2i: Companies located in rural regeneration areas

I. - In the rural regeneration areas mentioned in article 1465 A, businesses that are created or taken over between 1 January 2011 and 31 December 2023, subject by right or by option to an actual taxation system for their results and that carry out an industrial, commercial or craft activity within the meaning of article 34 or professional activity within the meaning of 1 of article 92, are exempt from income tax or corporation tax on profits made, excluding capital gains arising on the revaluation of assets, until the end of the fifty-ninth month following the month of their creation or takeover and declared in accordance with the procedures set out in l'article 53 A.

In the areas mentioned in B of II of Article 1465 A, the first paragraph of this I only applies to businesses created or taken over until 31 December 2018.

Profits are only subject to income tax or corporation tax for one quarter, one half or three quarters of their amount depending on whether they are made respectively during the first, second or third twelve-month period following this exemption period.

II. - To benefit from the exemption mentioned in I, the company must meet the following conditions:

a) The company's registered office and all of its business and operating resources are located in the areas mentioned in I. When a company carries out a non-sedentary activity, carried out in part outside the aforementioned areas, the location condition is deemed to have been met if it achieves no more than 25% of its turnover outside these areas. In excess of 25%, the profits generated are subject to income tax or corporation tax under the conditions of ordinary law in proportion to the turnover generated outside the aforementioned areas. This turnover condition is assessed for each financial year;

b) The company employs fewer than eleven people. The number of employees is assessed, for each financial year, in accordance with the procedures set out in I of article L. 130-1 of the Social Security Code;

When a company already benefiting from the exemption mentioned in I of this article notes that its workforce has crossed a threshold determined in accordance with the procedures set out in II of article L. 130-1 of the Social Security Code, this circumstance causes it to lose the benefit of this exemption;

c) The company is not engaged in banking, finance, insurance, property management or rental, or sea fishing;

d) The capital of the company created or taken over is not held, directly or indirectly, for more than 50% by other companies;

e) The company is not created as part of an extension of pre-existing activities. The existence of a contract, whatever its name, the purpose of which is to organise a partnership characterises the extension of a pre-existing activity when the company created or taking over the activity benefits from the assistance of this partner, in particular with regard to the use of a sign, a commercial name, a brand or know-how, supply conditions, administrative, legal, commercial or technical management methods, under conditions such that this company is placed in a situation of dependence.

III.- The exemption does not apply to the use of a sign, a commercial name, a brand or know-how, supply conditions, administrative, legal, commercial or technical management methods, under conditions such that this company is placed in a situation of dependence.

III.The exemption does not apply to the creation or takeover of a business in the rural regeneration zones mentioned in I following the transfer of a business previously run by a taxpayer who, for one or more of the five years prior to that of the transfer, benefited from the provisions of articles 44 sexies, 44 sexies A, 44 septies, as it read prior to Finance Act No. 2021-1900 of 30 December 2021 for 2022, 44 octies, as it read prior to the same Act, 44 octies A, 44 duodecies, 44 terdecies, 44 quaterdecies, 44 sexdecies or 44 septdecies or a regional planning bonus.

The exemption does not apply to the creation or takeover of activities in the rural regeneration zones mentioned in I following the transfer, concentration or restructuring of activities previously carried out in these zones, except for the time remaining if the activity taken over or transferred benefits or has benefited from the exemption provided for in this article.

The exemption also does not apply in the following situations:

a) If, when the company, legal entity or grouping has already been the subject of an initial takeover or restructuring operation at the end of which the transferor, his or her spouse, the partner to whom he or she is linked by a civil solidarity pact defined in Article 515-1 du code civil, their ascendants and descendants, their brothers and sisters together hold, directly or indirectly, more than 50% of the voting rights or rights in the corporate profits of the company, legal entity or grouping being taken over, or is the beneficiary of the takeover or restructuring operation, that company, legal entity or grouping is again the subject of such an operation following which one or more of the natural persons previously mentioned together hold, directly or indirectly, more than 50% of the voting rights or rights in the corporate profits.

The transferor means any person who, prior to the takeover or restructuring operation, either directly or indirectly held more than 50% of the voting rights or rights in the corporate profits of the company, legal entity or grouping that was the subject of one of these operations, or exercised, de jure or de facto, effective management thereof ;

b) If, when the sole proprietorship has already been the subject of a first takeover or restructuring operation that has led to the benefit of the exemption mentioned in I and carried out for the benefit of the spouse of the sole proprietor, the partner to whom he is linked by a civil solidarity pact defined in article 515-1 of the Civil Code, their ascendants and descendants or their brothers and sisters, it is again the subject of such an operation for the benefit of one or more of the persons previously mentioned.

IV. - When it meets the conditions required to benefit from the provisions of one of the schemes provided for in articles 44 sexies, 44 sexies A, 44 octies A, 44 duodecies, 44 terdecies, 44 quaterdecies, 44 sexdecies or 44 septdecies and the scheme provided for in this article, the company may opt for the latter scheme within six months of commencing business. The option is irrevocable and entails definitive renunciation of the other schemes.

V. - The benefit of the exemption and partial taxation is subject to compliance with 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.

VI. - The exemption remains applicable for its remaining period when the municipality in which the business is located leaves the list of municipalities classified as a rural regeneration zone after the date of its creation or takeover.