French Director Training Tax Credit: Abolished Since 2025

No. The director training tax credit (French Tax Code, Article 244 quater M) no longer applies to training hours completed on or after 1 January 2025, because the 2025 Finance Act did not extend it. The 2026 Finance Act repealed it and the tax authority withdrew its guidance. Only hours completed up to 31 December 2024 remain covered.

Last updated: 26 August 2026. Reviewed by Samuel Hayot, Chartered Accountant in Paris.

For years, the director training tax credit was one of the most accessible provisions in the French Tax Code: when a business owner followed professional training, the French state offset a portion of the time spent against the company's corporate or personal income tax liability. That is no longer the case. Training hours completed on or after 1 January 2025 give rise to no entitlement, and the article that carried the scheme has been repealed.

This page has been rewritten to reflect that repeal. It sets out what the scheme provided, how long it applied, what happens to hours completed before 31 December 2024, and which routes to funding a business owner's training remain available today.

The director training tax credit is codified under Article 244 quater M of the French General Tax Code (Code général des impôts). It was introduced to encourage continuing professional development in small and medium-sized enterprises where the owner-manager often accumulates operational, commercial, and administrative responsibilities.

The administrative guidance was published on the BOFiP under reference BOI-BIC-RICI-10-50. It was withdrawn on 6 May 2026, the tax authority noting that the credit had ceased to apply from 1 January 2025. Archived BOFiP versions remain available for earlier financial years.

The scheme applied to financial years open on or after 1 January 2006, subject to successive extensions, the last of which carried it through to 31 December 2024. The 2025 Finance Act did not extend it, so hours completed from 1 January 2025 give rise to no entitlement. Law no. 2026-103 of 19 February 2026 (the 2026 Finance Act), Article 17, I-16°, then repealed Article 244 quater M.

Three dates that matter#

A common misconception is that this tax credit reimburses the cost of the training programme itself (registration fees, materials, travel). It does not. The credit is calculated on the implicit labour cost of the time the business owner devotes to their own training, measured in hours multiplied by the statutory minimum hourly wage (SMIC).

This design is deliberate: it treats the director's time as an economic cost to the business, just as an employee's training time would generate a payroll cost. The pedagogical expenditure (course fees, support materials) remains a deductible operating expense in its own right, separate from the credit.

The credit was applied directly against the tax liability, whether corporate income tax (IS) or personal income tax (IR), depending on the company's tax regime. It is not a supplementary deductible expense but a direct reduction of the tax bill. If the credit exceeds the tax owed, the surplus is refunded by the French tax authority.

Basic formula#

Tax credit = Number of training hours x Statutory minimum hourly wage (SMIC)

The annual ceiling is 40 hours per company per year, regardless of how many eligible directors the company has. There is no mid-year proration.

The reference SMIC hourly rate#

The rate used was the gross SMIC in force on 31 December of the relevant financial year. The examples below use an hourly rate of EUR 12.00, the order of magnitude in the final years the scheme applied. They illustrate the mechanism only: they have no application to a financial year opening on or after 1 January 2025.

Calculation table: the rules up to 31 December 2024#

Calculation applicable to hours completed up to 31 December 2024. It no longer produces any effect for hours completed from 1 January 2025.

The doubled ceiling for micro-entrepreneurs, up to 31 December 2024#

The initial Finance Act for 2022 (Article 20) introduced a doubled ceiling for micro-entrepreneurs whose turnover is below the micro-BIC or micro-BNC thresholds. The annual cap rises from 40 to 80 hours, generating a maximum credit of EUR 960 at a SMIC of EUR 12.00.

The doubled ceiling disappeared along with the scheme itself. It applied to hours completed up to 31 December 2024. From 1 January 2025 neither the standard nor the doubled ceiling gives rise to any entitlement: the credit as a whole no longer applies.

For the financial years in which the scheme applied, four conditions had to be met simultaneously. They remain relevant for a 2024 financial year still open to a claim.

