The payroll software shows a green JEI flag. The French accountant applied the employer exemption on the DSN, the déclaration sociale nominative, the monthly social-security return. Six months later URSSAF, the Union de recouvrement des cotisations de sécurité sociale et d’allocations familiales, the body that collects social contributions, sends a lettre d’observations. The French SAS, société par actions simplifiée, a simplified joint-stock company, is 100% owned by a Delaware C-corporation or a UK Ltd. The inspectors write that the company is not a jeune entreprise innovante, a JEI, young innovative company, because its capital is not held by individuals and because it was created as the French arm of an activity that already existed abroad. The exemption is reversed, with majorations de retard, late-payment increases. The US or UK parent asks, in English, whether the status can be obtained as if it were a licence.

It is not a licence. JEI is a legal qualification tested at the close of each financial year under article 44 sexies-0 A of the code général des impôts, the CGI, the French tax code. The social exemption is applied by the employer itself, without a prior URSSAF filing. A 100% industrial foreign parent usually fails two independent tests: the 50% capital test and the ban on creating the company as an extension of a preexisting activity. Founder-owned French startups, including those with a minority foreign corporate investor or a qualifying venture-capital fund, can still pass. This article is for the foreign owner who already has, or is about to have, a French company. The pillar guide on setting up a French company as a foreign founder remains the hub for the bank account, the Kbis, the official extract from the registre du commerce et des sociétés, the RCS, trade and companies register, VAT and the first hire. What follows is the missing incentive in that calendar: when JEI is available, when a foreign parent kills it, and how to contest the recovery.

I. Can a foreign-owned French company obtain JEI status and the URSSAF exemption?

A. What are the 2026 JEI conditions, the 20% R&D test and the eight-year clock?

Article 44 sexies-0 A of the CGI: “Une entreprise est qualifiée de jeune entreprise innovante réalisant des projets de recherche et de développement lorsque, à la clôture de l’exercice, elle remplit simultanément les conditions suivantes :”

The conditions are read at the close of the financial year, not on the day of incorporation, and they must all be true together. The first condition is the SME, petite et moyenne entreprise, small and medium-sized enterprise, ceiling.

Article 44 sexies-0 A, 1°: “elle est une petite ou moyenne entreprise, c’est-à-dire employant moins de 250 personnes, et qui a soit réalisé un chiffre d’affaires inférieur à 50 millions d’euros au cours de l’exercice, ramené ou porté le cas échéant à douze mois, soit un total du bilan inférieur à 43 millions d’euros.”

Headcount is the average number of employees during that year. A French subsidiary of a large foreign group can still be an SME on its own figures, but the capital test discussed below is a separate filter. The URSSAF page updated on 16 July 2026 repeats the same 250 / 50 million / 43 million figures as conditions common to JEI, to the jeune entreprise universitaire, the JEU, university spin-off, to the jeune entreprise de croissance, the JEC, young growth company, and to the jeune entreprise d’innovation à impact, the JEII, impact innovation company.

Article 44 sexies-0 A, 2°: “elle est créée depuis moins de huit ans”

URSSAF and the official Entreprendre.service-public.fr page still distinguish companies created before 1 January 2023, which could use an eleven-year clock for the social and tax exemptions, from companies created from that date, which lose the status in the year of their eighth anniversary. A foreign founder incorporating in 2026 works with eight years, counted at each year-end. The social exemption itself is not open-ended inside that window. URSSAF states that the exemption applies until the last day of the seventh year following the year of creation of the establishment, and gives the example of a JEI created on 1 January 2023 remaining eligible until 31 December 2030, provided the company is still under eight years at year-end.

Article 44 sexies-0 A, 3° a: “elle a réalisé des dépenses de recherche, définies aux a à g du II de l’article 244 quater B et au 1 du A du II de l’article 244 quater B bis, représentant au moins 20 % des charges, à l’exception des pertes de change et des charges nettes sur cessions de valeurs mobilières de placement, fiscalement déductibles au titre de cet exercice.”

