You live in France, your contract is with a company in London that has no French office, and every working day happens at your desk in Lyon, Bordeaux or Paris. Your employer runs a British payroll, deducts British income tax under PAYE and British National Insurance, and sends you a payslip in pounds. That arrangement feels normal until the French administration intervenes: URSSAF, the French body that collects social-security contributions, treats work performed on French soil as insured in France and bills years of employer and employee contributions with surcharges, while the French tax office taxes the same salary as worldwide income of a French resident. Since the end of free movement, British citizens are third-country nationals in France, so residence papers and work authorisation add a second front. This guide answers the practical payroll question that decides everything else: how a British employer with no French establishment registers you in France, files the pre-employment declaration known as the DPAE, issues a French-compliant payslip through the foreign-firms service known as the TFE, and what to do when URSSAF or the tax office sends a bill you dispute.<\/p>\n
The starting point is affiliation. French social-security law provides that “Sont affili\u00e9es obligatoirement aux assurances sociales du r\u00e9gime g\u00e9n\u00e9ral, quel que soit leur \u00e2ge et m\u00eame si elles sont titulaires d’une pension, toutes les personnes quelle que soit leur nationalit\u00e9, de l’un ou de l’autre sexe, salari\u00e9es ou travaillant \u00e0 quelque titre ou en quelque lieu que ce soit, pour un ou plusieurs employeurs et quels que soient le montant et la nature de leur r\u00e9mun\u00e9ration, la forme, la nature ou la validit\u00e9 de leur contrat ou la nature de leur statut.” (article L. 311-2 du code de la s\u00e9curit\u00e9 sociale, version en vigueur<\/a>). In plain terms, once you perform your work physically in France, you belong to the French scheme even if your contract is governed by English law and your employer sits in London. Nationality, contract form and payroll currency change nothing. The Cour de cassation, the supreme court for civil and criminal matters, enforces this territoriality strictly: in a 2022 ruling, where “\u00e0 la suite d’un contr\u00f4le portant sur les ann\u00e9es 2011 \u00e0 2013, l’URSSAF de Picardie (l’URSSAF) a, selon lettre d’observations du 11 juillet 2014, puis mise en demeure du 24 d\u00e9cembre 2014, notifi\u00e9 \u00e0 la soci\u00e9t\u00e9 [2] (la soci\u00e9t\u00e9) un redressement” (Cour de cassation, deuxi\u00e8me chambre civile, 13 octobre 2022, pourvoi n\u00b0 21-13.252<\/a>), the court examined which employments escaped French contributions and confirmed that only narrow statutory exceptions displace affiliation. A London-only payroll for permanent work in France is not one of them.<\/p>\n Registration follows from affiliation. A foreign employer without a French establishment registers with the specialised foreign-firms service of URSSAF, which centralises declarations and payments for employers seated abroad. In practice the employer enrols through that service, obtains French employer identifiers, and then declares and pays French contributions on your salary at French rates and on French deadlines. The simplified instrument most small British employers use is the foreign-firms employment title, known in French as the TFE, which bundles the declarations and computes the contributions, but the obligation exists whether or not the employer opts for the simplified title. What matters is that the employment is visible to URSSAF from day one, with the correct French establishment code for an employer without premises, the employee identified by a French social-security number once allocated, and each pay period declared. Employers who keep the worker on a purely British payroll while knowing the work is performed in France accumulate up to three years of undeclared contributions, and the reassessment, when it comes, adds late surcharges and interest that regularly double the pain.<\/p>\n Before any payslip comes the pre-employment declaration, known by its French initials DPAE for d\u00e9claration pr\u00e9alable \u00e0 l’embauche. The statute states that “L’embauche d’un salari\u00e9 ne peut intervenir qu’apr\u00e8s d\u00e9claration nominative accomplie par l’employeur aupr\u00e8s des organismes de protection sociale d\u00e9sign\u00e9s \u00e0 cet effet.” (article L. 1221-10 du code du travail, version en vigueur<\/a>). No hiring without a prior nominative declaration: the employer tells the social-protection bodies who is being hired, where and from when, before the first working day. For a British employer hiring a remote worker already resident in France, the DPAE is filed with the foreign-firms service and must precede the agreed start date of French-based work, including the case where an existing London employee relocates to France and continues the same duties from a French home. Omitting the DPAE is not a clerical oversight in French eyes; combined with undeclared payroll, it supports findings of concealed employment, known as travail dissimul\u00e9, which carry higher surcharges, possible criminal exposure and exclusion from public contracts. File it early, keep the acknowledgement receipt, and align its date with the remote-work amendment to the contract so the paper trail shows a single coherent start.