1. Entitled to a tax reduction are payments made by companies subject to income tax or corporation tax for the benefit of:
a) Works or organisations of general interest of a philanthropic, educational, scientific, social, humanitarian, sporting, family or cultural nature or contributing to the enhancement of the artistic heritage, the defence of the natural environment or the dissemination of French culture, language and scientific knowledge, in particular when these payments are made to the benefit of a university foundation, a partnership foundation mentioned respectively in articles L. 719-12 and L. 719-13 of the Education Code or a company foundation, even if the latter bears the name of the founding company. These provisions apply even if the name of the contributing company is associated with the operations carried out by these bodies;
b) Foundations or associations recognised as being in the public interest or museums of France and meeting the conditions set out in a, as well as religious or charitable associations and public establishments of religions recognised in Alsace-Moselle. The condition relating to recognition as being in the public interest is deemed to have been met by associations governed by the local law still in force in the departments of Moselle, Bas-Rhin and Haut-Rhin when the mission of these associations is recognised as being in the public interest. A decree by the Conseil d’Etat sets out the conditions for this recognition and the procedures for granting it;
c) Public or private, general interest, not-for-profit higher education or artistic education establishments;
c bis) Consular higher education establishments mentioned in l’article L. 711-17 of the Commercial Code for their initial and continuing vocational training and research activities;
d) Public or private companies or bodies, approved for this purpose by the Minister responsible for the budget pursuant to Article 4 of Order No. 58-882 of 25 September 1958 on taxation in the field of scientific and technical research;
e) Public or private organisations, including limited companies whose shareholders are the State or one or more national public establishments, alone or jointly with one or more local authorities, whose management is disinterested and whose principal activity is the presentation to the public of dramatic, lyrical, musical, choreographic, cinematographic, audiovisual and circus works or the organisation of contemporary art exhibitions, on condition that the payments are allocated to this activity. This provision does not apply to organisations that present works of a pornographic nature or that incite violence;
e bis) Dissertation projects proposed for doctoral sponsorship by doctoral schools under conditions set by decree;
e ter) Companies, of which the State is the sole shareholder, whose business is the representation of France at Universal Exhibitions;
e quater) National programme companies mentioned in the article 44 of law no. 86-1067 of 30 September 1986 relating to freedom of communication and allocated to the financing of cultural audiovisual programmes;
e quinquies) From the société nationale de programme mentioned in III of article 44 of law no. 86-1067 of 30 September 1986 relating to freedom of communication and allocated to funding the activities of musical groups whose management and development it ensures;
f) From the “Fondation du patrimoine” or a foundation or association that irrevocably assigns these payments to the “Fondation du patrimoine”, with a view to subsidising the carrying out of work provided for in agreements concluded in application of the article L. 143-2-1 of the French Heritage Code between the “Fondation du patrimoine” and the owners of the buildings, who are natural persons or non-trading companies made up solely of natural persons and whose sole purpose is the management and bare rental of the buildings they own.
The buildings referred to in the first paragraph must not be used for commercial purposes. However, these provisions do not apply where the management of the property is disinterested and the following conditions are cumulatively met:
1° The net property income, agricultural profits, industrial and commercial profits and profits of commercial companies, plus expenses deducted pursuant to 5° of 1 of Article 39, generated by the building over the previous three years are allocated to financing the work provided for in the agreement;
2° The amount of donations collected does not exceed the amount still to be financed in respect of this work, after allocation of public subsidies and the sums referred to in 1°.
The directors or members of the company’s board of directors or management board must not have entered into an agreement with the “Fondation du patrimoine” pursuant to the aforementioned Article L. 143-2-1, own the building on which the work is being carried out or be a spouse, ascendant, descendant or collateral of the owner of this building. Where the property is owned by a company referred to in the first paragraph, the partners may not be directors or members of the board of directors or management board of the donor company or of a company that is not dealing at arm’s length with the donor company within the meaning of Article 39(12). The directors or members of the board of directors or management board of the donor company may not be a spouse, ascendant, descendant or collateral of the partners of the non-trading company that owns the property.
