Working from France as a Germany resident

At a glance

Rule coverage

What the rules say about France

The rules below are the ones most likely to shape a stay in France, in plain words and with the source behind each one. Your own report tells you which of them apply to you.

1. Significant issueTax residency

   More than half the year in France puts you at serious residency risk

   Once you are present in France more than any other single country over a rolling period, the lieu de sejour principal fallback test is likely satisfied, and French tax residency follows even without a foyer or business tie. 183 days is a practical proxy here, not the statutory line, and France counts the calendar year as its tax year.

2. Significant issuePersonal income tax

   French tax residency taxes your worldwide income at up to 45 percent

   Once resident, the 2026 progressive scale runs 0 percent to EUR 11,600, 11 percent to EUR 29,579, 30 percent to EUR 84,577, 41 percent to EUR 181,917, and 45 percent above, applied per part of the quotient familial. High earners above EUR 250,000 also face the CEHR surcharge of 3 to 4 percent and the CDHR minimum-rate rule of 20 percent.

3. Significant issuePermanent establishment risk

   Signing contracts or managing from France creates real employer risk

   French courts recognise three PE triggers: a fixed installation, a dependent agent, or a complete commercial cycle conducted in France, and the Conseil d'Etat applies substance over form aggressively. One employee habitually signing contracts or making management decisions from France can create a taxable presence for the whole foreign employer.

4. Significant issueMoving your company

   Running your foreign company from a French home office is a high PE risk

   A founder relocating to France while making the real commercial decisions for a foreign company from a home office risks creating a French permanent establishment for that company, and separately risks making the company itself French-resident by place of effective management under the applicable treaty tie-breaker. French courts apply substance over form aggressively here.

5. Significant issueCrypto tax and legal status

   Habitual trading gets reclassified as professional income up to 45 percent

   Since 1 January 2023, habitual digital-asset trading is taxed as BNC, non-commercial profits, at the progressive scale up to 45 percent, plus social contributions, replacing the earlier BIC classification. The line between occasional and professional status is a facts-and-circumstances test with no bright line, considering transaction volume, frequency, leverage and organisation, and the DGFiP treats professional status as exceptional.

6. Needs checkingRight to work

   Foreign-employer telework on a visitor permit is now confirmed compatible

   The visiteur permit's undertaking not to exercise any professional activity in France used to leave foreign-employer telework unresolved. On 23 June 2026 the Minister of the Interior answered written question 11730 (deputy Francois Gernigon): where a third-country national is not employed in France and does not carry on professional activity in France for the benefit of a company established on French territory, working remotely for a foreign employer must be treated as non-active under French law, so visiteur status is compatible with that arrangement.

What tends to surprise people here

• No digital nomad visa exists, and the visiteur permit bars any professional activity
• A family home or centre of economic interests can trigger residency with no day count
• Running your foreign company from a French home office is a high permanent establishment risk

Tax treaty between Germany and France