<\/p>\n Two related duties complete the registration picture. First, the employer must verify that you are entitled to work in France, a point developed in Part II, and keep evidence of your residence document on file, because employing a third-country national without authorisation triggers separate administrative fines and, in serious cases, criminal liability regardless of social-security compliance. Second, the employer must organise coverage for occupational risks from the first day of French-based work, which means joining the appropriate French schemes for work accidents and occupational diseases rather than relying on a British employer’s-liability policy that rarely answers for an accident in a French home. Readers who arrived as students or jobseekers and only later started remote work should also check the general entry route described in our guide on British newcomers, long-stay visas and cartes de s\u00e9jour<\/a>, because payroll registration never cures an irregular stay.<\/p>\n Once registered, the employer must issue a French-compliant payslip, known as the bulletin de paie, every pay day. The rule provides that “Lors du paiement du salaire, l’employeur remet aux personnes mentionn\u00e9es \u00e0 l’article L. 3243-1 une pi\u00e8ce justificative dite bulletin de paie.” (article L. 3243-2 du code du travail, version en vigueur<\/a>). A British payslip showing PAYE and National Insurance does not satisfy this duty. The French bulletin must show, among other mandatory items set by regulation, the employer identifiers, the employee’s classification and working time, gross salary, the base and rate of each employee contribution, the employer contributions, net pay, net social amount known as the montant net social, and income-tax withholding at source since France introduced its own pay-as-you-earn system. Overtime, paid leave and any remote-work allowance must appear with their legal labels. The employer may deliver the bulletin electronically if the employee does not object and integrity, availability and confidentiality are guaranteed, but the content requirements are identical on paper or screen. Keep every bulletin indefinitely alongside the British P60s: in a dispute, the French judge compares the two payroll histories month by month, and gaps in the French series are read as undeclared work.<\/p>\n The second half of payroll compliance is the remote-work framework itself. French law defines the arrangement as follows: “le t\u00e9l\u00e9travail d\u00e9signe toute forme d’organisation du travail dans laquelle un travail qui aurait \u00e9galement pu \u00eatre ex\u00e9cut\u00e9 dans les locaux de l’employeur est effectu\u00e9 par un salari\u00e9 hors de ces locaux de fa\u00e7on volontaire en utilisant les technologies de l’information et de la communication.” (article L. 1222-9 du code du travail, version en vigueur<\/a>). Remote work is set up by collective agreement or, failing that, by a charter drawn up by the employer after consulting staff representatives where they exist, and otherwise by direct written agreement with the employee. The text must address passage to and return from remote work, control of working time and workload, the time slots when the employer may contact the worker, and access for disabled workers, pregnant employees and carers. A British employer with a single remote worker in France still needs this document: a one-page remote-work amendment referencing the applicable collective-bargaining agreement or, where none applies, the employer’s charter, countersigned before relocation, prevents the most common dispute, namely the worker claiming permanent home-based status while the employer insists the posting was temporary. The remote worker enjoys the same rights as on-site staff, and refusing a remote post is not a ground for dismissal, so draft the amendment as an agreed organisation of work rather than a favour the employer may withdraw overnight.<\/p>\n Cover for accidents follows affiliation automatically and deserves a paragraph of its own because British employers systematically overlook it. The statute provides that “Est consid\u00e9r\u00e9 comme accident du travail, quelle qu’en soit la cause, l’accident survenu par le fait ou \u00e0 l’occasion du travail \u00e0 toute personne mentionn\u00e9e \u00e0 l’article L. 311-2.” (article L. 411-1 du code de la s\u00e9curit\u00e9 sociale, version en vigueur<\/a>), and the remote-work article adds an express presumption that an accident at the remote-workplace during working activity is a work accident. A fall on the stairs of a Dordogne farmhouse between two video calls is therefore presumed to be a work accident once French affiliation exists, with daily allowances and medical costs charged to the French occupational-risk branch funded by the employer’s contributions. A British employer’s-liability policy almost never covers that risk on French terms, and without French contributions there is no French cover either, leaving the injured worker to pay and the employer exposed to a fault claim for failing to insure. Declare the home workplace, record working hours or at least the contactable slots, keep the remote-work agreement on file, and ensure the payroll funds the occupational-risk contributions; otherwise an everyday domestic accident becomes an uninsured professional liability.