> today, they have announced they want to raise a new tax on video games
Which leads to me suspect you might also be confusing other things, especially regarding:
- online banking - most banks expose most of their services online
- declaring websites you own - maybe you are talking about having to declare informations systems that collect and process identifying information (access logs excluded)
- access logs - six months is not "an insane amount of time"
Among the remaining, some is true, some I don't know.
> You are confusing government announcing a decision with two senators from opposition making a proposition (which will not even be subject to vote anytime soon).
In fact, this structure I've exposed already exists. The new tax will just double the budget they got. Regarding the new tax, I won't be surprised if it come in application in a form or another.
> online banking - most banks expose most of their services online
By online banking, I mean full online banking. You can't do that if you are a business.
> declaring websites you own - maybe you are talking about having to declare informations systems that collect and process identifying information (access logs excluded)
Even if it's a simple blog without comments, you have declared it to the C.N.I.L.
> access logs - six months is not "an insane amount of time"
From the LCEN law, it's 1 year including user data, password hashes, raw passwords (you can demonstrate that you don't have them) and session data. Sure, everything is doable but that's an hassle.
Read PG's http://www.paulgraham.com/america.html in perspective and it still stands 7 years later, especially when considering US vs. France.
Ironically, of all rich countries the US has lost the most civil liberties
recently. But I'm not too worried yet. I'm hoping once the present
administration is out, the natural openness of American culture will reassert
itself.
But from the day you create a company, you discover problems one by one. My first startup was French and I still love living in Paris. But I'm pretty sure, unless things change, that I'll move out as most of my friends did.
You can fire someone easily. You just have to provide a good reason for it. "Oh well, after all I shouldn't have hired him" or "This guys is not the best I could find, he doensn't give 120%" won't allow you to fire someone, no luck you're in France, labor code is sacred here.
VAT is not painful at all, even an accountant fresh out from school could handle this easily. Protip, hire an accountant. If you're a business, VAT is transparent for you. It only impacts french customers.
You don't have to declare every website to the government, you declare it to the CNIL which is an independent administrative body whose goal is to protect data privacy. I like them too.
Why setting up a business in France if you only see the drawbacks of being here?
Though I agree with you on the bullshit part. This incubator is a total waste of money.
This is by far France's biggest problem. I had the "privilege" to tell that to our president Hollande, and he just confirmed he does not even understand what's wrong with that.
The employee can then request a reexamination in front of a court (prud'hommes). If you have any proof it will cost you 0€, you don't need a lawyer when going on prud'hommes and this will take you max 1 hour of your time. You can then ask some money to the employee to cover the damage caused and the time lost.
If you don't have any proof, then yep, you're fucked, and for a reason "presumption of innocence".
Cool for you to meet M. Hollande, but I'm afraid his role is not to vote laws or change the labor code, other instances less centralized are already dealing with this.
I don't think it's easy to demonstrate a steal. Even if you saw the guy, it will be your word against his, and court rule 8 of 10 against employer.
Not being an overachiever is by no mean a reason to be fired, not in France.
Things are changing slowly though, new types of contracts are being voted. They should bring "Flexibility". Give France a few years and you will be able to fire someone just because he's wearing a yellow shirt.
Given the mindset of french workers and unions, this new type of contract should actualy lower the overall productivity.
Entirely your fault, deal with it. The guy you hired is not responsible.
"He doesn't give 120%" Illegal. You don't force someone to work for free.
A good reason would be that he gives only 50%, not that he stole the damn coffee machine... Wrong mentality here imho.
Sure.. How long will it last?
> VAT is not painful at all, even an accountant fresh out from school could handle this easily. Protip, hire an accountant. If you're a business, VAT is transparent for you. It only impacts french customers.
It's a myth. Companies pay VAT, you pay 19,60% of the value added by your company.
> You don't have to declare every website to the government, you declare it to the CNIL which is an independent administrative body whose goal is to protect data privacy. I like them too.
They haven't stop PRISM. Nothing is independent, the CNIL gets its money from state taxes, it's government.
> Why setting up a business in France if you only see the drawbacks of being here?
I am from france.
> Though I agree with you on the bullshit part. This incubator is a total waste of money
We agree on something! :)
- It is VERY expensive to fire people. Something like 2 years of salary?
- The taxes rates can be borderline extortion. People are happy paying them because they see value, but it hurts competitiveness.
- There's more of a feel of us (workers) versus them (management) as opposed to esprit de corps. You see this in employee attitude as well as the government's view of business.
This is all a shame, because outside of work, it's a fascinating country, with great food and culture. The academic system produces a lot of well trained engineers that are very good at Math. (This is why most financial software firms either have a French office, French roots, or lots of French engineers)
What's this mean? I hope the project succeeds, but I don't think it will. It sounds like Malaysia's multimedia corridor of many years back. Unfortunately you can't centrally plan innovation.
Tax Credits comes with a lot conditions that a lot of startup can't afford. For example, you have to hired university PHDs to do mainly abstract research, startups don't have this kind of money.
We also obtain the JEI status that allows huge tax discounts.
The fact you can't innovate in France is a myth.
As an example, Denmark (also part of the EU) was named Best Country to Start a Business in a survey published in Wall Street Journal in 2010 (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405274870385920457552...).
http://www.economist.com/blogs/economist-explains/2013/09/ec...
I want to share my experience. France is doomed. Taxes and red tape are harder and harder every month. Just today, they have announced they want to raise a new tax on video games (wtf) and distribute the money to french video game large editor. (wtf) You can't do violent games or game that don't picture well the french culture. (wtf!) If you are an indie game developer in France, you are done.
Example of red tapes (someone asked):
- You can't fire anyone. - To hire someone, you have to face a handful of fake applications. (People who don't want to get the job but are afraid of losing their allocations) - You have to publish your statement of income every year. Even if you are full private LLC! - You can't do online banking. - You have to declare every websites you own to the gov. - Some crazy BS about keeping access logs of your websites for an insane amount of time.
Example of taxes:
- To pay an employee 1,000 Euros, you are paying 2,000. - They have a commission to monitor the evolution of work time and you have to pay them directly. Not even a scam. - You have to huge pay a tax on your server SSDs for P2P piracy even if you have a business that nothing to do with that. - VAT taxes are a painful process. - You have to pay 30% of your total assets if you want to live abroad, even if it's only for a few years.
Sure, this project seems great but it's again gov. money (Caisse des Dépots) wasted and it will only profit to some BS/political companies, so scr0w them.