Why is the gardener for my French home costing more than I thought?

Reader question: I employ a gardener through the chèque emploi system, carefully going through the costs before doing so, but I have been charged far in excess of what I calculated. Have I

misunderstood something?

Thousands of people who opted for an immediate tax credit for employing a gardener, cleaner or other service person at their home are also believed to have had too much debited from their

accounts for the service in the first months of this year.

The system was launched last year for people who directly employ someone at their home and was extended this year to people who pay home-help service businesses as you have.

You will have signed up for the chèque emploi service universel (Cesu) service under which you declare the number of hours your gardener works and the amount of the salary/payment as usual,

but then Urssaf should take from your account only the cost of this plus social charges, minus a 50% home-employment tax credit.

However in many cases Urssaf did not apply this 50% tax credit that was due.

So whereas only half of the actual cost of the service should be collected from your account (subject to certain payment ceilings) with Urssaf then paying your gardener their whole salary or

fee, the full amount was taken in error.

However you are advised to keep an eye on bank statements in case the bug recurs.

Can I get help meeting France’s mandatory garden clearance rules?