I have come across this great online tool enabling would be entrepreneurs to assess how much social charges they will pay, according to their business type. Your social charges vary according to your business structure (entreprise individuelle, EURL, SARL) and business regime (auto entrepreneur, micro, regime reel simplifie).
In December 2008 the Plan de Relance de l’Economie (economy recovery plan) launched a new initiative entitled “Zéro Charges”. Aimed at small and medium size companies with fewer than 10 employees, this scheme offered a 12 month exemption of employer’s social charges contributions “charges patronale” on new employees. Used by over 500 000 small companies so far, the deadline should be extended until June 2010.