1. Director status. The claimant must be a business owner within the meaning of Article 244 quater M: a sole trader (EI), the manager of a SARL or EURL, the president or CEO of a SAS or SASU, or the sole shareholder-manager. Employed directors, even at C-suite level, were not covered by this provision.

2. Continuing professional training. The training must qualify as formation professionnelle continue under Article L6311-1 of the Labour Code. This covers skills development, qualification acquisition, competency assessment (bilan de compétences), and validation of professional experience (VAE).

3. Declared training provider. The training must be delivered by an organisation formally declared to the DREETS (regional labour authority) in accordance with Article L6351-1 of the Labour Code. Qualiopi-certified providers generally meet this condition, but Qualiopi certification is not itself a mandatory eligibility requirement.

4. Taxable business (IS or IR). The credit covers industrial, commercial, craft, professional, and agricultural businesses. Associations and civil companies not subject to IS qualify only under specific conditions.

Eligible training includes technical and professional skills courses (management, accounting, business law, digital tools, foreign languages for professional use); qualification and certification programmes under a declared continuing education framework; inter-company short courses from declared providers; and e-learning programmes from declared providers with a named completion certificate.

Non-eligible training includes conventional university degrees (bachelor's, master's, MBA, PhD) where the individual is enrolled as a standard student outside the continuing education channel; purely informational conferences or seminars without structured pedagogical content; self-directed learning without a training organisation; and any training from a provider not formally declared.

Expert note. The line between eligible and non-eligible training often comes down to one administrative detail: whether the provider is formally declared and whether a named attendance certificate is issued. A director enrolled in an executive MBA at an accredited institution may qualify if the programme is formally structured as a formation professionnelle continue. Pre-verification is essential.

SARL with multiple managers. Only one manager per company per year opens entitlement to the credit, even if two co-managers each completed separate training programmes. The doctrine does not allow double-counting across directors within a single entity.

Holding companies. The manager of an active (animating) holding company may claim the credit if the training is relevant to the holding's actual business activities. A purely passive holding vehicle whose sole purpose is holding equity typically does not meet the criteria for an eligible business under this article.

Collaborating spouse or partner. Article 244 quater M expressly extends eligibility to the collaborating spouse (conjoint collaborateur) when they actively participate in the business. This must be assessed case by case.

Two distinct accounting flows apply.

Note. The sections that follow describe the regime that applied up to 31 December 2024. They remain relevant to a 2024 financial year still open to a claim, but no longer concern any year opening on or after 1 January 2025.

Training costs (pedagogical expenditure) are recorded as an operating expense in account 6228, Other continuing professional training expenses. They are fully deductible from taxable profit.

The tax credit itself is recognised as a reduction of the tax charge. It is recorded by debiting account 444, State, tax receivable and crediting account 695, Income taxes, reducing the net IS or IR charge in the annual financial statements. On settlement, the credit offsets the corporate tax payable or generates a reimbursement.

The director training tax credit is declared on form 2069-RCI (summary of business tax credits), filed with the annual tax return. For IS-taxable companies, the carry-over appears on liasse fiscale 2065. For IR-taxable businesses (BIC, BNC, BA), it is reported on form 2042 C PRO.

The 2069-RCI consolidates all tax credits for the year: R&D credit, innovation credit, director training credit, and others. Missing this declaration requires filing an amended return, which carries an administrative burden.

Under Article L102 B of the French Tax Procedure Code, supporting documents must be retained for 6 years from the date they were created or received. The minimum documentation file includes:

• The training contract or agreement signed by the company and the provider
• The detailed training programme specifying objectives, content, and duration
• Named attendance or completion certificates issued by the provider, showing the director's name, the training title, dates, and total hours
• Proof of payment (paid invoices, bank statements, wire transfer records)

The underestimated risk. In tax audits, the absence of a named attendance certificate is the single most frequent ground for disallowing this credit. The certificate must explicitly identify the director, the programme, the dates, and the duration in hours. Generic programme brochures without a named certificate are insufficient.

The director training tax credit and the Compte Personnel de Formation (CPF), the personal training account, could not be used simultaneously for the same training programme. If the director's CPF account covers part of the course cost, only the portion remaining at the company's expense enters the tax credit calculation.

