On 21 June 2023, the French tax authority issued updated guidelines clarifying the scope of the digital services tax (DST). The guidelines, reflected in administrative documents BOI-TCA-TSN-10-10-10 and BOI-TCA-TSN-10-10-20, are in response to the Supreme Administrative Court’s decision in case No. 461058/2022.
The key clarifications provided are as follows:
Services that offer a digital interface, where user interactions are of an ancillary nature as defined by Article 257 ter of the General Tax Code, are not subject to the digital services tax. The exclusion of specific digital content supply services from the tax does not automatically extend to the digital content itself. For example, even if a software supply service is excluded from the tax, each individual software provided may still be subject to the tax.
The exemption for intra-group services applies only to services exclusively rendered to companies within the same group. This means that services provided between companies belonging to the same group are exempt from the tax only when they are solely provided to other group companies.
These updated guidelines aim to provide further clarity and ensure accurate application of the digital services tax in France.
