The glass is half full. The startup nation wakes up partially relieved. Contrary to expectations, the Barnier government’s 2025 finance bill saves the research tax credit (CIR).
A lever for the attractiveness of French research and development, this tax loophole allows companies to deduct from their corporate tax 30% of the costs they show on their balance sheet as the result of research and development.
If the tech world breathes a sigh of relief, preserving the research tax credit doesn’t just make people happy. c platform at Mond a collective of more than two thousand academics and researchers believes that the CIR is damaging the French research and training ecosystem. How? By defunding public research and universities.
Startups penalized
However, start-ups are not completely spared from the budget stringency. The Tax Credit for Innovation (CII) is being abolished pure and simple. This system allows innovative companies with fewer than 250 employees to deduct from corporate tax 30% of costs related to “the design of prototypes or pilot installations of new products”. 45% of French startups have taken advantage of it, according to France Digitale.
The effort required of startups doesn’t stop there. Article 7 of the Social Security Funding Bill (PLFSS) provides for the end of the exemption from social contributions for young innovative companies. This advantage is now reserved for SMEs under eight years of age. And led in part by researchers, notes the website Context.
On X, the vice-president of the Ensemble pour la République, Paul Midi, fears that “ detrimental effects on employment and our young shoots “. He will submit ” tomorrow the necessary amendments to reverse this deletion and continue to support our entrepreneurs.
Declining and more limited investments
The bill is also high for large investment programs. The Invest for France 2030 mission sees a drop in payment appropriations to €4.3 billion compared to €5.7 billion this year. In addition, the government intends to strengthen the evaluation of projects receiving public support.
“The aim is to maximize the effectiveness of investment by more directly managing the government’s strategic priorities », as the latter managed to do in 2024. How? By increasing the funding dedicated to AI after the presentation of the report of Commission on Artificial Intelligence.
Although mainly in the form of grants or reimbursable advances, France 2030 commitments can also lead to capital investments. In 2025, one billion euros will be earmarked to finance investment funds dedicated to technological disruption, such as France’s Tech Souveraineté.
France’s very high speed plan has been halved
finally as the telecom industry feared, the France Très Haut Débit plan, which aims to generalize fiber coverage across the country, is losing just over half of its budget. It was already reduced by 155 million euros in February. Commitment authorizations range from €97 million to €47 million. And payment credits from 464 to 247 million euros.
“In 2025, payment credits will be mobilized mainly for payments on calls for projects for ‘networks of public initiative’ (RIP) and for the start of the deployment of optical fibers in the territory of Mayotte. », The government says. An experiment worth 16.1 million euros will also be launched next year. the goal? ” Estimate the cost of complex connections in the private sector ». Small consolation.
This reduction in the scope of the France Très Haut Débit plan will make people in the sector jump with anger. For several quarters, fiber optic deployment continues to slow. And this makes the presidential goal of 100% fiber in France by the end of 2025 difficult to achieve.
In addition, optical fibers are expected to be replaced to the copper network which will be phased out by 2030. The president of Arcep, the sector regulator, Laure de La Raudière is already planning a postponement of the timetable for the commercial closure of ADSL, planned for 31 January 2026.
