SASU vs UK LLC

The question is can set up a company in the UK to do consulting in France to a French client company, while I am a French tax resident & a lot of the work being here in France (say 50%?) - although there will be a lot of travel to the UK, other EU countries & in fact the rest of the world!

I am a UK passport holder/citizen with a an Article 50 carte de séjour - so French resident - and a French tax resident. My wife is still a UK tax resident as she spends more time in the UK than me. We both have S1s from the UK.

I was retired 4 years ago by my employer thanks to Covid at the age of 60 and have been doing a lot of gardening around my house in le Gard (30) since. I live off of a private pension from my old employer - approx 80k per year. I pay tax on that here in France

I am now lucky enough to be offered a consulting contract for 1-3 years in Montpellier - but I need to ‘be a company’ to be a contractor. I have had varying advice from various French tax advisors but am happy that a SASU is the French way to go, being paid with dividends only to avoid impacting my S1 status/reduced social contributions on my private pension. The contract will make between 60-100kEuros per year

However it has been suggested that a better way to go would be a UK LLC, with my wife in partnership, and taking some of the company income as a SIPP in her name & the bulk still as dividends in mine. The company & her would still be taxed by HMRC & I would be taxed here in France on my part. The reason it is better being the reduction of UK corporation tax by the SIPP contributions - and the zero tax on 25% of the SIPP when withdrawn later

It doesn’t make much difference - maybe 5k over a year at best - but my pension is not indexed against inflation, so I am trying to squeeze every penny out of this new opportunity

Someone on Strictly Fiscal France has just indicated to me that if a lot of the work is in France, it is illegal for the company to be operated in the UK & another said that France impots would want to tax UK company directly anyway?

This doesn’t sound that complicated to me but I have had so so much contradictory advice, that I’d love to speak to someone who knows what they are talking about

Can you help? I did briefly make contact on the same subject a week or so agao, but have now igned up as a paid subscriber. I really need to get this set up in the coming days (French accountants ALL going on vac in August has not helped!)

A second question would be that if I go down the SASU route, then with a turnover of 60-100k, can I take it all in dividends (after corp tax)? I am 64 & for perhaps a 3 year contract at best, I am never getting a French state pension, and I already have medical via the S1 & a mutual in place, so a salary with all the social contribution implications is of little benefit to me?