Donations made to other foundations or associations recognised as being in the public interest and approved by the minister responsible for the budget, whose purpose is cultural, with a view to subsidising the carrying out of conservation, restoration or accessibility work on listed or registered historic monuments are entitled to the tax reduction under the same conditions.
g) Endowment funds:
1° Meeting the characteristics mentioned in a;
2° Or whose management is disinterested and which pay the income from the donations and payments mentioned in the first paragraph of this 1 to the bodies mentioned in a to e bis and e sexies or to the Fondation du patrimoine under the conditions mentioned in the first four paragraphs of f, or to a foundation or association recognised as being of public interest approved by the minister responsible for the budget under the conditions mentioned in the sixth paragraph of the same f. These organisations issue endowment funds with a certificate justifying the amount and allocation of the payments made to them.
The organisations mentioned in b may, when their articles of association have been approved for this purpose by decree in the Conseil d’Etat, receive payments on behalf of works or organisations mentioned in a.
When the payments mentioned in the first paragraph of this 1 are made in the form of donations in kind, they are valued at the cost price of the goods donated or the services provided.
When the donation in kind takes the form of employees of the company being made available free of charge, the cost price to be included in the basis for calculating the tax reduction corresponds, for each employee made available, to the sum of their remuneration and the related social security charges within the limit of three times the amount of the ceiling mentioned in Article L. 241-3 of the Social Security Code.
2. For all payments made under this article, the portion less than or equal to €2 million entitles the contributor to a tax reduction at a rate of 60% and the portion in excess of this amount entitles the contributor to a tax reduction at a rate of 40%. By way of derogation from the first sentence of this paragraph, payments made by companies to non-profit organisations which provide free meals to people in difficulty, which help to promote their housing or which mainly provide free care to people in difficulty, as mentioned in 1° of 4 of article 261, are eligible for a tax reduction at a rate of 60% of their amount, furniture, kitchen equipment and utensils, equipment and materials specially designed for disabled people or people with reduced mobility, school supplies, clothing, blankets and duvets, sanitary products, oral and personal hygiene products, female sanitary protection products, nappies for infants, products and materials used for incontinence and contraceptive products. The list of services and products referred to in the second sentence of this paragraph is laid down by decree.
For the application of the threshold of 2 million euros, no account shall be taken of payments made to the bodies mentioned in the second sentence of the first paragraph of this 2;
3. For the purposes of calculating the amount of the tax reduction, all payments giving entitlement to the tax reduction under this article are deducted up to a limit of €20,000 or 5 per thousand of turnover, whichever is higher.
If this limit is exceeded during the course of a financial year, the excess payment gives rise to a tax reduction in respect of the following five financial years, after taking into account the payments made in respect of each of these financial years, without the limit being exceeded as a result. The rate of tax reduction applicable to this excess payment is the rate to which it gave entitlement pursuant to the first paragraph of 2.
4. Also eligible for the tax reduction are donations paid to organisations approved under the conditions provided for in Article 1649 nonies and whose sole purpose is to pay financial aid to enable investments to be made as defined in Article 17(3) of Commission Regulation (EU) No 651/2014 of 17 June 2014 declaring certain categories of aid compatible with the internal market in application of Articles 107 and 108 of the Treaty or to provide support services to small and medium-sized enterprises as defined in Annex I to that Regulation.
Authorisation is granted to the organisation if it undertakes to comply continuously with all of the following conditions:
1° The organisation’s management is disinterested;
2° Its aid and services are not remunerated by the beneficiary companies and are used in the direct interest of the latter;
3° The aid granted falls within the scope of Article 17 of the aforementioned Commission Regulation (EU) No 651/2014 of 17 June 2014 ;
4° The amount paid each year to an undertaking must not exceed 20% of the body’s annual resources;
5° Aid may not benefit undertakings principally engaged in an activity referred to in l’article 35.
