FOREST GROUPS

Article 238b

Forest groups formed under the conditions provided for in Articles L. 241-1 to L. 241-6, L. 242-1 to L. 242-8 and L. 246-1 to L. 246-2 of the Forest Code shall not are not subject to corporation tax; but each of their members is personally liable, for the part of the social benefits corresponding to his rights in the grouping, either to income tax, determined according to the rules provided for the category of income to which these benefits relate. or, in the case of legal persons subject to corporation tax, corporation tax (1).

(1): In the event that the grouping becomes liable to corporation tax, see article 202 ter.

Article 238c

I. When they are carried out by industrial or commercial companies liable to income tax or by companies liable, for any reason whatsoever, to corporation tax, the operations of transformation into a forest grouping of a company that owns wood or land to be reforested as well as the contribution of goods of this nature to such a group, give rise to the collection of a special tax on the net value, at the time of their realization, of the asset transferred to the forestry group. This tax, collected at the rate of 6% in the first case and 8% in the second, releases the capital gains relating to the transferred asset, from income tax or corporate tax liable to ‘
The payment of the tax also entails the exemption, in the case of a capital company or an assimilated company, from income tax and withholding at source on capital income. furniture to which the distribution to its members of the forest group’s interest shares representing the woods and land to be reforested transferred to it would open up.
The tax is levied, according to the rules and under the penalties applicable in terms of registration fees, when the act recording the transformation or contribution is registered, or when the merged formality is completed.
It is not allowed as a deduction for the income tax base or for the corporate tax base.

II. The benefit of the provisions of I is subject to the following conditions:
1 ° The statutes of the forestry group must be approved beforehand by the Minister of Agriculture;
2 ° The woods and land to be reforested must be in the assets of the transformed company or of the natural or legal person making the contribution since a date prior to January 1, 1962 or entered since that date by inheritance or by donation. ; however, no condition of date of entry into the heritage is required for contributions made by land development and rural establishment companies constituted and operating in accordance with the provisions of articles L141-1 to L142-6, L142- 8, L144-2 and L144-3 of the rural code;
3 ° The transformation or contribution must not involve the transfer of movable or immovable property between the members of the group or other persons.