"Steve" wrote in message
y.telekom.at...
| Find out what your position would be legally with regard to business
| permits, tax and insurance.
|
| As opposed to travel company "guides" (and SCGB reps) you are not
planning a
| short-term visit to the resort and are not covered by a company
liability
| insurance. Since you are planning to live in the resort not only is
your
| relationship with your neighbours of importance, but also your
business
| viability and legality. Travel companies and the SCGB get away with
things
| because they are seen to be bringing business to resorts (looking at
it
| cynically). You will not be bringing anything like that business and
you
| will be operating in competition to a number of locals.
|
| I am not a ski guide, but I am a qualified mountain walking guide and
if you
| started up a business offering guided snowshoe walks (for example) in
my
| resort without the proper qualifications and paperwork, I would be on
the
| phone to the local chamber of commerce in a minute.
|
| Not because I'm an unpleasant type of person who doesn't like to see
other
| people succeed, but because I had/have to pay for my business
registration,
| for liability insurance, for the original qualifications, and I have
to pay
| tax (which is the other side of the coin of the
"anti-Euro-closed-shop"
| messages that you will sometimes see on here).
|
| Best wishes with making your dream work - it can be done but it needs
| dedication and a lot of work (and more than some dreamers about a Euro
| chalet or outdoors paradise are prepared to put in).
| --

Excellent advice throughout. For those who don't already know,
employers' national insurance contributions are much higher in France,
and anyone working on the black is a direct threat to bona fide
businesses. The French can get extremely miffed when Brits come over on
allegedly 'short-term' contracts, thus not liable to French taxation/NI,
and undercut the locals considerably. I've seen the gendarmeriie called
in several times in Provence when cowboy Brit builders, even a retired
expat architect, have been shopped.

And on Steve's last point, when considering a move to France....
especially if buying property for renovation - take the purchase price,
work out the maximum possible costs of renovation.... then multiply the
resultant figure by 1.5 - if you're lucky, you might get away with it
not costing more!

B&B? You'll be lucky to make ends meet on that alone. Running costs and
repairs, especially of an old property, will make an enormouse hole in
any income.

Throw away Peter Mayle's book and imagine all possible unwritten horror
stories - they're all true - along with the ones that haven't occurred
to you yet. Especially of underfunded, non-French-speaking Brits
dreaming of their gite business in some isolated spot in the south of
France!

Ok none of the above may apply to you, but during the 20 years I've
spent living in various parts of France and a few other places in
Europe, I've seen more than a few apparently organised, logical and
sensible Brits turn into gibbering fantasists when discussing their
'dream move', and some have come a major cropper.

Pete
www.skiclublesarcs.com