Looking at SARL or sole entrepreneur options in relation to tax and social charges

Hello Valérie
I currently run a publishing company in the UK as a sole trader. All the contracts and sales are in the UK (UK reps, book distributors and writers) plus online writing services and writing mentoring. I currently employ both my husband and son part-time on small wages (equivalent to around €9650 and €8250 respectively). We don’t aim to make a profit and generally break even or have a slight loss and I take actual expenses but not salary. (I have an early pension from a previous employment)

We will be relocating to France this autumn and so I think that despite all the activity being in the UK I need to register the business in France. So the first question is whether this is correct. Alternatively, I could continue to run it in the UK and register with HMRC as a non-resident sole trader but I’m not sure whether the French authorities would accept this (though we’d declare salaries and any profits in our French tax returns if we can use this route).

If I can do this then I’ll also set up as a French sole trader for my separate online work.
If I can’t do this, then I need to decide whether to set up as a French sole trader with a similar structure as currently in the UK or whether it would be better for the 3 of us to form a SARL (probably the family version). To decide this I need to consider what would be taxed under each structure and what social charges would be paid (for all 3 of us).
Thank you!