Le projet de loi relatif à la lutte contre la fraude fiscale et la grande délinquance économique et financière vient d’être adopté par l’Assemblée nationale le 5 novembre 2013. Ce texte prévoit notamment, dans son article 29, un allongement du délai d’opposition des créanciers aux opérations de dissolution sans liquidation des sociétés unipersonnelles pour le porter de 30 à 60 jours

Amendments to the rules of deductibility of interest expenses

Further restrictions to deductibility of interest expenses incurred in relation to a share purchase¹

Since the adoption of the 2011 Finance Act, the scope of application for thin capitalization rules, provided for in article 212 of the French Tax Code, was extended to all loans, including bank loans, backed by security interest or a guarantee, granted by a company belonging to the borrower's group or by a company with a guaranteed undertaking secured by a company related to the borrower.

Tax treatment in the hands of the creditor

The tax treatment of the forgiveness of debt within a group of companies depends on whether or not such forgiveness is of a “normal nature”. In order to be considered as being of a normal nature, the ‘advantage’ granted by a parent/creditor to its subsidiary/debtor must involve valid business reasons.

Summary

This briefing sets out the key French corporate income tax issues in respect of debt restructurings. In summary, debtors and creditors may be faced with material tax consequences in case of a debt waiver, debt transfer, conversion of debt into equity or debt buy-back, so that such operations may require an appropriate structuring in order to mitigate potential tax issues.

Introduction  

This briefing summarises key French tax points relating to restructuring of indebtedness.  

On 27 March 2020, the law for the Mitigation of the Consequences of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Civil, Insolvency and Criminal Proceedings Law was announced in the Federal Law Gazette (BGBl. I 2020, page 569). Among other things, the retroaction under commercial law in case of restructuring measures for the year 2020 was extended from eight to twelve months, although adaptations in the Reorganisation Tax Act (UmwStG) were not made in this context. This may result in complications.

In Germany, as in many other countries, a number of laws have been passed in order to respond to the economic challenges in connection with the Covid-19 crisis. This memorandum provides a brief summary and overview focusing on the most relevant changes to the legal landscape.

I. Financial Support

In response to the outbreak of COVID-19, the German federal and state governments have implemented several executive and legislative measures to support affected businesses in Germany. This newsletter provides an overview of the key measures which may be relevant to Japanese companies with operations in Germany. Naturally, there will be many questions and issues to be clarified, and we will be happy to use all our experience and local contacts to help answer and overcome them.

Overview

What is new?

Despite the substantial scope of the first package of measures from the German government, the establishment of a "protective shield for employees and companies", it had already become clear that further measures would be necessary to mitigate the effects of the Covid 19 pandemic on the German economy (for the first package, see our newsletter of 18 March 2020). 

Insolvency Law

The German Federal government is preparing measures to suspend the requirement for companies to file for insolvency in cases where companies are suffering financial losses due to the current COVID-19 crisis. This suspension may apply through 30 September 2020. The German government aims to avoid insolvencies that may occur simply because the state's financial help may not arrive in time.