CORPORATION TAX Corporation tax is a tax, in principle payable annually, on all profits generated in France by companies and other legal entities. It concerns about a third of French companies. Legal entities may be liable to corporation tax:

?? either at the standard rate of 33⅓% for all their activities;

?? or at the following reduced rates:

• 15% for the first €38,120 of taxable profit of companies with turnover excluding VAT of less than €7,630,000 in the tax year or tax period, reduced where relevant to twelve months. The company's capital must be fully paid-up and at least 75% must be held continuously by individuals or by a company meeting the same conditions. For the parent company of a group as stipulated in Article 223 A of the French Tax Code (Code Général des Impôts, CGI), turnover is the sum of the turnover of each company in the group;

• 0% for long-term capital gains resulting from the disposal of participating interests (see p. 15 below);

• 0% or 15% for long-term capital gains resulting from the disposal of units in venture-capital investment funds and shares in venture-capital companies (see p. 15 below);

• 15% for income from granting licences to use patents, patentable inventions or certain industrial manufacturing processes and capital gains from the disposal of such elements (see p. 15 below);

• 19% for long-term capital gains resulting from the sale of securities of listed predominantly property companies (sociétés à prépondérance immobilière, SPI) (see p. 15 below);

• 19% for net capital gains booked on:

- the contribution or transfer before 1 January 2012 of properties, certain similar rights and securities of SPIs, under certain conditions, to listed property investment companies, variable-capital SPIs or their affiliates;

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