Emg

Thanks!  I knew it wouldn't be straightforward, we are getting very used to the two steps forward three back (or if you are lucky two and a half back) French way of handling things.  Made complicated at present by not being on the spot full time.  The need for a douane licence for serving coffee is news to me but we were aware of the need for some sort of licence to be able to serve wine with the meal.  We have just returned from a short trip to make sure all is in order at our house & got stopped just after one A20 motorway toll booth by a bored customs officer wanting to know if we had any cigarettes or tobacco!  At that point all we had was a litre of semi-skimmed milk! BFN EMG

During the process of locating & buying our property in France we sought advice from various sources :- Living France Seminar, Blevins Frank, etc.  Somewhere along the line & we cannot remember where, we were told that operating a B&B / Gîte d'étape was a "retirement occupation".  We recently visited a French Accountant to declare our income from last year, we are currently "non-resident".  He asked how the income was derived, we said rental of beds and provision of breakfasts & evening meals.  The breakfasts seemed to cause him a problem and he asked if we were registered.  We said "no" we'd been told we didn't need to so for the present he is declaring us as "non professionnel".  This begs the question, should we be registered and if so with whom?   We provide sleeping accommodation in either dormitories or B&B rooms plus evening meals and breakfasts for walkers. Our local Marie and Cantonal Tourist Office know what we are doing and none of them has mentioned it.  Can anyone out there throw any light for us?