- If you're a French tax resident working remotely from France for a UK employer, France has the right to tax your salary — it isn't neutralised by a tax credit the way frontier-worker income is
- The declaration box is different too: Box 1AG, not the 1AF box used by commuters who physically work in the UK
- There's a bigger issue than tax boxes: a UK company employing you directly while you work from French soil can create real compliance problems — for them and for you — unless the arrangement is set up properly
- Employer of Record (EOR) services and portage salarial are the two standard, compliant routes for a UK company to legally employ someone working remotely from France
If you moved to France and kept your UK job, working from your kitchen table instead of an office, you're in a different tax situation from a frontier worker who commutes across the Channel. This article is specifically for people physically working from France for a UK employer — full remote, not commuting to a UK workplace.
If you actually travel to the UK to work and are paid via UK PAYE, that's a different mechanism entirely — see How to Declare UK Frontier Worker Income instead, since the tax credit process there is genuinely different from what's covered here.
For the wider picture of how a French tax return comes together, see Filing French Taxes as a UK Expat. For the foundations of how French tax works for UK expats generally, see How the French Tax System Works.
Why This Is Taxed Differently From a Frontier Worker's Salary
Under the France-UK double tax treaty, employment income is generally taxed in the country where the work is physically performed — not where the employer is based, and not where the salary is paid from.
A frontier worker physically works in the UK, so the UK taxes the income at source, and France then gives a credit that neutralises French tax on the same income entirely — that's what makes the frontier-worker mechanism relatively painless.
Remote work is the opposite case. If you're sitting in France doing the work, France is the country where the income was earned, so France has the primary right to tax it directly — not as a treaty-credit exercise, but as ordinary taxable income. There typically isn't UK tax being withheld on this income once your UK employer knows you're working from France, and there's no equivalent credit mechanism to neutralise French tax, because there's no UK-source tax being charged on it in the first place.
The Declaration: Box 1AG, Not 1AF
This is the detail that trips people up if they've read about the frontier-worker process and assume the same boxes apply.
Form 2047 (foreign income annex): Declare the figure after deducting mandatory employee contributions — UK National Insurance and any mandatory pension contributions — the same "Net Imposable" starting point used for frontier-worker income. Do not apply the 10% professional allowance yourself; the tax office applies that automatically. Describe the income as UK employment income, worked from France.
Form 2042 (main return): The figure goes in Box 1AG (Declarant 1) or 1DG (further declarants) — the box for salary earned abroad that is taxable only in France, with no foreign tax credit attached. This is a different box from 1AF, which frontier workers use for treaty-credit-eligible income.
Salary declared in 1AG to 1DG isn't subject to prélèvement à la source withholding the way a French employer's payroll would handle it, but it is taken into account when your income tax instalments (acompte) are calculated for the following year — so budget for the fact that tax on this income isn't being collected automatically as you earn it.
Where to Find These Figures
UK National Insurance: if you're still issued a P60 for the tax year, your total NI contributions are shown on it. But this depends on your specific situation — UK NI often continues automatically for roughly the first 52 weeks someone works overseas, before HMRC and your employer confirm your ongoing position. Once you're confirmed as working wholly outside the UK on an ongoing basis, UK NI typically stops being deducted altogether, and a P60 may no longer be issued at all. If that's the case, there's no NI figure to deduct for that period — check your payslips to see whether NI is still being taken before assuming a P60 exists to check.
Mandatory pension contributions: these don't appear on a P60 at all. Check your payslips directly, or request an annual contribution statement from your pension provider — most workplace pension schemes can produce one on request.
If you're no longer receiving a P60 or standard UK payslips at all, that's worth treating as a signal in its own right, not just a documentation gap — it can mean your UK employer has already stopped running you through standard UK payroll, which ties back to the bigger question below about whether the employment arrangement itself is still properly structured.
The Bigger Issue: How Are You Actually Being Employed?
Getting the tax box right doesn't resolve a more serious question sitting underneath it: is your UK employer legally allowed to employ you like this while you work from France at all?
A UK company that keeps paying someone directly through UK payroll while that person works full-time from France risks two separate problems:
For the employer: having an employee working substantively from France can risk creating a permanent establishment in France for the company — triggering French corporate tax and social security registration obligations the employer almost certainly isn't set up for.
For the employee: if the arrangement isn't formally regularised, it can raise travail dissimulé (undeclared work) exposure — a serious compliance issue in France, regardless of whether the intention was ever to avoid anything.
This isn't a hypothetical edge case. It's the ordinary, unavoidable result of "I moved to France and kept doing my UK job remotely" without anyone formally restructuring how the employment itself works.
The Two Standard Compliant Routes
Employer of Record (EOR). A specialist company legally employs you in France on behalf of your UK employer, running French payroll, social charges, and a compliant employment contract, while your day-to-day work relationship with the UK company continues unchanged. The UK company pays the EOR; the EOR pays you.