Research expenditure is the same family of costs as for the crédit d’impôt recherche, the CIR, research tax credit: personnel, depreciation of research assets, patent costs, subcontracted research within the statutory limits. Foreign-exchange losses and net charges on disposals of marketable securities are stripped out of the denominator. Charges invoiced by other JEI that themselves carry out R&D projects are stripped out of the ratio so that a group of JEI cannot inflate the percentage by invoicing one another. URSSAF and Entreprendre.service-public.fr add that for financial years closed before 1 March 2025 the old 15% floor could still apply. A 2026 year-end is a 20% year.

Three substitutes exist if the 20% ratio is out of reach. 3° b is the JEU path: the company is directed or held at least 10% by students, recent masters or doctors, or teaching and research staff, its main activity is the valorisation of research carried out in a higher-education institution, and a convention with that institution is in place. 3° c is the JEC path, in force since 1 June 2024: research spend between 5% and 20% of deductible charges, that amount at least equal to the previous year, and a doubling of headcount compared with the financial year before last, with an increase of at least ten full-time-equivalent employees. 3° d is the JEII path added in the 2026 rewrite of the same article: the 5% to 20% research band plus the criteria of a jeune entreprise d’utilité sociale under article L. 3332-17-1 of the code du travail, the labour code, or the commercial-company conditions of the social and solidarity economy. A US software group that simply books French engineers against a cost-plus agreement will not become a JEC or a JEII by relabelling the spreadsheet.

Article 44 sexies-0 A, 5°: “elle n’est pas créée dans le cadre d’une concentration, d’une restructuration, d’une extension d’activités préexistantes ou d’une reprise de telles activités au sens du III de l’article 44 sexies.”

Article 44 sexies, III, of the CGI: “Les entreprises créées dans le cadre d’une concentration, d’une restructuration, d’une extension d’activités préexistantes ou qui reprennent de telles activités ne peuvent pas bénéficier du régime défini au I.”

Article 44 sexies, III continues: “L’existence d’un contrat, quelle qu’en soit la dénomination, ayant pour objet d’organiser un partenariat, caractérise l’extension d’une activité préexistante lorsque l’entreprise nouvellement créée bénéficie de l’assistance de ce partenaire, notamment en matière d’utilisation d’une enseigne, d’un nom commercial, d’une marque ou d’un savoir-faire, de conditions d’approvisionnement, de modalités de gestion administrative, contentieuse, commerciale ou technique, dans des conditions telles que cette entreprise est placée dans une situation de dépendance.”

Brand, know-how, supply terms, administrative or technical management, and a contract that organises a partnership are enough, if they place the new company in a situation of dependence. That is the usual fact pattern of a French commercial subsidiary of a foreign software, life-sciences or industrial group.

The social exemption is the cash that foreign founders actually budget. Entreprendre.service-public.fr states that a JEI created before 31 December 2028 can obtain an exemption from employer social-insurance and family-allowance contributions. URSSAF lists what remains due: employee social-security contributions, CSG and CRDS, the contribution de solidarité pour l’autonomie, employer unemployment insurance, accidents du travail et maladies professionnelles, AT/MP, occupational injury contributions, the FNAL housing-fund contribution, the social-dialogue contribution, and where applicable versement mobilité and forfait social. Two caps apply. URSSAF describes the first as remuneration below 4.5 times the SMIC, the salaire minimum interprofessionnel de croissance, the statutory minimum wage, and the second as five times the plafond annuel de la Sécurité sociale, the PASS, annual social-security ceiling, per establishment and per calendar year. Entreprendre.service-public.fr publishes the 2026 euro translations of those caps as 8,401.58 euros of monthly remuneration taken into account and 240,300 euros of exemption per establishment per year. The exemption is lost for the calendar year, and for later years until the conditions are met again, if any JEI condition fails during the year. The employer must also be up to date with URSSAF filings and payments.

