Obtain payment terms from the tax authority (business)
Verified 27 November 2024 - Directorate for Legal and Administrative Information (Prime Minister)
A business facing exceptional and one-off difficulties may request payment periods with the tax administration. These periods may be granted by the public accountant to exceptional title as a settlement plan.
Any business who meets ad hoc and unpredictable difficulties not allowing it to meet its tax obligations to pay (partially or fully) may request the tax administration to stagger the payment of its debts. In other words, it can ask for a payment schedule for its tax debts.
However, the business must be current tax returns.
Payment periods may be requested for tax debts that have not been settled before the payment deadline (principal debt and penalties).
On the other hand, not all tax debts can benefit from payment periods. Examples include the following tax liabilities:
- Withholding tax
- Income tax (IR) and company property tax (CFE) installments
- Interest on late collection
- When the debt is a mandatory prerequisite step for the completion of a formality, it may not be the subject of a payment period. Thus, the payment of registration fees (transfer fees) cannot be subject to a payment deadline.
The request must be made by the business' legal representative to the company Tax Service (SIE)on which the business depends:
The request can be made in writing or orally during an interview. However, the documents justifying the financial difficulties the business and give details of the circumstances in which it found itself in difficulties.
It is preferable to offer guarantees to ensure the payment of tax debts at the time of the request for payment periods. If the business is unable to provide security, the manager shall always be required to to act as guarantor. If the manager refuses, the request for a delay in payment may be rejected.
FYI
The business may also seize the Commission of Heads of Financial Services (CCSF), which will study its case and propose a settlement plan with the assistance of the tax and social authorities.
Obtaining a payment term is a exceptional event. The public accountant who receives the request for a payment period will make a different decision depending on whether the business has or does not have a claim on the State .
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Existence of a claim
When a business holds and justifies a claim on the State, on public accountant who receives the request for payment period grants systematically the time limit for payment. Automatic acceptance only applies to debts due to late payment by the State. The time allowed may not then exceed the time limit within which the Crown must pay its debt to the business. In addition, the payment period will be automatically granted only for the share of the tax debt equivalent to the government's debt to the business.
The claim must, however, be certain, it must result from a right to payment justified by a certificate. This is established by the authorizing department that liquidates the expense. The claim must also be due. This means that the date on which it must be paid has passed: its payment is inevitably required.
Warning
A business which has a claim on a local authority does not always receive a payment deadline. The rules are then those that apply in the absence of a claim on the state.
No claim
The public accountant who receives the request for a payment period considers the company's situation before making his decision. It verifies that the business is usually up to date in its tax deadlines and that the delay is due to exceptional and unforeseeable temporary difficulties (for example, a farmer loses his crop due to a frost period in the middle of August).
Once the public accountant has accepted the request for a time limit for payment, it shall consider the business' proposal: it shall either accept it or make a counter-proposal.
The business must then state its commitment in writing. One form containing the key settlement plan information shall be given to the legal representative of the business. It contains in particular the duration of the plan (always less than 2 years), the deadlines or even the payment of a deposit. The business must add the date, the handwritten word “read and approved” and his signature for to make a commitment to the proposed plan.
The form must then be countersigned by the public accountant or a staff member under his authority.
FYI
The settlement plan may provide for the possibility of renegotiated.
In case of late payment of a business' tax obligations, the government may to institute proceedings to obtain payment of its debts. When these debts are part of a settlement plan, the lawsuits are suspended. In other words, no forced recovery can be made as long as the business complies with its settlement plan.
Warning
If proceedings have already been initiated before the settlement plan is put in place, it does not have an impact on them.
A business' debts must be in the Treasury Privilege in order to be made public. It's the public accountant who is responsible for this registration. It has no impact on debt repayment. On the other hand, this debt will be publicly visible, which is an unreassuring indication of the financial situation of the business and thus hamper trade.
Where the business complies with its settlement plan, such registration no longer required.
Provided that the business complies with its settlement plan and is up to date with its reporting and current expense obligations, if it is bidding for a procurement, it can obtain a tax certificate annual n°3666-SD on the website impots.gouv.fr:
The public accountant who has granted a settlement plan shall verify that the business meets deadlines well to which it has committed itself. It also verifies that it meets its current tax obligations (returns and payments) that are not included in the settlement plan.
The public accountant terminates the settlement plan starting on 1er failure to comply. It's called “denunciation”. It shall inform the business of the reasons for terminating the settlement plan, by registered mail with acknowledgement of receipt.
Once the settlement plan has been terminated, the suspended proceedings resume. In other words, the public accountant take action in forced recovery to settle the business' tax debts. To do this, it will activate the guarantees put in place or the mandatory guarantee that has been required in the absence of any other guarantee.
The denunciation also ends the exemption from Treasury privilege. So the public accountant will put the debts in the treasury privilege within 2 months which follow the receipt by the business of the denunciation of the settlement plan (or of the presentation of the item if there has been no withdrawal).
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Disclosure of Debts to Treasury Privilege