Setting up a business: reimbursement of business expenses

Are you launching your business? Launching such a project involves costs, even before the start of the activity. Can such costs, linked to the launch of your company, be reimbursed? This is indeed a possibility. Which expenses are covered?

The expenses concerned by a potential reimbursement are none other than the "professional expenses" prior to the creation of the company. These refer to expenses incurred personally by the natural or legal person behind the creation of the company and for the purpose of creating a new company.

They can then be advanced by the manager himself or also by a partner of the structure being formed, even before the opening of any bank account attached to the structure.

Some additional details are needed regarding the nature of these expenses and the conditions for their reimbursement.

What expenses are reimbursable?

When launching a business, there are three types of expenses that can be incurred and reimbursed.

These three categories of expenses are as follows:

• Professional expenses referred to as "charge-related". These may refer to supplies purchased or the subscription to insurance.
• Professional expenses considered as fixed assets. These expenses are related to the purchase of equipment, whether technical, transport or IT.
• Professional expenses related to the company's new premises. These most often correspond to expenses for possible work or security deposits.

In fact, we can extend such a list to all the expenses that were necessary to launch your company. However, these expenses must meet a certain number of conditions.

What conditions must be met to get these expenses reimbursed?

Again, three conditions must be met if you want to be able to get reimbursed for professional expenses incurred before launching your business.

These are:

• The necessary link between these activities and the launch of the company.
• Proof has been kept by the applicant, which shows the identity of the company in question.
• The expense date must not be more than a few months before the creation of the company. This can range from three to six months. It is also necessary to take into account that for an activity carried out in the form of a company, the start of the activity corresponds to the date of signature of the articles of association, whereas for a self-employed person or for a sole proprietorship, the date of launch of the activity is that of registration with the Centre de Formalité des Entreprises (CFE).

It's obviously clear that the costs required to build up the capital are in no way refundable.

How does the refund work?

Two cases need to be developed: the case of companies and that of micro-enterprises or sole proprietorships.

Firstly, for activities carried out in the form of a company, it is necessary to include a specific clause when writing the articles of association regarding reimbursement. You must also include a list referring to the expenses incurred on behalf of the future structure. From that moment on, the reimbursement can take place as soon as the company's share capital is released by the bank.

Secondly, for sole proprietorships, there are no specific steps to take.

You just need to have kept all the supporting invoices.

In conclusion, if there is one thing to keep in mind in order to obtain reimbursement of "professional expenses" incurred prior to the creation of the company, it is to keep all invoices.

However, if you do not have invoices with your company name on them, or if you have misplaced them, you can still re-invoice these expenses to your company after the start of business. The VAT will not be refunded in this case, which results in a definite loss of money.

So remember to keep ALL your invoices safe!