If you plan to start and run a gite and/or chambre d'hôtes business as you main source of income in France, then you should consider using my auto-entrepreneur business registration service.
Advantages of registering a gite business as an auto-entrepreneur in France
Here are a few of the advantages of registering a gite as an auto-entrepreneur in France:
- Pay-as-you-go system, which enables you to test your market while getting to know how the French system works.
- Enables you to get a health cover through your business with the creation of your French social security number and a carte vitale being issued.
- There will be no second guessing your social charges. Gite owners pay 13.1% of their turnover towards social charges (pension, health, family allowances). An extra 0.1% goes towards a training fund and 0.015% towards the Chambre de Commerce.
- Taxes declared and paid on a monthly or quarterly turnover declaration form (paper version or online).
- The yearly maximum auto-entrepreneur turnover of 81,800 euros fits nicely with a gite activity, as it can cover for several gites (bear in mind the prorata rule in your first business year).
- Bookkeeping obligations are kept simple and can be handled without an accountant. Keep a ledger of all revenue received as well as your business expenses (keep copies of all invoices, receipts and formal offers/quotations).
Get help to register your gite business as an auto-entrepreneur
Start Business in France can handle your gite business registration online. Simply complete the Registration form in the Auto-entrepreneur business registration service section, I will then come back to you with the addictional compulsory documents required.
Gites have to be listed with Chambre de Commerce and Greffe du Tribunal, so it is important to supply the right documents and avoid second guessing. I have registered over 200 businesses in the last three years and will take you through this process.
What is included in your gite auto-entrepreneur business registration
The auto-entrepreneur registration service for gite owners includes:
- Registration with Chambre de Commerce and Greffe du Tribunal de Commerce .
- Affiliation with Régime Social des Indépendants (RSI) for your social charges.
- Health cover set up with the affiliation to a health body.
- Information sent to Impôs the tax office.
- Official business SIRET number created by INSEE.
Other things to consider for your gite and chambre d'hôtes business in France
- Once registered, you will also need to get in touch with your mairie in order to declare your gite as a meublé de tourisme. The mairie will give you a déclaraion de meublé de tourisme form to fill in with basic information such as the gite's size, capacity and you plan to rent it (i.e. seasonal or all year long).
- The average occupation rate for a gite according to Gites de France was 41,5% in 2016. You may consider adding other activities to increase your income such as touristique guide on local markets and natural sites, sport activities, manual or cultural workshops.
NB: if your gite is a secondary source of income, you will be looking at registering it as Loueur Meublé Non Professionnel (LMNP) with Impots. This means that you only need to declare your income to Impot in your French income tax form.
Obviously this means that you will have no health cover generated by this activity. If you are living outside of France, this is also how you would register your gite. The money earned via your French property will have to be declared to Impôts.