Article 44 sexies A of the CGI: “Les entreprises répondant aux conditions fixées à l’article 44 sexies-0 A sont exonérées d’impôt sur le revenu ou d’impôt sur les sociétés à raison des bénéfices réalisés au titre du premier exercice ou de la première période d’imposition bénéficiaire, cette période d’exonération totale des bénéfices réalisés ne pouvant excéder douze mois.”

The official Entreprendre.service-public.fr page states, in terms that a foreign founder should treat as the administration’s current reading, that JEI created from 1 January 2024 can no longer obtain an exemption from tax on profits. Optional seven-year exemptions from taxe foncière sur les propriétés bâties, the property tax on built property, and from cotisation foncière des entreprises, the CFE, the local business-property contribution, remain possible where the commune has deliberated, for companies created until 31 December 2028.

Article 1383 D of the CGI: “Les communes et leurs établissements publics de coopération intercommunale dotés d’une fiscalité propre peuvent, par une délibération de portée générale prise dans les conditions prévues au I de l’article 1639 A bis , exonérer de taxe foncière sur les propriétés bâties pour une durée de sept ans les immeubles appartenant à une entreprise créée jusqu’au 31 décembre 2028”

Article 1466 D of the CGI: “Les communes et leurs établissements publics de coopération intercommunale dotés d’une fiscalité propre peuvent, par une délibération prise dans les conditions prévues au I de l’article 1639 A bis , exonérer de cotisation foncière des entreprises pour une durée de sept ans les entreprises existant au 1er janvier 2004 ou créées entre cette date et le 31 décembre 2028”

Both articles subject the aid to the de minimis regulation (EU) 2023/2831. A request must be filed with the service des impôts des entreprises, the SIE, the corporate tax office. CIR can be claimed in parallel. The JEI option, where it still competes with other territorial exemptions, is irrevocable once exercised.

B. Why a 100% foreign parent usually fails: the 50% capital test and extension of the parent’s activity

Article 44 sexies-0 A, 4°: “son capital est détenu de manière continue à 50 % au moins”

The holders must be, continuously, at least 50% individuals; or a company meeting the same conditions whose capital is itself at least 50% held by individuals; or named venture-capital vehicles, without a dependency link within the meaning of article 39, 12 of the CGI; or recognised scientific foundations or associations, or another JEI carrying out R&D projects; or public research and teaching institutions or their subsidiaries.

Article 44 sexies-0 A, 4° b: “par une société répondant aux mêmes conditions dont le capital est détenu pour 50 % au moins par des personnes physiques”

Article 44 sexies-0 A, 4° c: “des sociétés de capital-risque, des fonds communs de placement à risques, des fonds professionnels spécialisés”

A Delaware C-corporation, a UK Ltd, a German AG or a Singapore Pte that is an operating company is not on that list. A 100% foreign industrial parent fails 4° even if the French SAS spends 80% of its costs on engineers and is under eight years old. The list is not a ban on every foreign euro. Individuals, including non-resident founders, count. A French or foreign holding that itself meets the statutory description and is at least 50% held by individuals can count. A qualifying FCPR, FPCI, SCR or société de libre partenariat can count, if there is no dependency link. A US venture fund that is not one of the named vehicles does not automatically qualify merely because it is called a fund. The test is continuous: a recapitalisation in June that puts an industrial parent above 50% contaminates the year-end. URSSAF repeats the 50% capital-holding requirement without rewriting the CGI list. Inspectors read the Kbis, the registre des bénéficiaires effectifs, the RBE, beneficial-owner register, the shareholders’ register of the SAS, and the foreign parent’s own cap table.

Even a founder-owned SAS can fail if it is in substance the French shop-front of a preexisting foreign business. The Administrative Court of Appeal of Versailles, 3rd chamber, 9 April 2019, n° 17VE01500, unpublished, dealt with SARL INSO, created on 29 September 2006, which had obtained a rescrit, a tax ruling, on 14 February 2007. The tax authorities later withdrew JEI for 2008 on the ground that INSO was only an extension of iTAC Software AG, a German software company seeking to develop its activity on the French market.

