On 6 April 2020, the French tax authorities announced exceptional tax measures in response to coronavirus outbreak. These are:
- The corporate income tax installment payment of March 15 could be delayed until 15 June for all companies. Companies that have already paid such installment may request its repayment from the corporate tax service (SIE).
- The French government announced specific measures for employers whose deadline to pay their social contributions expires on the 15th of each month (the general deadline for small companies), and indicated that the March 15 and April 15 deadlines could be postponed up to three months (i.e., respectively until 15 June and 15 July 2020) without any penalty or interest for late payment.
- For the self-employed persons, it is possible to adjust the rate and the down payments at source at any time. It is also possible to defer the payment of their withholding taxes on their professional income from one month to the next up to three times if their installments are monthly, or from one quarter to the next if their deposits are quarterly.
- Businesses suffering difficulties to prepare their VAT returns because of the crisis context may establish such tax returns on an estimated basis with an accepted rate of mistake of up to 20%.
- Paper invoices may be sent to clients by electronic means (e.g., email) without consequences on the right to deduct VAT.
