CIR (Crédit d'Impôt Recherche) (CIR)

TL;DR

France's research tax credit: 30% refundable credit on the first €100M of qualifying R&D spend per year, paid as cash to loss-making startups.

Crédit d'Impôt Recherche (CIR) is France's flagship R&D tax credit and one of the most generous in Europe. Companies can claim a 30% credit on qualifying R&D expenditure up to €100M per year and 5% above that. For loss-making startups, the credit is refundable in cash within roughly 4–6 months of the corporate-tax filing — for SMEs the cash refund is even faster.

Qualifying spend includes R&D engineer salaries, depreciation on R&D equipment, sub-contracted R&D to approved labs, patents, and standardisation costs. CIR is the single largest source of non-dilutive funding for early-stage French deep-tech startups; specialist advisors (Sogedev, Lowendalmasaï, Leyton) typically file the claim alongside the corporate-tax return.

Formula

CIR Cash Refund = min(R&D Spend, €100M) × 30% + max(0, R&D Spend − €100M) × 5%

• R&D Spend — Eligible French R&D expenditure incurred during the fiscal year (engineering salaries, depreciation, sub-contracts, patents)
• 30% — Standard CIR rate on the first €100M of qualifying R&D spend
• 5% — Reduced CIR rate on R&D spend above €100M

Worked example

A Toulouse aerospace startup spends €1.5M on qualifying R&D in 2024. Its CIR is €1.5M × 30% = €450k, refunded in cash in mid-2025 — equivalent to ~5 months of additional runway and accounting for nearly half of its operating budget that year.

Common pitfalls

• Submitting CIR for activities that fail the 'systematic uncertainty resolution' test — often results in a multi-year clawback.
• Using a contingent-fee advisor whose claims look aggressive to the Ministry of Higher Education on audit.
• Forgetting to apply for the 'rescrit CIR' upfront on novel research — leaves the credit at audit risk.

When this shows up in a pitch deck

French Series A decks include CIR cash refunds in the runway calculation: 'CIR contributes €450k/year of non-dilutive funding'.

Related terms

• JEI (Jeune Entreprise Innovante) — French status for under-8-yr-old R&D-heavy companies (≥15% R&D spend), granting payroll-tax exemption on R&D staff and reduced CT in early years.
• Bpifrance — France's state-owned investment bank, providing equity, grants, and innovation loans to French startups and acting as a fund-of-funds anchor LP.
• BSPCE — France's tax-advantaged employee stock-option scheme: gains taxed at flat 30% PFU for employees with 3+ years' service, or 12.8% income tax otherwise.
• R&D Tax Credits (UK) — Two HMRC schemes (SME and RDEC) refunding a percentage of qualifying R&D spend in cash or as a CT credit — often £30–80k for early-stage UK startups.
• Runway — The number of months the current cash balance will last at the current net burn rate before the company runs out of money.

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