
Often targeted, he has once again slipped through the cracks. The research tax credit (CIR) escaped the austerity plan announced during the 2025 finance bill, Thursday October 10, by the government. The system, which allows companies to recover 30% of their research and development (R&D) expenses up to 100 million euros, then 5% on additional sums, was nevertheless an easy target.
For 2024, its amount is estimated at 7.6 billion euros, making it the first tax expenditure by the State since the extinction, in 2023, of the tax credit receivables for competitiveness and employment. . The General Inspectorate of Finance concluded, in a note from marchthat it was possible to save 400 million euros in CIR without structural reform.
“It costs, but it also brings in a lot”said Antoine Armand, the Minister (Renaissance) of the Economy, in the Sunday newspaperon September 21, to recall the attachment of Emmanuel Macron’s party to this system, created in 1983 under François Mitterrand and reinforced by Nicolas Sarkozy in 2008.
Employer organizations welcome this decision. For Medef, touching the CIR would have been a triple penalty, in addition to the exceptional tax and the increase in employer contributions. “We are aware of the financial constraints of the State, but it would have been crazy to attack, even marginally, one of the engines of reindustrialization”insists Alexandre Saubot, the president of France Industrie.
Hugo Weber, director of public affairs at Mirakl, a company created in 2012 and specializing in Internet marketplaces, is also relieved: “Without the CIR, it would be impossible for us to do 100% of our R&D in France like today. By reducing our costs, it improves our ability to attract the best researchers in the face of international competition. » In total, half of the CIR is used to cover personnel costs.
Two amendments in 2023
The National Association of Research and Technology calculates the “researcher course”. Result, thanks to the CIR, France is more competitive than Germany, the United Kingdom, Canada or Japan, while without it, a French researcher would be the second most expensive in the world, after the United States. Almost all OECD countries have R&D support schemes. Late, Germany adopted its own in January 2020. The United States does not have one, but innovative companies are supported by public procurement.
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