Crédit d'Impôt Innovation, CII (French Innovation Tax Credit)
20% of your new-product design expenditure, capped at €400,000 per year.
Research Tax Credit (CIR)
The CIR refunds a substantial share of your research and development costs. We qualify your work, calculate the claim and build the file that justifies it, including through a tax audit if one comes.
In brief
Key figures
30%
of eligible R&D costs, up to €100m of costs.
5%
above €100m of costs.
€7.25bn
of CIR declared in France (2021).
28,800
companies claiming it.
The scheme
What is it?
The Research Tax Credit lets companies liable to French corporation tax or income tax recover part of their research and development costs, either as a credit against tax due or as a direct refund.
It covers three kinds of work: fundamental research, applied research and experimental development. What the three have in common is that each resolves a scientific or technical uncertainty the existing state of the art cannot settle.
That is exactly where a file holds or fails. A cost that is real but poorly qualified is still a cost the tax authority can challenge. Our job is to establish, project by project, the technical demonstration that makes your claim defensible.
Eligibility
Are you eligible?
- Any industrial, commercial, craft or agricultural business liable to corporation tax or income tax under an actual-profit regime.
- No condition as to size, age or sector.
- Work amounting to fundamental research, applied research or experimental development.
- Work carried out in France or in the European Economic Area.
- An established state of the art and an identified scientific or technical barrier.
- A documented experimental approach, with its iterations and its results.
Eligible base
Which costs can be claimed?
Staff costs
Researchers and research technicians assigned to the work.
Depreciation
Fixed assets and equipment assigned to R&D.
Operating costs
Calculated on a flat-rate basis from salaries and depreciation.
Subcontracting
Work entrusted to approved research bodies.
Patents and technology watch
Filing, maintenance, defence and monitoring.
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.
Frequently asked questions
FAQ
The CIR lets a company liable to corporation tax or income tax under an actual-profit regime recover part of the research and development costs it has incurred. It takes the form of a credit against tax due or, failing that, a direct refund.
Any industrial, commercial, craft or agricultural business taxed under an actual-profit regime, whatever its size, age or sector. The one real condition concerns the nature of the work: fundamental research, applied research or experimental development carried out in France or in the European Economic Area.
Research staff costs, depreciation on equipment assigned to R&D, operating costs calculated on a flat-rate basis, subcontracting to approved bodies, and patent and technology-watch expenses.
The CIR is calculated at 30% of eligible costs up to €100m of costs per year, then 5% above that. These rates apply in mainland France.
The main risk is that all or part of the claim is disallowed under audit: work qualified poorly on the science, ineligible costs, subcontracting to an unapproved body, or thin technical justification. A file that holds up is built when you file, not when the audit letter arrives.
The CIR funds R&D work that resolves a scientific uncertainty. The CII, open to SMEs only, funds the design of new products not yet available on the market, with no requirement for a scientific barrier. The two can be claimed together on separate costs.
The CIR is declared on form 2069-A-SD attached to the tax return, within the same deadlines. A supporting scientific and financial file must be kept and produced at the tax authority's request.
The CIR can be combined with many forms of public aid, but grants and repayable advances received for a project must be deducted from that project's base. The CII and the IP Box in particular sit alongside the CIR, on separate costs or income.
Related schemes
Explore the other levers
Jeune Entreprise Innovante, JEI (Young Innovative Company status)
Employer social-contribution and local-tax exemptions for young R&D companies.
Convention Industrielle de Formation par la Recherche, CIFRE (Industrial PhD Funding)
€42,000 of funding over three years to hire a PhD candidate on your R&D work.
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.