Portage salarial. A French "umbrella" structure common for consultants and contractors: a portage company employs you, invoices your UK client/employer for your work, and converts the fee into a French salary after social charges and a management fee (typically 5-10%). This suits project-based or consulting-style remote work better than a traditional employed role.
Neither of these is something to set up retroactively in a panic — but if you're reading this because you've already been working remotely for a UK employer without either structure in place, it's worth addressing directly with a French employment specialist rather than leaving it unresolved.
What If You're Self-Employed Instead of Employed?
If you're not employed by the UK company at all — you invoice them as a freelancer or contractor — this article doesn't apply to you. Freelance/self-employed income earned while resident in France is a different declaration category entirely (typically BNC or micro-entrepreneur status), with its own registration requirements. That's a separate topic from remote employment.
Common Mistakes
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Assuming the frontier-worker process applies. If you don't physically travel to the UK to work, the treaty-credit mechanism used by commuters doesn't apply to you. France taxes this income directly, and the declaration box is different (1AG, not 1AF).
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Declaring in Box 1AF instead of 1AG. Using the wrong box can misrepresent the income as treaty-credit-eligible when it isn't, producing an incorrect calculation.
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Assuming "I pay French tax on it" means the employment arrangement itself is fine. Getting the tax declaration right doesn't resolve whether your UK employer is legally permitted to keep employing you this way from France. These are two separate problems.
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Not budgeting for the acompte. Since this income isn't collected via automatic withholding the way a French salary is, the following year's tax instalments will reflect it — a bill that can catch people off guard if they haven't planned for it.
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Confusing this with freelance/self-employed income. If you invoice your UK client rather than being on their payroll, you're in a completely different declaration category (BNC/micro-entrepreneur), not the employment-income route covered here.
Frequently Asked Questions
I work remotely from France for a UK company. Is my salary taxed in the UK or France?
France, in almost all cases, because the work is physically performed in France. This differs from a frontier worker who actually travels to the UK to work, where the UK taxes the salary and France then applies a neutralising credit.
Which box do I use on my French tax return?
Box 1AG (Declarant 1) or 1DG (further declarants) on Form 2042, after declaring the income on Form 2047. This is different from Box 1AF, which is used for frontier-worker income eligible for a foreign tax credit.
Where do I find my UK National Insurance and pension contribution figures?
NI is shown on your P60, if one is still being issued — this depends on your situation, since UK NI often stops once you're confirmed as working wholly outside the UK on an ongoing basis, at which point a P60 may no longer exist. Pension contributions never appear on a P60 at all — check your payslips or request an annual statement from your pension provider.
Do I get a tax credit for UK tax already withheld?
Only if UK tax is genuinely being withheld on this specific income, which is uncommon once your UK employer is aware you're working from France. If none is withheld, there's nothing to credit — you simply declare and pay French tax on the full amount.
Is it actually legal for my UK employer to keep paying me directly while I work from France?
Not straightforwardly, and it's worth addressing properly rather than assuming it's fine because tax is being declared. The employer risks creating a permanent establishment in France, and the arrangement can raise undeclared-work risk for you if it isn't formally regularised — typically through an Employer of Record or a portage salarial structure.
What's the difference between an Employer of Record and portage salarial?
An Employer of Record formally employs you in France on your UK employer's behalf, handling French payroll and compliance while your working relationship with the UK company continues as before. Portage salarial is closer to a French umbrella-company structure, better suited to consulting or project-based work, where a portage company invoices your UK client and pays you a salary after charges and a management fee.
I invoice my UK employer rather than being on their payroll — does this apply to me?
No. If you're freelance or self-employed rather than an employee, your income falls under a different declaration category (BNC or micro-entrepreneur), with its own registration process. This article covers employment income specifically.
Sources: Comment sont imposés mes revenus perçus de l'étranger? (impots.gouv.fr — confirms Box 1AG/1DG is used for foreign salary taxable only in France, without a foreign tax credit, distinct from the credit-eligible 1AF box) · Official Form 2047-NOT notice (Cerfa n°50545*27, "Notice Revenus," Cadre 1 "Traitements, salaires, pensions et rentes imposables en France" — direct read of the real notice, confirming foreign salary is declared after deducting category-specific mandatory charges but without deducting foreign tax, and that the 10% allowance is applied automatically rather than by the declarant) · corroborated across multiple UK payroll/HR-advisory sources (P60 shows total NI contributions but not pension contributions; UK NI often continues for approximately the first 52 weeks working overseas before typically stopping once non-UK residence and wholly-overseas work are confirmed) · uk-frontier-worker-income-french-tax-return-2026.md (this project's own verified figures for the frontier-worker treaty-credit mechanism and the equivalent Net Imposable formula, used here for contrast and consistency without re-deriving)