For companies with more than 50 employees that have access to an OPCO (sectoral skills operator), OPCO-financed training may cover the director's programme. The same non-cumulation rule applies: only the share not covered by the OPCO qualifies for the tax credit.

The three representative scenarios below illustrate the mechanism as it applied. They describe no actual client file.

Scenario 1: Paris-based freelance consultant, EUR 50,000 turnover#

A consultant operating through a SASU (IS regime) in Paris completed, during its 2024 financial year, a 30-hour financial management course with a Qualiopi-certified provider, at an hourly SMIC of EUR 12.00.

Tax credit = 30 h x EUR 12.00 = EUR 360 (below the 40h ceiling; no capping). The credit is applied against the SASU's IS via form 2069-RCI. If IS for the year is below EUR 360, the surplus is refunded.

Scenario 2: micro-entrepreneur craftsman in Paris 18th, construction sector#

A self-employed plumber registered as a micro-entrepreneur completed, in 2024, a 40-hour construction site risk prevention course with a declared training provider, benefiting from the micro-entrepreneur doubling then in force.

Tax credit = 40 h x EUR 12.00 x 2 = EUR 960 (doubled ceiling applies; 40 hours actually followed x doubled rate). The credit offsets income tax on his personal tax return, form 2042 C PRO.

Scenario 3: SAS with 12 employees and two directors in management training#

A Paris-based SAS with 12 employees had two directors who each completed, in 2024, 20 hours of strategic management training. Despite two participants, the rule permits only one eligible director per company. Tax credit retained = 20 h x EUR 12.00 = EUR 240 (for one director only). The company should explicitly designate the claiming director in its documentation file.

Repealing the credit does not remove the other levers. The cost of training is now borne by the company or by the owner, but several funding routes remain.

• Training costs remain a deductible expense. Course fees, materials and travel are deducted from taxable profit under ordinary rules, provided the training is relevant to the business. This is now the main tax effect of a director's training.
• Training insurance funds (FAF). Each category of self-employed worker has its own fund: AGEFICE for non-salaried directors in trade, industry and services, FIF-PL for the professions, FAFCEA for craftspeople. These funds cover all or part of the course fees, within annual ceilings reviewed each year, on an application filed before the training begins.
• The personal training account (CPF). A director holding rights accrued through earlier employment can use them for an eligible course.
• The OPCO remains the funding channel for employees under the company's skills development plan.

The habit worth keeping. The training file loses none of its usefulness: signed agreement, programme, named attendance certificate, paid invoice. These documents no longer support a tax credit, but they support the deduction of the expense and condition the training fund's decision.

In cash terms the repeal changes little: EUR 480 to EUR 960 a year at most. It changes more in how a training budget is approached. While the credit existed, a business owner had a tax reason to track training hours. That reason has gone, but the tracking itself remains useful: it secures the deduction of the expense and conditions the training fund's contribution, which often exceeds the former credit.

We recommend keeping a training file from the start of each financial year: courses planned, providers retained and their declared status verified, budget allocated, and above all the funding application filed with the relevant fund before the training starts. That is now where the funding is decided, no longer at the point of the tax return.

What about hours completed up to 31 December 2024? A 2024 financial year during which the director followed eligible training may still give rise to the credit, including where it was not claimed at the time: a claim remains conceivable within the ordinary time limits, provided the supporting documents exist. No claim is possible for 2025 or 2026, the scheme no longer applying. Each situation warrants a case-by-case review.

This article is provided for information purposes only. It does not replace a personalised analysis by a qualified chartered accountant, which alone can account for the specific circumstances of your company and sector. The amounts and ceilings cited describe a scheme that has not applied since 1 January 2025.

Sources: BOFiP, 6 May 2026 update withdrawing the guidance on the director training tax credit; service-public.gouv.fr, factsheet F23460; Law no. 2026-103 of 19 February 2026 (2026 Finance Act), art. 17; French Tax Code art. 244 quater M (repealed); Labour Code art. L6311-1 and L6351-1; Tax Procedure Code art. L102 B.