Can I still get financial aid to cover coronavirus losses?

Short answer: yes, depending on your business.

A government decree published on August 14 extended the financial support system that was in place until the end of June to cover the months of July, August and September this year. This latest round of ‘solidarity funding’ will only cover businesses relating to hotels, restaurants, cafés, tourism, events, sports, culture as well as authors and artists.

The form to apply for this compensation became available today (August 18) from 09:00, and is available at https://www.impots.gouv.fr/portail/.

People are also still able to claim back losses occurred in June as long as they claim by August 31.

Who can apply?

The financial aid, which can be up to €1,500, is reserved for small businesses, self-employed people, sole traders and micro-entrepreneurs. This is regardless of tax regime or status. However there are still several conditions that must be met:

• Your workforce must not exceed 20 employees
• Your turnover must be less than €2 million
• Your annual taxable profit (before corporation tax and appearing on the 2065 declaration) must not exceed €60,000 for companies in your own name or €120,000 if the spouse of the head of the company is involved in the company's activity under the status of collaborating spouse

It is also possible to benefit from financial aid if you have been on sick leave or on leave to look after your children, again subject to conditions.

On top of these requirements, you must be able to show that your company meets one of two conditions to prove it was directly affected by coronavirus.

Either, your company has been subject to administrative closure. This provision refers to the decree of March 15 2020 supplementing the decree of 14 March 2020. It lists all the establishments that must be closed due to the pandemic, such as museums, restaurants and nightclubs, which were deemed to be non-essential. You can find the complete list here.

Or, your company has suffered a loss of turnover of more than 50% compared the same period of time last year.

To apply for this aid you should go to impots.gouv.fr, go to your ‘personal space’, go to your mailbox and click on ‘Écrire’ and then select the reason “je demande l'aide aux entreprises fragilisées par l'épidémie Covid-19”.

Related stories:

Covid-19 France: Aid for self-employed

Financial aid for gîte and chambre d’hôtes owners