Do we need to register our new B&B as a business?

If you provide B&B lets at home, you must make a declaration of your chambres d’hôtes to the mairie on form 3566*02 (tinyurl.com/chambreform).

You can drop it in by hand, post it by recorded delivery or scan and email it.

Some mairies also offer an online option. Chambres d’hôtes benefit from the micro-BIC tax system, with the higher income threshold of €170,000, and an abatement of 71% of the income for income tax.

Note that you must comply with certain basic standards concerning size of room, access to bathroom facilities, breakfast and linen.

However, the Direction Géné­rale des Entreprises (part of the Economy Ministry) says if the activity is of a “habitual nature” (or where it is your main work activity), you must also register as a business.

In this case, farmers offering B&B at the farm are asked to register it as a secondary activity with the chamber of agriculture (other people register at the chamber of commerce, for example as micro-entrepreneurs).

Farmers’ B&B income is sometimes added to their agricultural income or sometimes declared as separate micro-BIC income.

It would be best to seek advice from the chamber or a professional, such as an accountant, on your circumstances and whether your activity will be deemed sufficiently “regular” to need the extra level of formalities.

This question was answered by Olaf Muscat Baron who is a Fellow of the Chartered Association of Accountants UK, a French expert comptable and an International tax advisor.

He is the principal accountant of Fiscaly, an accountancy firm based in the Dordogne.

See www.fiscaly.fr or call 09 81 09 00 15