<\/p>\n For readers in Paris and the \u00cele-de-France, two practical points raise the stakes. First, the competent collection body is URSSAF \u00cele-de-France and contribution disputes go to the social chamber of the Paris judicial court, so registrations, payments and appeals must be directed there rather than to a British payroll bureau or to the employer’s London accountant. Second, Paris-level salaries magnify the exposure: French employer charges commonly add roughly four-tenths on top of gross salary, so a 90,000-pound London salary performed entirely from a Paris flat can generate a six-figure euro reassessment once three years of contributions, surcharges and late interest are aggregated. Budget that exposure before URSSAF does it for you, and weigh whether the employer should run the French payroll through a specialised provider or an employer of record while the British contract is reviewed for applicable-law and jurisdiction clauses. Where the non-working partner has no professional income, remember that French universal health cover may bill that partner a separate annual contribution, a point developed in our guide on British early retirees facing the French PUMA charge<\/a>, and where the arrangement might genuinely be independent work, compare with our analysis of British freelancers and the auto-entrepreneur route<\/a> before choosing that status.<\/p>\n Payroll compliance never cures an irregular stay, and since Brexit British citizens need residence papers like any other third-country national. The entry rule states that “tout \u00e9tranger \u00e2g\u00e9 de plus de dix-huit ans qui souhaite s\u00e9journer en France pour une dur\u00e9e sup\u00e9rieure \u00e0 trois mois doit \u00eatre titulaire de l’un des documents de s\u00e9jour suivants : 1\u00b0 Un visa de long s\u00e9jour” (article L. 411-1 du code de l’entr\u00e9e et du s\u00e9jour des \u00e9trangers et du droit d’asile, version en vigueur<\/a>), followed by a temporary card, a multi-year card, a resident card or one of the other listed documents. Visitors who work remotely from a holiday home on a 90-day visa-free stay therefore have no route to a French payroll: the employment cannot be declared, the DPAE cannot be filed for a worker with no right to work, and any accident or inspection exposes both sides. The lawful sequence is a long-stay visa obtained before arrival that matches the planned activity, then the corresponding residence document after arrival, with renewal applied for in the final months of validity.<\/p>\n Work authorisation runs alongside residence. The labour code provides that “Pour entrer en France en vue d’y exercer une profession salari\u00e9e, l’\u00e9tranger pr\u00e9sente : 1\u00b0 Les documents et visas exig\u00e9s par les conventions internationales et les r\u00e8glements en vigueur ; 2\u00b0 Un contrat de travail vis\u00e9 par l’autorit\u00e9 administrative ou une autorisation de travail.” (article L. 5221-2 du code du travail, version en vigueur<\/a>). In practice the British remote worker’s employer, even seated in London, must hold a work authorisation covering employment on French territory before the worker starts, unless the worker’s residence document itself authorises work, as do talent passports, intra-group cards for qualifying cases, long-term European Union resident cards and certain family cards. The standard employee route illustrates the mechanism: “L’\u00e9tranger qui exerce une activit\u00e9 salari\u00e9e sous contrat de travail \u00e0 dur\u00e9e ind\u00e9termin\u00e9e se voit d\u00e9livrer une carte de s\u00e9jour temporaire” (article L. 421-1 du code de l’entr\u00e9e et du s\u00e9jour des \u00e9trangers et du droit d’asile, version en vigueur<\/a>), with prior work authorisation as the precondition. Employers who assume that an English-law contract performed from France needs no French authorisation confuse applicable contract law with immigration police: the contract may remain English while the right to perform it in France is French and prior.<\/p>\n The courts treat expiry and proof of renewal strictly, which is why the employer’s file must contain live copies, not promises. In a 2023 ruling, where “Par lettre recommand\u00e9e du 21 d\u00e9cembre 2016, l’employeur a demand\u00e9 au salari\u00e9 de lui faire parvenir son nouveau titre de s\u00e9jour au plus tard sept jours avant l’expiration de celui en cours de validit\u00e9” (Cour de cassation, chambre sociale, 29 novembre 2023, pourvoi n\u00b0 22-10.004<\/a>), the court examined whether the dismissal for lack of a valid work document had real and serious cause and which party bore the burden of proving a timely renewal application. The lesson for a British remote worker is organisational: diary the expiry of every visa, card and authorisation at least four months ahead, apply for renewal inside the regulatory window, keep the prefecture receipt known as the r\u00e9c\u00e9piss\u00e9, and send the employer a copy the same day. An expired card without proof of a timely renewal application suspends the right to work, and the employer who lets the worker continue commits a separate offence while gaining no payroll advantage, because contributions remain due on the salary even for the irregular period.