The Versailles court stated: “En excluant du champ d’application de l’exonération instituée par l’article 44 sexies du code général des impôts”

Complementarity of objects plus links of dependence that deprive the new company of real autonomy is the legal standard, not the label on the contract. The facts in INSO are the facts of many foreign roll-outs. A services contract was signed on 11 October 2006, days after incorporation.

The same judgment: “l’activité de prestations de services – conseil et distribution de logiciels – à laquelle se livre la société INSO, créée le 29 septembre 2006, est une activité complémentaire de celle exercée par la société iTAC Software AG (iTAC), société allemande de génie logiciel désirant développer son activité sur le marché français”

The contract charged INSO, as a subcontractor, with sales, after-sales and account management. iTAC reserved the right to conclude or reject agreements at its sole discretion, required monthly reports, bought a volume of consulting days, paid a monthly fee, and took worldwide rights in the work. INSO worked almost exclusively for iTAC’s clients.

The court held: “Ainsi les liens de la société INSO avec la société iTAC caractérisent un lien de dépendance entre les deux sociétés, de nature à priver la première de toute autonomie réelle et à en faire une simple émanation de la seconde.”

It added: “L’activité de la société INSO constituait ainsi une extension de l’activité préexistante exercée par la société iTAC Software AG.”

The request was rejected. A foreign parent that funds a French SAS, licences the group brand, dictates the CRM, and buys 90% of the output under a services agreement is in the same legal neighbourhood, even if the cap table is later dressed with a 51% founder holding.

Two practical profiles follow. First, the founder-owned French SAS: individuals hold 50% or more, continuously; research spend reaches 20% of deductible charges; the company is an SME; it is under eight years; it was not created as the continuation of a foreign business already selling the same product in France through distributors, a branch or a dependent company. That profile can claim JEI. A minority corporate investor, or a named French VC vehicle without a dependency link, does not by itself destroy the status. Second, the 100% subsidiary of a foreign operating company: 4° fails on capital, and 5° often fails on dependence even if the capital were later opened to individuals. Relabelling the parent as a holding does not move it onto the 4° list unless that holding itself meets the statutory description. The JEI public-procurement reserved lots discussed elsewhere on this site are a different regime; they do not repair a failed 4° or 5° test.

LegalPlace’s French guide sets out age, SME, R&D and independence for a domestic startup. Bpifrance Création and URSSAF describe the aid. Village de la Justice has covered the 2024 and 2026 finance-law changes for investors. None of those pages walk a Delaware or UK parent through the INSO dependence test, the continuous 50% list, the DSN self-application, or the three-year prescription of an URSSAF refund. That is the gap this article fills.

II. How do I apply the exemption, get a tax ruling, and contest an URSSAF recovery from abroad?

A. How to apply JEI on the DSN, which jobs are covered, and how to request the three-month tax opinion

There is no JEI licence to collect from URSSAF before the first payroll. Entreprendre.service-public.fr and URSSAF both state that the employer applies the exemption itself, month by month, from the start of the financial year if it considers that the conditions are met. URSSAF states that no prior application to URSSAF is required. The DSN uses code type de personnel, CTP, personnel-type code, 734 for JEI and JEII, 735 for JEC, 402 for JEU. Self-application is not a shield. If the year-end tests fail, the exemption is lost for that calendar year. If the employer was never a JEI, the DSN under-declaration is an ordinary recovery, with late-payment increases, of the sort already mapped in the guide on an URSSAF audit, mise en demeure and contrainte.

