Discover in this article the key points addressed in the decision of the CAA of LYON, 5th chamber, 06/06/2024, company ABMI Ingénierie):
The state of the art as an essential criterion for eligibility of R&D work for the CIR
In this ruling by the CAA de LYON, 5th chamber, 06/06/2024, the court ordered an expert appraisal for the purpose of giving an opinion on the eligibility to the research tax credit ABMI Ingénierie's projects rejected by the administrative court.
The expert appointed by the court considered a number of projects eligible for the CIR. He confirms that these projects present " a certain novelty " unlike other projects deemed ineligible for the CIR.
The expert rejects three out of six projects, on the grounds that they required the use of "technical" solutions. known from existing art "which do not present a " novelty ". In his expert's report, he concluded that the projects not selected for the CIR were not new enough to constitute the result of fundamental research.
State-of-the-art analysis by our tax experts
To be eligible for the CIR, you need to address technical/scientific issues or scientific uncertainties. If there are no available solutions to your problem, you'll have to carry out your own R&D to solve it.
The aim is to remove barriers, because by succeeding (or not) in doing so, you contribute to the generation of new knowledge and thus advance the state of the art. To justify it, you need to show the state of this knowledge at the start of your work.
The company claiming the CIR must be able to accurately describe the state of the art in its R&D operations at the start of the project. This state of the art must be described in detail in the dossier. scientific supporting documents compiled at the same time as the CIR claim and essential to justify the claim.
The state of the art is the state of scientific and/or technical knowledge available at the start of an R&D operation. This knowledge can be used by the skilled person normally competent in the field concerned.
Drawing up a "state of the art" report involves precise bibliographical work and an analysis of the major publications relating to the chosen theme.
An employee in charge of a project can be assimilated to a researcher.
In this case, the personnel expenses booked concern a business manager for the " development of original technological solutions for detecting individuals in gaps CIR 2012 ".
This project concerns metro trains, and more specifically the problem of the gap between the train and the metro platform, especially when the latter has a significant curvature.
According to the court, "it follows from the investigation that this employee is the holder of a diplôme de brevet de technicien supérieur "He has been with the applicant company for 21 years, a "coefficient 130" executive job within the meaning of the Syntec collective bargaining agreement, including design and research engineers. In these conditions, the qualification of this employee, taking into account training and professional experience, is comparable to that of an engineer. and the salary expenses relating to it must be taken into account in determining the research tax credit".
Our tax experts' analysis of staff eligibility
A number of legal precedents have recognized the inclusion of personnel costs in the CIR tax base. employees who, through the level and nature of their research activities within the company or previously, have acquired skills that make them equivalent to engineers, without having the same qualifications. "
However it is essential to be able to provide a certain number of supporting documents to demonstrate employee involvement in research and development activities.In addition to the job title, you'll need to provide other information to qualify as personnel expenses for the purposes of your CIR. For example: job description, coefficient within the meaning of the collective bargaining agreement, description of the work carried out by the employee, activity report, diary, etc.
A case-by-case analysis will therefore be necessary, depending on the situation of the employee concerned.
The costs of the expert appraisal are borne by the party who does not obtain satisfaction.
Lastly, the court points out that under the terms of article R. 207-1 of the Book of Tax Procedures: "(...) The costs of expert appraisals are borne by the party who does not obtain satisfaction. A partially successful taxpayer shares in the costs in proportion to the part of his claim that has been rejected, taking into account the state of the dispute at the start of the expert appraisal. “ ".
Analysis by our tax experts on the intervention of MESR agents
The involvement of agents from the Ministry of Research may be at the initiative of the Ministry itself, or at the request of the tax authorities when the scientific nature of the work needs to be assessed as part of a tax audit or dispute.
To check the eligibility of declared expenses, the MESR has a network of scientific experts throughout France. These are experts who work or have worked for research organizations or public institutions. They keep abreast of the state of the art in the various fields of research.
In anticipation of a possible referral from the MESR tax authorities to carry out a scientific examination of the R&D operations declared, we therefore advise you to develop and implement the following measures clearly detail the state of the art achieved and all the scientific contributions made per year on the declared project in your supporting file!
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