French General Tax Code
In forceI.-It is hereby instituted a tax due in respect of sums collected by businesses in the digital sector defined in III, in return for the provision in France, over the course of a calendar year, of the services defined in II.
II.-The taxable services are:
1° The provision, via electronic communications, of a digital interface that enables users to contact and interact with other users, in particular with a view to the delivery of goods or the provision of services directly between these users. However, the making available of a digital interface is not a taxable service:
a) Where the interactions between the users of the interface are incidental, within the meaning of Article 257 ter, to the supply to those users, by means of that interface, by the person making it available, of one or more of the following:
digital content, without prejudice to the taxability of such content where it constitutes in itself a digital interface distinct from that by means of which it is supplied;
communications services;
payment services, within the meaning of Article L. 314-1 of the Monetary and Financial Code;
b) Where the digital interface is used to manage the following systems and services:
-interbank settlement systems or settlement and delivery systems for financial instruments, within the meaning of Article L. 330-1 of the same code;
the trading platforms defined in Article L. 420-1 of the said code or the trading systems of systematic internalisers defined in Article L. 533-32 of the same code;
-participatory finance service provider activities, within the meaning of Article L. 547-1 of the same code, and, if they facilitate the granting of loans, participatory finance intermediation services, within the meaning of Article L. 548-1 of the same code;
other matchmaking systems, mentioned in a decree of the minister responsible for the economy, whose activity is subject to authorisation and the performance of services subject to supervision by a regulatory authority with a view to ensuring the security, quality and transparency of transactions involving financial instruments, savings products or other financial assets ;
c) Where the purpose of the digital interface is to enable the purchase or sale of services aimed at placing advertising messages under the conditions provided for in 2° of this II;
2° Services marketed to advertisers, or their agents, aimed at placing on a digital interface advertising messages targeted according to data relating to the user consulting it and collected or generated when such interfaces are consulted, including when they are carried out by means of interfaces the provision of which is excluded from the services taxable by c of 1° of this II. These services may in particular include services for the purchase, storage and delivery of advertising messages, advertising monitoring and performance measurement, as well as services for the management and transmission of data relating to users.
Excluded from taxable services are the services mentioned in 1° and 2° of this II provided exclusively between undertakings belonging to the same group, within the meaning of the last paragraph of III.
III.-.The companies referred to in I are those, regardless of their place of establishment, for which the amount of sums received in return for taxable services during the calendar year preceding that referred to in the same I exceeds the following two thresholds:
1° 750 million euros in respect of services provided worldwide;
2° 25 million euros in respect of services provided in France, within the meaning of article 299 bis.
For undertakings, whatever their form, which are linked, directly or indirectly, within the meaning of II of Article L. 233-16 of the French Commercial Code, compliance with the thresholds mentioned in 1° and 2° of this III is assessed at the level of the group that they form.
