What are the advantages of portage salarial in France?
In the November edition of The Connexion, the small business and tax advice column answers a reader question on self-employment under portage salarial
Reader question: I plan to set up in self-employment but have heard portage salarial could help minimise paperwork. Can you explain?
Portage salarial is a halfway house between classic employment and self-employment and appeals to people wanting to combine independence with many advantages of being an employee.
It involves a three-way relationship between the worker (salarié porté), a specialised entreprise de portage, and the business or businesses that want to benefit from the work (entreprise cliente).
A key advantage for the salarié is that they benefit from the full social security protection of an employee, such as paid holidays, unemployment and incapacity benefit, which are better than those of a self-employed person. They also benefit from professional third-party liability insurance.
The portage firm bills the client firm/s and makes social security declarations and payments, deducts its own expenses. and then pays the salarié a regular “salary”. It also usually provides training opportunities.
The salarié obtains wage slips and has a CDD or CDI work contract with the portage firm, which can help, eg. in obtaining a mortgage or lease. They can focus on their work activity rather than the paperwork. It suits people providing a service apart from the regulated professions, such as consultants, graphic designers, trainers, IT or marketers who have minimum levels of experience and/or qualifications.
The salarié porté has to find a firm or firms interested in their skills and negotiate for a certain number of hours of work at a certain fee and duration. They sign a contract with a portage company, which completes the further formalities with the client firm or firms.
The arrangement can allow for flexibility for the salarié porté to work for one or several client firms and to seek new ones.
If you think it may suit you, you may like to talk to portage companies about the skills you have to offer to see if there is a match between the service they offer and how you would like to work.
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