or business ownership, you either renounce or cease filing and "go dark"; if your US birthplace causes complications due to FATCA, your only option is to renounce.


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## Bevdeforges (Nov 16, 2007)

The matter of whether to renounce or not is kind of complex, depending on your precise situation. But if you're going to be an auto-entrepreneur, there are a variety of ways to "simplify" your US tax reporting (both for yourself and for the IRS) - like by reporting your AE business as your "employer" and thus your revenue as your "salary" thus avoiding having to bother with a Schedule C. This obviously only works if the revenue you are reporting to the Fisc falls under the FEIE limits - but as long as you're paying your cotisations you shouldn't have any real problems.


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