The jobs that can be exempted are not the whole payroll. URSSAF, aligning with article 1 of décret n° 2004-581 of 21 June 2004, lists employees subject to unemployment insurance who take part in the R&D project: research engineers, technicians working in close collaboration with researchers, R&D project managers, lawyers in charge of industrial property and technology agreements linked to the project, staff in charge of pre-competitive tests, and staff directly assigned to prototype or pilot-plant design. The Bulletin officiel de la sécurité sociale, the BOSS, official social-security bulletin, treats the exemption for an employee as acquired once at least half of working time is devoted to one or more R&D projects. Commercial staff, the office manager and the CFO who do not manage the research project stay on the ordinary rates. The first-employee calendar (DPAE, trial period, payslip) still applies before any JEI CTP is coded.

Mandataires sociaux, corporate officers, are in a separate box. Article 1, I, of décret n° 2004-581: “Les mandataires sociaux mentionnés au II de l’article 131 de la loi de finances pour 2004 susvisée sont :”

The list then covers minority gérants of an SARL, chairmen and chief executives of a société anonyme, and presidents and directors of an SAS.

Article 1 of the same décret: “Le mandataire social est réputé participer à titre principal au projet de recherche et de développement de l’entreprise s’il exerce, en son sein, une activité de recherche ou une activité de gestion de ce projet.”

A président of an SAS who actually runs the research project, or manages it, is inside the presumption. A président who only signs bank documents from London is not. URSSAF lists presidents and directors of an SAS among the officers who can benefit if they take part principally in the R&D project or in prototype design.

The Cour de cassation, second civil chamber, 15 February 2018, appeal n° 16-22.056, published, reversed a Paris court that had put the burden on the company to prove that its officer took part principally in the research. After citing article 131 of loi n° 2003-1311 of 30 December 2003 and article 1, I, of the 2004 décret, the Court held: “le mandataire social qui remplit les conditions susmentionnées est présumé exercer son activité dans des conditions ouvrant droit au bénéfice de l’exonération, sauf à l’organisme de recouvrement à rapporter la preuve contraire”

The inspector who wants to pull the président of an SAS out of the exemption must prove the contrary. The company that never documented the officer’s research role still hands the inspector that proof. Time sheets, laboratory notebooks, patent filings, and the minutes of the research committee are the file, not a group org chart that calls everyone R&D.

A demande d’avis, a request for an opinion, can be sent to the tax administration on the BOFiP model (BOI-LETTRE-000186). It is not a condition of the exemption. Article L. 80 B, 4°, of the livre des procédures fiscales, the LPF, the tax-procedure book, is the statutory home of that request: a good-faith taxpayer may ask, on a precise and complete written statement of facts, whether the company is a JEI within the meaning of article 44 sexies-0 A. URSSAF writes that the decision delivered within three months is opposable to URSSAF. Opposable is not the same as creating eligibility for every past month, and it is not the same as stopping time for a refund.

The Cour de cassation, second civil chamber, 25 January 2018, appeal n° 16-27.325, published, rejected Innovaxiom’s claim that a tacit tax opinion of 5 September 2013 reopened the three-year period for recovering 2009 contributions. The Court held that the tax opinion “est opposable à l’organisme chargé du recouvrement des cotisations de sécurité sociale, il ne détermine pas l’éligibilité de l’entreprise au bénéfice de l’exonération des cotisations employeur prévue par le I du même texte pour les jeunes entreprises innovantes, et demeure sans effet sur le cours de la prescription mentionnée à l’article L. 243-6 du code de la sécurité sociale”

Two lessons for a foreign founder. First, file the demande d’avis with a complete file, including the cap table and the research ratio, before coding CTP 734 if the structure is not obvious. Second, do not wait for the ruling before claiming a refund of months already paid.

Article L. 243-6 of the code de la sécurité sociale, the CSS, the social-security code, I: “La demande de remboursement des cotisations de sécurité sociale et d’allocations familiales indûment versées se prescrit par trois ans à compter de la date à laquelle lesdites cotisations ont été acquittées.”

