In 2009 France became Europe’s leader in terms of new company registrations.
A survey by the Association for the Set up of a Company (ACPE) revealed that 47 percent of young people in France said that they would like to create their own company.
France is undergoing a boom in the establishment of new businesses despite the country’s generous unemployment benefits.
A year ago the French government created a new company status called ‘auto-entrepreneur.’
The new status allows online company registration as well as corporate tax based on turnover, a new development in France.
Last year 320,000 French people chose the status of ‘auto-entrepreneur.’
It is ideal for start-ups and can be used until the companies reaches a maximum turnover of 80 000 euros for merchants and 32 000 euros for services.
Hervé Novelli, French State Secretary in Charge of Commerce, Craft and SMEs announced during a conference that the 2010 objective of the government was to make it possible to create any type of company online.
He also said that considering the mutation within the universities where young people were taking internships and working on case studies, the French were becoming more entrepreneurial and the government would focus on making it easier to create companies.
New Zealand companies considering setting up in France should take note of these developments.
It is not as expensive and ‘administration – intensive’ as it used to be, and things will carry on changing this way within the next few years.
Source: NZTE Paris
