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Why your March salary could be late in France

Workers in France who receive a monthly salary have been warned that their March pay packet may arrive late, due to European banking regulations.

Published: 22 March 2024 08:58 CET

Why your March salary could be late in France

Salary payments may be delayed over the Easter weekend. Photo by MYCHELE DANIAU / AFP

For salaried employees, the traditional date for pay-day is the end of the month, and most workers now get their money transferred automatically into their bank accounts.

However this year, the end of March coincides with Easter weekend, with Easter itself falling on Sunday March 31st, and the Europe-wide Target 2 system, which handles automated SEPA payments within the EU and EEA, will be closed over the Easter weekend.

The European Central Bank, which oversees Target 2, closes the exchange system on weekends and selected public holidays – for Easter that means a four-day closure from Thursday, March 28th to Tuesday, April 2nd, according to reporting in the Journal du Geek.

Although Good Friday (March 29th) is not a holiday in most of France, it is taken as a public holiday by many other European countries.

Why is Good Friday not a holiday in (most of) France?

That means that a salary paid on March 28th won’t reach the recipient’s bank account until Tuesday, April 2nd.

Target 2 is also closed on May 1st, December 25th and December 26th – these dates don’t usually affect salary payments so it is usually Easter that is affected, when it coincides with the end of the month.

Normal banking services will continue over the Easter weekend while instant transfers and internal transfers between two accounts handled by the same bank will also go ahead as normal.

The salary delay won’t affect people who get paid in the middle of the month, or those who are paid in cash.

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Essential French vocab for self-employed people in France

Being self-employed in France comes with its fair share of paperwork and bureaucracy, not to mention confusing vocabulary terms that foreigners might be confused by.

Here are some of the words you might come across if you work for yourself in France;

Business type

Micro-entrepreneur

The official new term for auto-entrepreneur – which is often still used and is pretty interchangeable with the new formal term – and is basically equivalent to ‘sole trader’. This is the simplest form of legal business set-up for a self-employed person in France.

READ ALSO Micro-entrepreneur: How to set up as a small business in France

It operates a simplified structure for taxes and employment rules, and if you go over a maximum earning threshold for your business type, you can re-register.

It’s not the only type of business set-up open to sole traders. Others include…

Entrepreneur Individuel à Responsabilité Limitée (EIRL)

An individual entrepreneur with limited responsibility, where the company is managed by the individual.

It follows the same scheme as the ‘Entreprise individuelle’ in terms of social contributions and tax. However, there is a possibility with this structure to opt into Corporate Tax. This may seem like a bizarre idea, to pay more tax, but if Corporate Tax is paid, the director’s salary is then deductible from the taxable income of the business.

Entreprise Unipersonnelle à Responsabilité Limitée – EURL

This means being a one-person company with limited responsibility. This is the creation of an actual company (SARL), but with a single shareholder and share capital.

An EURL has to be registered with the French Register of Commerce. The single shareholder’s responsibility is only equal to that of their contributions, but the manager of the company has criminal and civil liability for any errors committed during the years of their duties.

Société par Actions Simplifiée Unipersonnelle (SASU)

This is a simplified one-person joint stock option company (similar to an Ltd. in England and an LLC in the US).

Business areas

Activité commerciale

If you own a shop, e-commerce, food stall, or gîtes, you are involved in an activité commerciale.

Activité artisanale

These are manual activities – from the building trade, crafts to hairdressers and beauticians.

Activité Libérale

AKA Profession Libérale, or intellectual-based services, such as coaches, consultants, teachers, and programmers.

READ MORE: France’s ‘entrepreneur visa’ and how to apply for it

Other important terms

Chiffre d’affaires

Think turnover, rather than revenue. This is important because, in French, ‘revenu’ is income from a business or (dread phrase incoming) side hustle and is very different for tax purposes.

Cotisations

Social contributions – cotisations are all social charges payable by employers and employees to finance the Social Security system, including the national housing assistance fund (fonds national d’aide au logement – FNAL), Family Allowance (CAF) and Pôle Emploi.

Les salariés doivent également payer deux contributions sociales qui sont la contribution sociale généralisée (CSG) et à la contribution au remboursement de la dette sociale (CRDS). Ces deux contributions sociales ont pour but de financer la protection sociale et combler la dette sociale. La CSG et la CRDS sont des impôts prélevés sur la rémunération des salariés.

READ MORE: Cotisations: Why you might get an unexpected French health bill

Cotisations are all collected by..

Urssaf

Unions de Recouvrement des Cotisations de Sécurité Sociale et d’Allocations Familiales – more usually known, because that’s a mouthful, by the acronym Urssaf – are the administrators who collect social security contributions that fund a large part of France’s labyrinthine social security system, including, notably, health insurance.

READ ALSO URSSAF: What is it, how it works, and how it affects you

Siren

The nine-digit Siren is your business ID number. You’ll get one of these when you register your business, along with a 14-digit …

Siret

This acronym stands for Système d’Identification du Répertoire des Établissements.

This number is, basically, your business ID, plus five more digits that are specific to the location of the establishment. If you change address, you need a new Siret. It should appear on all company invoices – and also on any payslips.

READ MORE: What is a SIRET number and why is it crucial when hiring French tradesmen?

TVA

See TVA, think VAT. It stands for Taxe sur la Valeur Ajoutée, which is French for Value Added Tax. Above certain turnover, businesses have to start collecting TVA, and can also claim back TVA.

Compte Personnel de Formation (CPF)

All employees in France are able to access money each year for free professional training (€800 for unskilled workers, €500 for full-time, skilled workers). The money can also be ‘carried forward’ so if you don’t use it one year, you will have €1,000 to spend the following year.

It’s also available to self-employed people – who pay into the fund as part of their social charges and cotisations.

The money can be for all sorts of professional development or entrepreneurship courses, but of particular use to foreigners it can also be used for driving lessons or French-language lessons.

READ ALSO Mon CPF: What changes with France’s €500-a-year training budget

Contribution Fonciere des Entreprises (CFE)

This is a local tax payable by any company or self-employed person earning more than €5,000 per year, even if they conduct their business at home, at the kitchen table. This one is due every December.

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