social security contributions, help?

[nicksouthuk]

I was wondering whether anyone could help. I'm trying to work out how much cotisations I would need to pay so as to work out how much contingency fund I'll need.

Myself and a friend are planning on running either gites or chambres d'hote but keep finding different figures mentioned in many forums. Apparently there was a change in the law in 2006 to help the self-employed but in many forums I still read that you pay a set amount of cotisations in the first 2 years on an expected income which still seemed very high.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Cassis]

I assume you're talking about social contributions?  I think it depends on your employment status.  If your only source of income will be B&B or gîtes it will depend on what basis you set up your business, e.g. whether it is registered at a Chamber of Commerce.  It is not clear whether this is required or not - certainly in some places this does not seem to be enforced.  Search 'register business' on the gites and B&B forums to see what I mean.  But there are other people on the forum who know much more about this side of things than I do. 

By the way, B&B is harder work than running gites.  B&B's pretty much a full-time job - expect to start at 7.00am (latest) most days, serving and clearing breakfasts till late morning, then cleaning rooms, changing beds and towels, doing laundry etc. till early afternoon.  Then there's having to be in most afternoons and evenings to greet people arriving, taking bookings, replying to emails, blah, blah.  Do evening meals and you're looking at a 16 hour day.  Great fun! 

There is a lot talk of the gîtes and B&B market having reached saturation point in some areas, I don't know if there's any truth in that or whether it's scaremongering to put people off.  You need to research the area you're thinking about very carefully before making such a big financial commitment.  But you probably know that already so I'll shut up now.

Phil