Research Tax Credit (Crédit d'Impôt Recherche, CIR)

Research Tax Credit (Crédit d'Impôt Recherche, CIR)

Offers French companies tax support that lowers the cost of qualifying innovation activity.

The Crédit d'Impôt Recherche (CIR) is France's principal R&D tax incentive, available to industrial, commercial, and agricultural enterprises subject to standard taxation in France. The credit offsets corporate income tax (IS) or personal income tax (IR) by a percentage of qualifying research and development expenditure incurred during the calendar year. Eligible costs include asset depreciation, personnel costs for researchers and technicians, outsourced research expenses with approved organizations, legal patent protection premiums, and standardization costs. Public subsidies received from bodies such as Bpifrance or ANR must be deducted from the eligible expense base before computing the credit.

The standard credit rate is 30% on R&D expenses up to €100 million per year, and 5% on the portion exceeding that threshold. Companies operating in overseas departments (DOM) benefit from a 50% rate up to the €100 million ceiling. Unused CIR may be carried forward against tax owed in the three subsequent years; any balance remaining after three years is automatically refunded. Certain early-stage entities — companies less than two years old, Jeunes Entreprises Innovantes (JEI), and companies undergoing judicial restructuring — may request immediate cash reimbursement rather than waiting for carryforward. As of February 15, 2025, several previously eligible expense categories were removed from the base, including technological surveillance costs, patent maintenance fees, and young-doctorate personnel expenses, and the operating-cost top-up rate was reduced from 43% to 40% of personnel costs.

There is no competitive application call. Companies compute the credit on Form 2069-A-SD and file it electronically via the EDI-TDFC procedure together with their annual tax return — by May 15 for companies with a December 31 fiscal year-end. Entities with eligible R&D expenses above €10 million must also file supplementary Form 2069-A-1-SD. A government simulator on impots.gouv.fr is available to estimate credit amounts in advance.