Ex Pats working/living abroad
Discussion
There was a series on the TV recently called “A new life in the sun”
I don’t know whether any of you watched it?
Basically, it followed the highs and lows of people leaving the UK and starting up a new business in Spain or France. All of them involved tourism of some sort, bars, B and B, etc.
I admired their determination and guts to do something like that, but am now worried that they will lose everything due to this pandemic. Do you think they will be entitled to anything from the local governments?
Most of them put all their savings into the new business ventures. It would be a real shame if they all went bust.
I don’t know whether any of you watched it?
Basically, it followed the highs and lows of people leaving the UK and starting up a new business in Spain or France. All of them involved tourism of some sort, bars, B and B, etc.
I admired their determination and guts to do something like that, but am now worried that they will lose everything due to this pandemic. Do you think they will be entitled to anything from the local governments?
Most of them put all their savings into the new business ventures. It would be a real shame if they all went bust.
Grandad Gaz said:
Do you think they will be entitled to anything from the local governments?
Maybe that depends on whether they took out new nationality, and/or where they pay taxes. If they pay tax to the UK I'd expect the UK to give them 80%; whether Spanish/French workers get the same from their governments I don't know.I run a business in Sweden, the last few years have been a bit much with Brexit and now the Kungflu, but here we have something call A-Kassa which you pa7 £10-20 per month into and it's an unemployment insurance where you can get up to 80% of your salary should you lose your job or business. Having this in the background has seriously reduced the number of sleepless nights I would have had.
In France there is a system of reimbursement based on what you earned in say March last year. Unfortunately Gilet Jaunes activity at that time suppressed takings. Holiday businesses could in theory get assistance.I read somewhere that future payments will be based on annual profit. In Europe income is taxed in the country where it is earned.
One of our favourite restaurants changed hands on 25th February. If the new owner is assessed on last years income then they are in the money.
If it is not, and they paid heavily for goodwill, they will be buried in debt and no income, but offered further loans.
One of our favourite restaurants changed hands on 25th February. If the new owner is assessed on last years income then they are in the money.
If it is not, and they paid heavily for goodwill, they will be buried in debt and no income, but offered further loans.
I run a micro-brewery alongside my business partner in the French Alps. We are 18 months old, and we were having a fantastic Winter season until Covid-19 struck. Sales were significantly up and some exciting plans were being made for the future.
As soon as France closed all bars we basically closed down the brewery, we only sell kegs direct to bars and although we do have a bottling machine, it's far too small/slow to pump out enough volume to create any meaningful turnover. Plus we don't have any contracts with bigger supermarkets that would realistically give us a chance to cover costs. Unfortunately selling a few bottles here and there to locals isn't going to cut the mustard.
As company directors we get no help personally from the French govt (even though I've been paying social security on my very modest earnings) and we have applied for help from the government for the business, although nothing has been approved as of yet.
On the plus side, craft beer was (and hopefully will still be) booming in France and we were on an exciting upward curve. On the down side, if pubs/bars/restaurants can't go back to normal quickly, I'm not sure how the industry as a whole will look.
Based where we are, a *lot* of businesses need to make their money in the short Winter season, for us, we are a bit more year round but a big Winter is vital. We have been making in-roads into the bigger cities like Lyon, but that takes time to build up a reputation and connections.
One good thing is we brewed 7000 litres of beer before we shut down, which is all now just sitting at 2ºC in the tanks (can sit there indefinitely) so we have beer ready to go as soon as this is over.
As soon as France closed all bars we basically closed down the brewery, we only sell kegs direct to bars and although we do have a bottling machine, it's far too small/slow to pump out enough volume to create any meaningful turnover. Plus we don't have any contracts with bigger supermarkets that would realistically give us a chance to cover costs. Unfortunately selling a few bottles here and there to locals isn't going to cut the mustard.
As company directors we get no help personally from the French govt (even though I've been paying social security on my very modest earnings) and we have applied for help from the government for the business, although nothing has been approved as of yet.
On the plus side, craft beer was (and hopefully will still be) booming in France and we were on an exciting upward curve. On the down side, if pubs/bars/restaurants can't go back to normal quickly, I'm not sure how the industry as a whole will look.
Based where we are, a *lot* of businesses need to make their money in the short Winter season, for us, we are a bit more year round but a big Winter is vital. We have been making in-roads into the bigger cities like Lyon, but that takes time to build up a reputation and connections.
One good thing is we brewed 7000 litres of beer before we shut down, which is all now just sitting at 2ºC in the tanks (can sit there indefinitely) so we have beer ready to go as soon as this is over.
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