Being up to date with URSSAF is a separate on/off switch. Article 6 of décret n° 2004-581: “Le bénéfice du droit à l’exonération est subordonné à la condition pour l’entreprise d’être à jour de ses obligations déclaratives et de paiement à l’égard de l’organisme de recouvrement des cotisations de sécurité sociale et d’allocations familiales mentionnée au VII de l’article 131 de la loi de finances pour 2004 susvisée.”

The condition is tested when the exemption is first applied and at each payment date. If the debt is contested, the décret treats the condition as met only from full payment, from a stay of proceedings, or from a payment plan. URSSAF adds that a plan d’apurement, a clearance plan, that is subscribed and respected also restores the condition. A foreign parent that lets the French payroll slip while arguing about JEI suspends the exemption for every eligible employee, not only for the disputed officer.

B. What to do when URSSAF or the SIE reassesses: deadlines, proof and opposition to the contrainte

The first document is the lettre d’observations or the proposition de rectification, the proposed adjustment. For tax, the Conseil d’État, 9th chamber, 7 February 2018, n° 397737, unpublished, quashed a Lyon administrative court of appeal that had treated two 2004-2005 research-ministry letters as enough motivation for later JEI reassessments. Settling the case itself, the Conseil d’État held that the proposals “ne sauraient être regardées comme suffisamment motivées au regard des exigences de l’article L. 57 du livre des procédures fiscales, dès lors qu’elles se bornaient à faire référence à deux avis du ministère de la recherche, qui n’étaient pas joints, sans en reproduire les motifs.”

A foreign parent that receives a one-line reference to an old research-ministry email should ask for the motives, in writing, before conceding the principal.

For URSSAF, the path is the observation letter, the response, the mise en demeure, the formal notice, then the contrainte, the enforceable order, then opposition before the pôle social of the tribunal judiciaire, the social division of the judicial court. The observation letter should be answered on the two tests that actually matter: 4° capital, with a dated cap table and, where a fund is invoked, the constitutive documents that place it on the CGI list; and 5° new activity, with the absence of a dependence contract of the INSO type, the French company’s own customers, and research that is not the parent’s preexisting product line. The R&D ratio should be rebuilt from the general ledger, using article 244 quater B costs, not from a US GAAP R&D line that includes market studies. Officer time should be evidenced in a form that meets the 2004 décret presumption, so that URSSAF has to prove the contrary under the 2018 Cour de cassation decision.

If the company was a genuine JEI but had an unpaid URSSAF debt, the recovery may be limited to the up-to-date condition rather than to a denial of status. The Cour de cassation, second civil chamber, 1 December 2022, appeal n° 21-11.997, published in the Bulletin, dealt with a JEI in redressement judiciaire, judicial reorganisation. After citing articles L. 622-7 and L. 631-14 of the commercial code and article 6 of the 2004 décret, it held: “Il résulte de ces textes que la jeune entreprise innovante, à laquelle il est interdit de payer les cotisations et contributions sociales afférentes à la période antérieure au jugement d’ouverture d’une procédure de redressement judiciaire, est, à cette date, réputée, au sens de l’article 131 de la loi n° 2003-1311 du 30 décembre 2003 susvisé, avoir rempli ses obligations de déclaration et de paiement à l’égard de l’organisme de recouvrement des cotisations de sécurité sociale et d’allocations familiales.”

The court of appeal that had required the company to complete a clearance plan running to 2026 before treating it as up to date was reversed. Insolvency of a French startup is not a reason to let the contrainte pass unopposed; it can be a reason the up-to-date switch is deemed on as of the opening judgment.

Refunds of contributions already paid are a different clock. Article L. 243-6 CSS runs three years from each payment. The 2018 Innovaxiom decision refuses to restart that clock on the day the tax opinion arrives. A foreign founder who discovers in 2026 that 2022 payroll should have been exempt is, for those 2022 payments, in the prescription zone. The correct sequence is: stop the bleeding on current DSN months if the conditions are met; file the demande d’avis; claim the refund for the months still inside three years; and do not treat a late ruling as a time machine.