<\/p>\n Tax residence completes the papers picture because it decides where the salary is declared even when payroll and immigration are in order. Domestic law provides that “Les personnes qui ont en France leur domicile fiscal sont passibles de l’imp\u00f4t sur le revenu en raison de l’ensemble de leurs revenus.” (article 4 A du code g\u00e9n\u00e9ral des imp\u00f4ts, version en vigueur<\/a>), and that “Sont consid\u00e9r\u00e9es comme ayant leur domicile fiscal en France au sens de l’article 4 A : a. Les personnes qui ont en France leur foyer ou le lieu de leur s\u00e9jour principal ; b. Celles qui exercent en France une activit\u00e9 professionnelle, salari\u00e9e ou non, \u00e0 moins qu’elles ne justifient que cette activit\u00e9 y est exerc\u00e9e \u00e0 titre accessoire” (article 4 B du code g\u00e9n\u00e9ral des imp\u00f4ts, version en vigueur<\/a>). A British remote worker whose family home, daily presence and professional activity are all in France will normally satisfy at least two of these alternative tests at once. Employment income itself is taxable by nature since “Les traitements, indemnit\u00e9s, \u00e9moluments, salaires, pensions et rentes viag\u00e8res concourent \u00e0 la formation du revenu global servant de base \u00e0 l’imp\u00f4t sur le revenu.” (article 79 du code g\u00e9n\u00e9ral des imp\u00f4ts, version en vigueur<\/a>). Declare the London-paid salary on the French annual return, convert sterling at the applicable yearly rate, and claim the treaty credit for British tax rather than assuming the British deduction settles the matter. The France-United Kingdom treaty of 19 June 2008 allocates employment income to the state where the work is performed and provides relief in the other state, so France as the state of performance taxes with a credit for tax paid in Britain, not an exemption. Keep every P60, payslip and P45: the exchange of information between the two revenue authorities means Paris usually knows the salary already.<\/p>\n British employers often reach for the wrong label, calling the arrangement a posting, known in French as d\u00e9tachement, when it is in fact permanent remote work. The statute defines posting narrowly: “Un employeur \u00e9tabli hors de France peut d\u00e9tacher temporairement des salari\u00e9s sur le territoire national, \u00e0 condition qu’il existe un contrat de travail entre cet employeur et le salari\u00e9 et que leur relation de travail subsiste pendant la p\u00e9riode de d\u00e9tachement.” (article L. 1262-1 du code du travail, version en vigueur<\/a>). Temporarily does the work in that sentence: a posting covers a mission with an end date and a return, whereas a British employee who has moved the family home to France and works there indefinitely is not on a mission. The Cour de cassation illustrated the difference in a 2023 case where “M. [B] a \u00e9t\u00e9 engag\u00e9 par la soci\u00e9t\u00e9 Leonardo Finmeccanica, \u00e9tablie \u00e0 [Localit\u00e9 4] (Italie), le 12 octobre 1979.” and “Il a \u00e9t\u00e9 d\u00e9tach\u00e9, en France, aupr\u00e8s du GIE ATR, \u00e0 compter du 1er juillet 1995.”, before the employer ended the posting and ordered a return to Italy which the employee contested (Cour de cassation, chambre sociale, 5 avril 2023, pourvoi n\u00b0 21-21.318<\/a>). A posting has a beginning, an end and a return; remote work has a home office and no return date. Misclassifying a permanent remote worker as posted invites URSSAF to recharacterise the whole period and bill contributions with surcharges, and the mirror-image rule confirms the logic: workers genuinely sent abroad by a French employer stay under French cover only where the employer undertakes to pay all contributions, since “les travailleurs d\u00e9tach\u00e9s temporairement \u00e0 l’\u00e9tranger par leur employeur pour y exercer une activit\u00e9 salari\u00e9e ou assimil\u00e9e, r\u00e9mun\u00e9r\u00e9e par cet employeur, sont soumis \u00e0 la l\u00e9gislation fran\u00e7aise de s\u00e9curit\u00e9 sociale \u00e0 la condition que l’employeur s’engage \u00e0 s’acquitter de l’int\u00e9gralit\u00e9 des cotisations dues.” (article L. 761-2 du code de la s\u00e9curit\u00e9 sociale, version en vigueur<\/a>).<\/p>\nB. What must appear on my French payslip and who covers my home-office accident?<\/h3>\n
II. Can I work in France on my current papers, and what if the administration says no?<\/h2>\n
A. Which residence permit and work authorisation does a British remote worker need after Brexit?<\/h3>\n
B. Detached is not remote: how do you challenge a URSSAF reassessment or a tax bill step by step?<\/h3>\n