An organisation whose sole purpose is to participate, through the payment of financial aid not covered by Article 17(3) of the Regulation mentioned in the first paragraph of this 4, in the creation, takeover or development of small and medium-sized enterprises as defined in Annex I to the same Regulation or to provide them with support services may also be granted approval, subject to compliance with the conditions mentioned in 1°, 2°, 4° and 5° and Commission Regulation (EU) No 1407/2013 of 18 December 2013, on the application of Articles 107 and 108 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union to de minimis aid or Commission Regulation (EU) No 1408/2013 of 18 December 2013 on the application of Articles 107 and 108 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union to de minimis aid in the agriculture sector or Commission Regulation (EU) No 717/2014 of 27 June 2014 on the application of Articles 107 and 108 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union to de minimis aid in the fisheries and aquaculture sector.
Federations or unions of organisations whose sole purpose is to federate, organise, represent and promote organisations approved pursuant to this 4 may also be granted approval provided that they present disinterested management and carry out exclusively unpaid services for the benefit of their members.
The approval granted to organisations applying for it for the first time covers a period between the date of its notification and 31 December of the second year following that date. In the event of an application for renewal of approval, the latter, if granted, is for a period of five years.
A decree sets out the terms and conditions for the application of this article, in particular the provisions relating to the articles of association of the organisations benefiting from the donations, the conditions for withdrawal of approval and the information relating to the companies assisted that the organisations communicate to the minister who issued the approval.
4 bis. Donations and payments made to organisations approved under the conditions set out in article 1649 nonies whose registered office is located in a Member State of the European Union or in another State party to the Agreement on the European Economic Area that has signed an administrative assistance agreement with France to combat tax evasion and avoidance. Approval is granted when the organisation pursues similar objectives and has similar characteristics to organisations whose registered office is located in France meeting the conditions set by this article.
When the donations and payments have been made to a non-approved organisation whose registered office is located in a Member State of the European Union or in another State party to the Agreement on the European Economic Area that has signed an administrative assistance agreement with France with a view to combating tax fraud and tax evasion, the tax reduction obtained is subject to reversal, except where the taxpayer has produced supporting documents within the time limit for filing the return certifying that this organisation pursues similar objectives and has similar characteristics to organisations whose registered office is located in France meeting the conditions set by this article.
A decree sets the conditions for the application of this 4 bis and in particular the period of validity as well as the procedures for issuing, publicising and withdrawing approval.
5. Donations and payments made to organisations whose purpose is to protect cultural property mentioned in Article 1 of the Convention of 14 May 1954 for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict are also eligible for the tax reduction, whose registered office is located in a Member State of the European Union or in another State that has concluded an administrative assistance agreement with France with a view to combating tax fraud and evasion, provided that the French State is represented on the governing bodies with voting rights.
5 bis. The benefit of the tax reduction is subject to the condition that the taxpayer is able to present, at the request of the tax authorities, supporting documents, in accordance with a model set by the authorities, attesting to the reality of the donations and payments.
6. Companies that make more than €10,000 in donations and payments over the course of a financial year giving entitlement to the tax reduction provided for in this article shall declare to the tax authorities the amount and date of these donations and payments, the identity of the beneficiaries and, where applicable, the value of the goods and services received, directly or indirectly, in return.
This information shall be transmitted on an electronic medium within the same timeframe as that provided for filing the income tax return for the financial year during which the donations and payments mentioned in the first paragraph of this 6 are made, in accordance with the procedures laid down by decree.
7. When the payments mentioned in this article are made by the partnerships mentioned in articles 8,238 bis L, 239 ter and 239 quater A or the groupings mentioned in articles 238 ter, 239 quater, 239 quater B, 239 quater C, 239 quater D and 239 quinquies which are not subject to corporation tax, the tax reduction may be used by their members in proportion to their rights in these companies or groupings, provided that they are liable for corporation tax or natural persons participating in the operation within the meaning of 1° bis of I of Article 156.
8. Payments made under this article are not deductible in determining taxable profits.