Hollande rejects calls for changes to R&D tax incentives

The system of R&D tax breaks for companies in France will stay as it is, according to president François Hollande.

In an interview with the TV channel TF1 on 6 November, Hollande promised to maintain the tax breaks for companies that spend on research. He said: “Often we have our handicaps, but here we have an advantage.”

The tax incentives, which total €5.6 billion for 2014, are a controversial issue in France. One of the main demands of the Sciences en Marche movement, a 3-week protest by researchers that culminated in Paris last month, was for the incentives to be restructured and a third of the money to be spent on public research and higher education.