Registration as a professional chambres d’hôtes

Hi Valérie,

We are Clare and David. We have bought a property in France. The previous owner (a friend) is currently a tenant, paying rent of €6k pa. Before we bought the property from her, she ran the property as a chambres d’hotes, and continues to host a small number of guests in our name (ie the income counts towards our business).

Clare is living in the property and is tax-resident in France (ie she lives in France for more than half of each year), in order to secure Brexit withdrawal agreement rights to stay in France after the end of the transition period in January 2021. David continues to live in the UK, where he works. He plans to join Clare in around three years’ time, when he retires.

David would like to run the chambres d’hotes business when he arrives in 2023. Clare is less keen, and has some significant concerns about the difficulties involved in maintaining the business registration. Clare speaks French to a good standard, and has recently completed a 2.5 day permit d’expoitation course, as a pre-requisite to registering as a professional chambres d’hotes. David’s command of French is rudimentary. He would be unable to complete such a course in French. We would like advice on the implications of Clare registering now as a professional chambres d’hotes, while our tenant keeps the business ticking over, and before David takes over in three years’ time.

The other reason for wanting to register now is that Clare would otherwise be deemed economically inactive, and is not retired. We understand that if she registers as a professional chambres d’hotes, she will then be eligible for the French healthcare system.

We have lots of questions about the registration process and its implications, but the first two and most important questions are:

1. How important is registration as a professional for Clare to be able to access the French healthcare system? (Are there other ways of doing so, even if that means paying privately? - Clare has private cover at the moment, but understand that she cannot keep renewing this in perpetuity.)

2. Whatever the answer to the first question: If Clare does register as a professional chambres d’hotes, would she still be eligible for this only if she achieves an annual income from the business of €5k pa? (Clare does have other income in excess of this from a property we own in the UK.) Could the rental income from our tenant be eligible within the turnover figure for the business?

Thank you,

Clare and David