Our agency benefits fromCII - Crédit Impôt Innovation 2022-2025 - approval, a financial aid available to all companies wishing to develop an innovation using design.
Issued by the French Ministry of the Economy and Finance and the Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Innovation, this accreditation guarantees our technical, human and material capacity to bring your innovation projects to fruition.
Since 2003, the innovation tax credit (or CII) is a tax measure reserved for innovative companies. The tax credit is deducted from the company's tax liability. Unlike the tax reduction, the tax credit can be reimbursed to the company if it exceeds the amount of tax due. The ceiling on capital expenditure ( design development and prototyping) is set at 400,000 euros per year per beneficiary company.
FOR WHOM?
For all French SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises, TPE & microenterprises), this means any company with fewer than 249 employees and annual sales not exceeding 50 million euros. Since the 2008 law on the modernization of the economy, VSEs and micro-businesses have been included in the SME category under article 51. In 2019, the percentage of businesses made up by French SMEs was over 99%.
Whether your SME is industrial, commercial, craft or agricultural, you can benefit from a tax credit of 20% of the expenditure required for the design and/or production of prototypes orpilot plants for a new product.
FOR WHICH EXPENSES?
The CII is legally referred to as "innovation expenditure eligible for the tax credit". This expression is therefore frequently used to designate the ITC in tax forms. You can claim the ITC if your innovation outperforms existing products and is not yet on the market. By superior performance, we mean technical, functional, ergonomic and eco-design performance. Please note that the CII only applies to expenditure on the design and/or production of prototypes orpilot plants.
You can therefore declare the following expenses:
- depreciation of fixed assets directly allocated to the design of prototypes or pilot plants for new products,
- personnel costs directly and exclusively assigned to these operations,
- other operating expenses incurred for these operations,
- the cost of taking out and maintaining patents and registering designs relating to these operations,
- costs of defending patents, designs and models relating to these operations,
- expenses entrusted to CII-approved companies such as SV DESIGN for the conception/design phase.
These expenses are capped at 400 000 € per year per company, but there is no limit on the number of prototypes/pilot installations. If you have received government subsidies for these operations, these must be deducted from your expenses.
TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE INNOVATION TAX CREDIT?
First of all, use an approved CII service provider. Next, the amount of the Innovation Tax Credit must be declared at the end of each fiscal year. You can therefore declare it every year if you are eligible. If you're not sure whether you can benefit from this measure, and in order to avoid a tax audit, you can apply for a rescrit, i.e. a request for prior advice from the tax authorities.
Finally, you can benefit from the Innovation Tax Credit even if you are applying for the Research Tax Credit (CIR). The 2 schemes - which do not concern the same type of activity - complement each other as long as you meet the eligibility criteria.
