Non-professional status - what does it mean and where are the lines drawn?

Hi Valerie,

With my partner (we are not married or PAX’d), we have Chambre d’Hote (one room only) and a Gite (a small gite for a couple).  It does not earn a lot and is certainly not 50% of our income, so we have always considered ourselves “non-professional”, which from my understanding means that we do not have to pay cotisations on our earnings.  For the past 2 years, we have declared the gross earnings on my partner’s personal tax declaration.

My partner is registered as an Auto-Entrepreneur (to create and sell objets d’arts).  I have just left a full-time job and intend to re-instate my own Auto-Entrepreneur, for home-based administrative work.  I also have an annually renewed CDD for teaching english.

To boost our Chambre d’Hote, we are hoping to offer Table d’Hote.  I have recently completed training to obtain an alcohol licence and also a Hygiene Course.  Now I need to file my Permis D’exploitation (Cerfa: 14407*03) and a “Déclaration concernant les établissements préparant, transformant, manipulant, exposant, mettant en vente, entreposant ou transportant des denrées animales ou d’origine animale” (Cerfa: 13984*03).

The latter form asks for my SIRET number… and now I am worried, am I going to accidentally wander into Professional territory.  I would like to clarify that I have understood the 2 different statuses correctly? And if I can run a Table d’Hote under the “non-professional” statute?

With thanks,