As MAK has stated, as long as you are not trading and everything is destined for your freezer, then you shouldn't hit any problems.
But and it's a BIG but, you can still get inadvertently tied up in French bureaucracy and find yourself paying into a system unnecessarily.
First thing is to contact your local chamber of agriculture requesting your desire to register as a keeper of sheep/cattle/goats/whatever, in order they can provide you with a cheptel number. This is similar to obtaining a holding number in England.
Tagging requirements are much the same as in the UK, and the chamber of agriculture will supply you with all the necessary information requirements for any routine blood testing that needs carrying out, tags, etc, for which you will pay.
A local vet should be able to keep you informed of health requirements for your particular region.
When it comes to purchasing your sheep, apply caution in purchasing any sheep which are not already tagged, and I'm sorry to say that Brit ex-pats will come up with some pretty lame excuses as to why the "pet lamb" they're selling isn't tagged!
In addition, there is a requirement to keep records for your sheep, including movements. You'll need to consider slaughter and butchering. Will you be doing the job or is their a local butcher or slaughterhouse available?
How will you dispose of animals that die? There's a limit to how many you can record as being for home freezing, and it can be very suspicious if your records never indicate a dead sheep nor method of approved disposal.
Be very wary of mentions of joining the MSA or registration as a farming business. Think MSA as a kind of National Insurance with a bit of Inland Revenue thrown in, only you need to pay up front in the region of 3,500.00 euro for at least 3 years before they take into account you're earning far less than what you're paying in!
In some areas you can't register as a farmer anyway unless you have evidence of a farming background, but they can also insist on registering if your land mass exceeds a certain size.
If you don't receive any income from your land, you should be fine. If you do receive any form of income from the land, then you'll be expected to pay into the MSA and once you're doing that, they don't like to let go of you!
You will however need to budget for both yourself and your family when it comes to health care, otherwise without insurance you could get saddled with some large medical bills.
Few things to be going along with, which I hope are helpful.
Best of luck.
Topic: French property? (Read 2290 times)
