Service agreement and indirect remuneration of the director: a win for the firm before the Bordeaux Administrative Court of Appeal! 🎉

In a decision of 5 June 2025, the CAA de Bordeaux (Bordeaux Administrative Court of Appeal) accepted our arguments and discharged our client from additional corporate income tax (IS) and VAT assessments arising from the challenge to the deduction of management fees, applying the recent Collectivision decisions.

In brief:

– a service agreement that allowed a certain level of management fees to be passed up to the service provider;

– a director common to both companies (the service provider and the recipient of the services), who was not remunerated;

– services considered to duplicate those assigned to the manager (gérant) of the recipient company;

– management fees that indirectly remunerated the director of both companies, which therefore ruled out an abnormal act of management (acte anormal de gestion);

– indirect remuneration that had not been expressly approved by the corporate bodies, but had been tacitly approved, as shown by the evidence produced in the proceedings.

This decision is one of the first rulings applying the Collectivision judgments (Conseil d’État, 9th and 10th chambers, no. 466887, Collectivision; CAA de MARSEILLE, 3rd chamber, 03/04/2025, 23MA02484).

We are very proud to have won this dispute, which weighed heavily on our client’s shoulders

If you are facing a tax audit, whether business or personal, a tax lawyer remains your best defence Do not hesitate to contact our tax department: Caroline Zimbris and Lucie Chevaillier.

CAA Bordeaux, 23BX01748