New financial assistance for energy-intensive companies

New financial assistance for energy-intensive mid-sized companies

Decree no. 2024-251 of March 22, 2024, published on March 23, has created a particularly attractive form of assistance for companies hit particularly hard by the rise in electricity supply costs due to the war in Ukraine. Adopted following a decision by the European Commission approving the introduction of emergency ^aid1, the decree provides financial assistance to legal entities under private or public law for energy expenditure (electricity, natural gas, heat or cooling produced from these sources) incurred over the whole of 2024.

Cumulative conditions

A number of conditions must be met to qualify for assistance.

The decree lays down conditions relating to the company's number of employees, sales, energy consumption and field of activity.

• Conditions relating to number of employees and sales :
  • The company must employ fewer than 5,000 people;
  • Its sales do not exceed 1.5 billion euros or its balance sheet total does not exceed 2 billion euros.

               / / The applicable thresholds are the same for a group of companies.

• Activity conditions :
  • The company was created no later than June 30, 2023;
  • The company's main activity is not in the energy, credit or financial sectors (it being understood that an activity is to be considered main when it generates more than 50% of the company's total sales);
  • When incorporated as an association, the company is subject to commercial taxes and employs at least one employee.

• Energy consumption requirements :
  • The company has at least one electricity supply contract in force in 2024, signed or renewed before June 30, 2023.
  • The company's energy consumption (electricity, natural gas, heat or refrigeration produced from these sources) during a quarter or month of 2024 represents at least 3% of its sales during a previous reference period (the same quarter, month or the entire reference period based on the length of the eligible period).

The reference period is fixed and varies according to the date on which the company was founded:

- For companies created no later than December 31, 2020, the period from January^1, 2021 to December 31, 2021 ;

- For companies created between January^1, 2021 and December 31, 2021, the period from January^1, 2022 to December 31, 2022 ;

- For companies created between January^1, 2022 and December 31, 2022, the period from January^1, 2023 to December 31, 2023 ;

- Finally, for companies created between January^1, 2023 and June 30, 2023, the period from July^1, 2023 to December 31, 2023.

Specific conditions for payment of the aid are also specified for each of the eligible periods.

Exclusion of certain categories of company

The decree expressly excludes certain categories of company from the scope of the aid:

• Companies that have received group-level aid in excess of certain amounts (€280,000 for companies in the primary agricultural production sector, €335,000 for those in the fisheries and aquaculture sectors, €2,250,000 for others).
• Companies eligible for the electricity buffer scheme in 2024 (in particular, companies with fewer than 250 employees and annual sales not exceeding €50 million or annual balance sheet total not exceeding €43 million).
• Companies which have been subject to sanctions by the European Union, or which are among the persons, entities or bodies specifically designated in the legal acts instituting these sanctions, companies owned or controlled by persons, entities or bodies targeted by sanctions adopted by the European Union, or companies operating in sectors targeted by sanctions adopted by the European Union.
• Companies in receivership, compulsory liquidation or safeguard proceedings on the date of the request for payment of the grant. In fact, once eligibility has been accepted, aid cannot be paid if the request for one of the quarters (see below) is concomitant with one of these situations. It may therefore be paid for the first applications if, for example, the company goes into receivership between the third and fourth applications.

How to apply

Eligible companies have until May 31 to submit their application for assistance by electronic means. Applications must be submitted via the French tax authorities' website, together with all the necessary supporting documents. The Directorate General of Public Finances will then notify companies of their right to benefit from the aid by June 30, 2024 at the latest.

Following receipt of the notification, the company concerned must then submit payment requests for each quarter:

• For the months of January, February and March 2024: between April 15, 2024 and July 31, 2024 ;
• For April, May and June 2024: between July 15, 2024 and October 31, 2024;
• For the months of July, August and September 2024: filed between October 15, 2024 and January 31, 2025;
• For October, November and December 2024: between January 15, 2025 and April 30, 2025.

Amount of assistance

The amount of aid for each eligible period in question is, subject to certain conditions, 50% of the total eligible cost for the period in question.

Application contents

The application contains :

• A sworn statement that the company meets the above conditions and that the information provided is accurate;
• A certificate from a chartered accountant or the statutory auditor (the public accountant for public-sector legal entities) containing certain compulsory information required by law;
• The aid calculation file conforms to the model available on the impots.gouvwebsite;
• The EBITDA calculation file based on the model available on the impots.gouvwebsite;
• The balance of the eligible period or reference year ;
• The energy bills considered for calculating the 3%, a summary list of these bills in accordance with the available model, and the supply contracts signed or renewed;
• Company bank details.