We have been told by our accountant that we now have to register with either the prefecteur or Gites de France or CleVacances in order to get our 71% tax discount. Up to this year we have not needed to do this.
Does anyone have any experience with this? Which is the best option and the cheapest/best value for money? (I have heard that Gites de France take not only a large registration fee but also a huge amount of commission per booking, so am not keen to persue that route).
There seems to be no pricing or fee information on the clevacances website. The prefecteur documentation and their requirements in some instances is totally unreasonable and ridiculous (ie hearing aid point!) useful to some I know, but for a small business like ours, it that really going to make or break a deal and for the cost of installation, it hardly seems worth it. If we were a hotel with many rooms I could understand it more?
However it seems they charge a one off fee for a visit of 200euros for the first gite and 380euros for the second, to check everything and issue the label, this is valid for 5 years, with no additional commission charges. However if things need to be addressed and another visit has to be carried out each visit is charged at 120euros. It also gives you membership to Cheques vacances. However, it doesn't look like they have a guide book and just publicise in our region in 82 and through the tourist office.
Can anyone please help with shedding some light on this for me, as I am totally confused and worried we will need to make some changes to meet certain criteria before the deadline of 31st December?
Thanks
Hi Kathrin,
Thanks for the info.
I run everything past our accountant/advisor first and up to now she has told me its not legally required. There are also plenty of non-labelled gites locally that have not registered and also are listed on the tourist office websites, but they appear at the bottom of the list in the non-labelled section. Perhaps the rules have been tightened this year, I just follow instructions but am struggling with organising it all when I don't know all the facts. Hence asking the questions here.
Hi Allison,
As far as I know every gite has to be either checked out by the préfecture, or registered with Gite de France or Clévacances. Not only for the tax discount, just to be legal. At least that's what I've been told.
As you know, we are with Clévacances and have to pay an annual fee - for the gite and for each of our rooms.
Thanks Christine, but can you clarify which elements I have wrong. I have printed the prefecture information off of their website together with their pricing and have spoken to a local French lady who has been with gites de France for years, but perhaps I have Mis understood her. It is her that has given me that info. I really need to understand which is the best route to take. Most of our customers seem to be out of France due to the other advertising we do, but we do get many French too, however they are mainly in our b&b
I think that some of your info is wrong. We have had an inspection by our local prefectural tourist people & although some of the stuff they ask for is stupid we managed to get a 2* rating for our gite using the new regulations. The classification visit etc cost 60€ here...although I have heard it varies from region to region. We have just been inspected for a Gite de France 2* classification...the visit cost nothing but you do have to pay to be part of the organisation just like you would pay for advertising. The only difference I can see is that we have to commit to 2 years with them. They too have stupid criteria & we will have to change a few things but I can still manage my own bookings etc...you don`t have to use their booking system.I have taken Cheques Vacances from the start...you pay a small commission but they are easy to use & well worth it if your clientele is mainly French as ours is. I think you need to investigate further. BTW I don`t get this tax relief as I am under the auto entrepreneur scheme.