Registration of B&B / Gîte d'étape

[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?

[Eslier]

This is nothing like as straightforward as you might think. A French accountant (a french qualifie one practicing in France) will give you the best idea. I can however give you a few pointers in the right sort of direction:

Firstly, the matter of residency. You can't choose where you are resident. If you spend more than six months of the year in France then the impots will deem you to be resident in France and treat you as such. In any case, you need to be "resident" to be eligible for full French healthcare.

Regarding whether your business needs to be registered with the Chambre de Commerce is going to be dependant on a number of things including how the officials in your particular area interpret the law !    The amount of income generated will be taken into account, as will  any other sources of income you may or may not have. The only thng that seems to be  slightly consistent is that  if your  B&B business is your main source of income then they will probably say that you should be registered. If your main source of income comes from elsewhere, and the B&B business doesn't generate more than about €7k then you probably won't have to register. As I said, however, this area of law sems to be interpreted differently in different places and depending upon who you speak to. If it is decided that you need to register at the Chambre de Commerce then you will find it much easier to let your  accountant handle this process to ensure that you register inthe most beneficial way (tax régime etc.). Once registered you will start to receive bills for cotisations from various bodies and you will be really and truly "in the system". Social charges in year one of registration will be around €4k regardless of income. As I said, speak to an accountant about this. He or she will be able to give you much better advice, based upon your individual circumstances, than any of us on this forum.

One thing you should do, however, is obtain a license from the Douannes (customs) which is needed to serve coffee etc. at breakfast and wine included as part of a table d'hote dinner menu. I'm fairly sure this is called a "Class II" license but I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong. These are issued on the spot at your nearest customs office after filling in a few forms - as you might expect. There is no charge for the license. This will enable you to offer wine as part of an inclusive menu but won't allow you to sell wine or any other alcoholic drinks seperately.

You are only allowed to offer up to half board in a B&B.  Only a "hotel" can offer full board and you certainly don't want to go down that route!!

Good luck

[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

[Cassis]

[quote user="Eslier"]a license from the Douannes (customs) is needed to serve coffee etc. at breakfast

[/quote]

I did read something of the sort in a book once but I have also been told from other sources (tourist office, Gites de France, mairie) that it is not necessary for B&B - of course, alcohol with meals is a different matter. Maybe it's just another one of those rules that most no-one bothers about (especially if the douanes themselves tend to be unaware of it, as stated in another post!).

Phil

[Coco]

[quote user="Cassis"][quote user="Eslier"]a license from the Douannes (customs) is needed to serve coffee etc. at breakfast
[/quote]

I did read something of the sort in a book once but I have also been told from other sources (tourist office, Gites de France, mairie) that it is not necessary for B&B - of course, alcohol with meals is a different matter. Maybe it's just another one of those rules that most no-one bothers about (especially if the douanes themselves tend to be unaware of it, as stated in another post!).

Phil
[/quote]

Whether the douanes know or understand it themselves is beside the point - we all know how the right hand doesn't know what the left hand's doing in France.  It is actually the law though and you'll only need one jobsworth, who has swatted up on the law to catch you out.  It's so easy to get and it's free, it's just not worth NOT getting one.

[Cassis]

[quote user="St Amour"]We all know how the right hand doesn't know what the left hand's doing in France.  It is actually the law though and you'll only need one jobsworth, who has swatted up on the law to catch you out.  It's so easy to get and it's free, it's just not worth NOT getting one.[/quote]

How true!  I gather some tabacs also issue these licences if you don't have a douanes nearby - is that true?  For non-alcoholic beverages all you need is a Class I 'Licence de Boissons sans Alcool'.  I notice that if you do evening meals with drinks included, the Category II 'Petit Licence Restaurant' only covers non-alcoholic plus NON-DISTILLED alcoholic drinks like wine, beer, champagne and cider - not spirits like pastis or whisky.  So be careful what you serve as aperitifs and digestifs if the 'jobsworths' are around!  If you have a wine list and charge for drinks separately then you need a category 3 or 4 licence - more costly and complicated.

Phil