Newsletter: Cross-border teleworking in France

July 2023

We would like to draw your attention to an important news item concerning cross-border teleworking: namely, on 30 June, the French authorities decided to sign the framework agreement providing a practical solution for employees doing teleworking in a country other than where their employer is based.
Please find further clarification below.

CONTEXT:

Frontier workers employed by an employer based in a country other than the employee's country of residence are covered by the social security system of the employer's country. However, since the corona crisis, teleworking has become a regular feature of employment arrangements between employees and employers (where possible) and this includes allowing the employee to work from his home address. But in the case of cross-border workers, whose residence is in a different country from the company, this opens up the possibility of social security shifting to the worker's country of residence. Since the covid period, an interim transitional measure was valid whereby it was provided that the teleworking days of cross-border workers were ignored for determining social security entitlement. However, this expired on 30 June 2023. In order to provide certainty to employers and employees and create uniformity between the different countries of the European Union, a framework agreement has now been concluded to provide legal certainty in situations of hybrid cross-border working. It will enter into force from 1 July 2023. France has also just decided to sign this agreement, thus following its neighbours like the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and Luxembourg, among others.

CONCRETELY:

Cross-border workers (employer in Belgium, residence in France or vice versa) can work up to 2.5 days from home without any change in legislation. The employer's country remains responsible for social security.

CONDITIONS:

The employer must submit a specific written application to apply the social security legislation of the country where the employer is located.  This application must meet the following conditions:

• the employee's country of residence is a country other than the country of the employer's registered office or place of business
• the cross-border teleworking in the country of residence amounts to less than 50% of the total working time
• the application is made by mutual agreement between the employer and the employee

This agreement applies only to telework in the home country and not to any other services provided by the employee in his country of residence (e.g. customer visits).

APPLICATION:

First day, after effective signature by the French state

SPECIFIC FOCUS:

This adjustment concerns social security only, teleworking days always remain taxable in the employee's country of residence.

For further questions and information: please feel free to contact your (payroll)contact within RFN, send us an email to info@rfn.fr or fill in the contact form.