Paris and Île-de-France add a map, not a different statute. The demande d’avis goes to the direction départementale des finances publiques, the DDFIP, of the département of the registered office: Paris, Hauts-de-Seine, Seine-Saint-Denis, Val-de-Marne, Essonne, Yvelines, Val-d’Oise or Seine-et-Marne. CFE and property-tax exemption requests go to the SIE of each establishment, with the Entreprendre.service-public.fr deadlines (the second working day after 1 May of the year before the exemption year, with a special calendar for a mid-year creation). URSSAF Ile-de-France handles Paris-region payroll. Opposition to a contrainte is brought before the pôle social of the tribunal judiciaire of the company’s seat; for a Paris SAS that is the Paris judicial court. The research file, the cap table and the foreign parent’s contracts should be translated where the officers will give evidence in English; the court and URSSAF work in French. A power of attorney to a Paris lawyer avoids missing the opposition period while the parent board meets in another time zone.

What not to do is as important as the filing. Do not code CTP 734 on a 100% industrial-parent SAS in the hope that nobody will check. Do not move 51% of the shares to a founder on paper the week before year-end without a real transfer, a real price and a real RBE update: the test is continuous holding, and a sham is a separate fraud problem. Do not sign a group services agreement that reproduces the INSO clauses (parent veto on contracts, monthly reporting, parent-owned IP, 90% of revenue from the parent) and then argue autonomy. Do not wait for the US quarterly close to answer a mise en demeure. If the structure cannot pass 4° and 5°, budget ordinary employer charges, claim CIR if the research is real, and keep the French company as an ordinary SME. CIR and JEI are not the same door.

If the structure can pass, the working file is short enough to sit in one binder: Kbis and RBE; shareholders’ register showing continuous 50% on the statutory list; research ledger mapped to article 244 quater B; employment contracts and officer mandates with job descriptions; DSN and CTP history; URSSAF account statements proving the up-to-date condition; the demande d’avis and the three-month outcome; any group contract, to show it does not create dependence. That binder is what a telephone consultation can actually read. The rest is narrative.

Conclusion

JEI is a year-end qualification, not a badge sold with the Kbis. Article 44 sexies-0 A requires an SME, an eight-year clock for a 2026 incorporation, 20% research charges or a statutory substitute, a continuous 50% holding by individuals, a qualifying holding, named venture-capital vehicles, scientific foundations, another JEI or public research bodies, and a company that is not the dependent extension of a preexisting activity. A 100% foreign operating parent fails the capital list. A French vehicle that sells the parent’s product under the parent’s veto fails the INSO dependence test applied by the Versailles administrative court of appeal on 9 April 2019. Founder-owned startups that keep 50% with individuals, spend 20% on real research, and do not operate as a shop-front can apply the employer exemption themselves on DSN CTP 734, ask for a three-month L. 80 B opinion, and still must watch the three-year L. 243-6 refund clock. The Cour de cassation has put the burden on URSSAF to rebut an officer’s research role, has refused to treat a tax opinion as a restart of prescription, and has treated a JEI in judicial reorganisation as up to date on the day the judgment opens. The Conseil d’État has required a motivated L. 57 proposal, not a bare reference to an old ministry letter. The social exemption, capped at 4.5 SMIC per person and five PASS per establishment, is the money. Corporate-tax exemption is, on the administration’s published reading, closed for companies created from 1 January 2024. Optional CFE and property-tax relief still need a communal deliberation and an SIE filing. A foreign owner who wants the exemption should fix the cap table and the group contract before the first payroll, not after the contrainte.

Need a quick opinion on your case

A telephone consultation with a lawyer of the firm can be arranged within 48 hours to read the cap table, the group services agreement, the DSN history and the URSSAF or SIE letter, and to separate a failed 50% capital test from a recovery that can still be opposed.

Call +33 6 46 60 58 22 (Maître Reda Kohen) or write through the contact form. The firm advises in Paris and Île-de-France, including where the registered office, the SIE and URSSAF Ile-de-France sit in different départements of the region.