French General Tax Code
In forceI. - Persons domiciled in France within the meaning of Article 4 B who are employed and sent by an employer to a State other than France and that of the place of establishment of that employer may benefit from an exemption from income tax on the salaries received as remuneration for the activity carried out in the State to which they are sent.
The employer must be established in France or in another Member State of the European Union, or in another State party to the Agreement on the European Economic Area that has entered into an administrative assistance agreement with France to combat tax fraud and evasion.
The income tax exemption referred to in the first paragraph is granted if the persons can prove that they meet one of the following conditions:
1° Avoir été effectivement soumises, sur les rémunérations en cause, à un impôt sur le revenu dans l'Etat où s'exerce leur activité et sous réserve que cet impôt soit au moins égal à deux tiers de celui qu'elles auraient à supporter en France sur la même base d'imposition;
2° Avoir exercé l'activité salariée dans les conditions mentionnés aux premier et deuxième alinéas:
- either for a period of more than one hundred and eighty-three days over a period of twelve consecutive months when it relates to the following areas:
a) Construction or assembly sites, installation of industrial plants, their start-up, operation and related engineering;
b) Search for or extraction of natural resources;
c) Navigation on board ships armed for trade and registered in the French international register,
- or for a period of more than one hundred and twenty days in any period of twelve consecutive months when it relates to commercial prospecting activities.
The provisions of 2° do not apply to frontier workers or civil servants.
II. - When the persons mentioned in the first paragraph of I do not meet the conditions defined in 1° and 2° of the same I, any supplementary remuneration paid to them in respect of their stay in another State is exempt from income tax in France if it meets the following conditions:
1° Be paid in consideration of stays made in the direct and exclusive interest of the employer;
2° Be justified by a trip requiring a residence of an effective duration of at least twenty-four hours in another State;
3° Be determined in their amount prior to the stays in another State and in relation, on the one hand, to the number, duration and place of these stays and, on the other hand, to the remuneration paid to the employees excluding the supplements mentioned in the first paragraph. The amount of the additional remuneration may not exceed 40% of the remuneration previously defined.
