juehankie

Hi all ,

after a quick read thru - this is defo the place to be for info - its great!!!!!!

we are about to "go for it"! - selling up out of staffordshire, and looking for business and premises in france - no idea where yet - got the idea of rural rather than city - with gite to rent out.

just started doing some research - is it true any income is taxed in france at 40% regardless of income? also wud this kind of business be classed as self employed - ANY info wud be great - or point me in right direction

kindest regards
julie

G-J-B

Hi Julie, sounds like a nice life style change, although do make sure you can do all the research you can, because for some people, dreams become nightmares. I'm afraid I can't answer your specifics, but I believe gites and a B&B business is VAT exempt which is a strong positive. Depending on where you were looking though you will find that gites are very popular in France and there's much competition. After visiting a number of them for holidays last summer and talking to the owners, I didn't meet one who made a full livable income from doing that alone.

I'm not sure what the income tax is, but it is quite high. They'll charge a set amount until you've been in business for two or three years I believe. You have to becareful because I believe in your third year of business they will take a large amount of tax from you, and perhaps not so much in the first year or two, so you must be prepared for it, and set something aside.

There's some good books on amazon written in English about starting a B&B or buying a house in France.

val50

Hi Julie,
welcome to the forum. Sure there will be many more coming along shortly who can help with some of your queries. Le Chant in particular would be a good person for you to chat to as they have a lovely gite in the Loire.
There are a few of us here in Normandy. We love it as you don't get the extremes of weather, has good rail/road/air/sea links, surrounded by beautiful countryside yet never far from towns/cities. Price of properties still pretty reasonable, although we have seen an increase since we've been here.
If you do a search of the forum too, you will hopefully find quite a few answers to your queries.
Have listed french income tax rates for you below

Up to €5,687 €5,687 Nil
€5,688 to €11,344 5.5%
€11,345 to €25,195 14%
€25,196 to €67,546 30%
Over €67,546 40%

some useful information too on the French Embassy website
http://www.consulfrance-londres.org/spip.php?article378

Would the gite be your sole means of income? From what I've heard this year, bookings are down all over the country. Some of the reasons suggested for this are that the euro is strong, dollar/sterling weak, high fuel costs etc. General feeling for gites at the moment seems to be oversupply/underdemand.
Good luck though with the move