What is wage portage?
Wage portage is a solution that offers the opportunity to be able to resume or create an independent professional activity while benefiting from the social advantages of employee status.
By becoming a sponsored employee, the freelance worker is employed by the portage company, but continues to fulfill the missions entrusted to him by the clientele he has built up himself.
More than 300 umbrella companies exist today.
By choosing among them a leading and recognized company, the self-employed worker can benefit from the advice and services of experts who will accompany him upstream and downstream of his journey towards wage portage.
Concretely, when a service is ordered, the self-employed worker can choose to go through a portage company and inform the client.
The relationship between the three parties is said to be tripartite and sealed by three contracts: between the client and the worker, between this worker and the umbrella company, between this company and the client.
Once the mission has been carried out, the umbrella company invoices the amount to the client, deducts its commission and its management fees and delivers its remuneration and pay slip to the employee being carried.
Last December, Urssaf listed nearly 3.8 million self-employed workers, an increase of more than 8% in two years, more than half of them under the self-employed scheme, which marks the largest increase.
And this despite and because of the health crisis which, as expected, has accelerated new forms of work.
Among them, wage portage, which still only concerns a too small number of self-employed workers (less than 100,000) has shown annual growth of 20% for almost ten years thanks to the advantages it provides with regard to other statuses. .
What are the different statuses for freelancers?
If being self-employed does not constitute a status in itself, there are on the other hand several statuses among which it can be difficult to navigate and make the right choice.
Still too little known, wage portage is nevertheless a real status that offers many advantages that should be compared to other existing statuses.
The micro-enterprise (also known as Auto-entreprise or Æ): this is the most common approach and the least engaging in the short term.
Registration is quick and easy, online and free of charge.
The worker is not subject to VAT and social charges are low.
However, they relate to a capped turnover: if it exceeds this amount for two consecutive years, it passes to the sole proprietorship system.
Sole proprietorship (EI or EIRL): it is an alternative that is not subject to any income ceiling.
It opens up more perspectives.
On the other hand, the registration fees are payable and the formalities are longer.
It is a status that is similar to the EURL in that it allows the business creator to protect his assets.
The SASU (Simplified Single-Person Joint Stock Company) and the EURL (Single-Person Limited Liability Company): these are more demanding, more complex and even more expensive statuses.
These forms of companies are similar to SAS and SARL in that they consist of a single partner.
Unless the manager is on salary, these statuses also benefit from the social regime for the self-employed.
Wage portage: a status in its own right
Wage portage is a status in its own right, and in its own right, for the self-employed.
Halfway between the employee and the entrepreneur, the freelance thus combines the advantages of each without their disadvantages.
He retains the decision-making that defines his professional independence while benefiting from full social security coverage: the right to retirement, unemployment benefits and health insurance.
He is not limited by his turnover and can recover VAT on his purchases.
It can also deduct its operating costs from the calculation of taxes.
On the other hand, he does not need to create any other legal status and can work after signing the contracts that bind him and his client to the umbrella company.
By leaving all the responsibility for administrative management otherwise related to the business to the latter (social security and tax charges, invoicing and accounting), he can concentrate on his work more than if he created his own company.
The portage company accompanies it by providing it with a set of services and possibilities for the development of its network, of which it is an integral part.
The Grandguillaume FNAIM and Griset reports: taking note
This is the subject of the report commissioned by the FNAIM (National Federation of Real Estate) from Laurent Grandguillaume, vice-president of the Fondation Travail Otherwise.
This is a response to the growing proportion of self-employed workers, which represents more than 50% and could reach 70% in the coming years.
On April 8, the Grandguillaume report calls for simplification as well as confidence through ten key measures.
These measures propose the creation of tools to measure professional changes, affirm status, develop dialogue and training.
In particular, they recommend updating and securing contracts and professional qualification certificates (CQP).
The Cerfa could now include a wage portage box recognizing certain statuses (trainee, apprentice, collaborating spouse, partner) within the legal status of the company.
For his part, Alain Griset, Minister in charge of SMEs, was asked to draw up at the request of the President of the Republic, a "special plan for the self-employed, traders, very small and medium-sized enterprises".
The bill, awaited for a year, gave rise to a bill adopted on January 5 in the National Assembly.
It provides for a single status for the self-employed, all categories combined, and to bring their social rights closer to those of employees.
A majority demand today among freelancers who are currently turning to wage portage.
