Crédit d'Impôt Recherche, CIR (French Research Tax Credit)
30% of your R&D expenditure refunded, up to €100M of eligible spend.
IP Box — reduced tax on intellectual property income
The IP Box brings tax on your patent and software income down from 25% to 10%. The saving is large, and it rests entirely on a documented nexus ratio calculation.
In brief
Key figures
10%
corporation tax instead of 25%.
2019
year the regime came into force.
Nexus
the ratio linking your R&D costs in France to the income concerned.
By election
elective regime, asset by asset or by family of assets.
The scheme
What is it?
The IP Box, formally the preferential regime for industrial property income, taxes at 10% instead of the standard 25% the net income from certain intangible assets developed through research and development costs incurred in France.
It applies by election to income from licensing, sub-licensing and disposal of those assets, and to income from exploiting software protected by copyright, including licences and SaaS subscriptions.
How much you save depends on the nexus ratio, a principle drawn from the OECD's work: only the share of income matching the share of R&D carried out in France qualifies for the reduced rate. The ratio builds up over time and has to be tracked year after year. That tracking is the core of what we do.
Assets covered
Which assets are covered?
Software protected by copyright
Licences, sales, SaaS exploitation and subscriptions.
Patents
Licensing, sub-licensing, disposal and exploitation.
Industrial manufacturing processes
Patented or patentable processes attached to a product.
Plant variety certificates (COV)
Intangible assets recognised by the regulations.
Eligibility
Are you eligible?
- Be liable to corporation tax.
- Hold an intangible asset that appears on the list of eligible assets.
- Have developed that asset through R&D costs incurred in France.
- Earn income from licensing it, sub-licensing it, disposing of it or exploiting it.
- Make the election and be able to substantiate the nexus ratio calculation.
- Produce a full scientific and technical file at the tax authority's request.
Eligible base
Which income can be claimed?
Licence royalties
Royalties received under licence agreements covering an eligible asset.
Sub-licence royalties
Royalties received where an eligible asset is sub-licensed.
Capital gains on disposal
Net result on disposal of an eligible asset held for more than two years, subject to conditions.
Software exploitation income
Licence sales, SaaS subscriptions and royalties tied to exploiting protected software.
How we work with you
From qualification to defending the claim
Diagnosis & scoping
We identify the scope of your eligible projects and claimable costs, together with your technical teams.
Scientific qualification
We check that your work meets the tax authority's criteria: state of the art, technical barrier, experimental approach.
Valuation & calculation
We collect the accounting data and calculate your claim, line by line.
Technical justification
We write the scientific and financial file documenting every declared cost.
Filing & follow-up
We prepare the forms, support the filing and track the refund until it reaches your account.
Support during audits
We defend your file before the tax authority or the Ministry of Research experts.
Go further
Estimate your funding in two minutes
Frequently asked questions
FAQ
The IP Box is an elective tax regime that taxes at 10%, instead of 25%, the net income from certain intangible assets developed through R&D costs incurred in France.
Software protected by copyright, patents, the industrial manufacturing processes attached to them, and plant variety certificates.
The nexus ratio compares the R&D costs the company incurred directly to develop the asset against the total costs that contributed to developing it. It sets the share of income that actually qualifies for the 10% rate. Tracking it over time is essential.
Yes. Software protected by copyright qualifies for the IP Box with no requirement to file a patent. That opens the regime to most SaaS publishers and to companies developing proprietary software.
Yes, the two work together. The CIR funds R&D costs upstream; the IP Box reduces tax downstream on the income those assets generate. Building one also feeds directly into documenting the other.
The regime requires keeping, for each asset or family of assets, a scientific and technical file recording the work carried out, the costs incurred and the nexus ratio calculation. It must be produced at the tax authority's request.
The election is made asset by asset, or by good, service or family of goods and services, in the tax return for the financial year concerned. It is not renewed automatically: it is decided each year. Dropping it, on the other hand, is irreversible. A company that stops applying the regime for a financial year loses the benefit permanently for the asset concerned (article 238, V of the French tax code). That is why leaving the regime should never happen by default.
Any company earning a significant share of its income from exploiting an eligible asset developed by its teams in France: software publishers, SaaS companies, industrial patent holders, businesses licensing out their technology.
Related schemes
Explore the other levers
Crédit d'Impôt Innovation, CII (French Innovation Tax Credit)
20% of your new-product design expenditure, capped at €400,000 per year.
Jeune Entreprise Innovante, JEI (Young Innovative Company status)
Employer social-contribution and local-tax exemptions for young R&D companies.
Benjamin Chemoul & David Jian
Partners & chartered accountants
Information provided for guidance only, up to date as of 2 September 2026. It does not constitute tax advice.