

Hack Day Paris: a 40-hour R&D marathon on November 4-6 - tbassetto
http://hackdayparis.org

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narkee
Isn't the term R&D being overused?

I don't think any research actually happens. Almost by definition, hacking and
building things is just development.

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motdiem
R&D is commonly swapped with 'devs' in French companies

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tripa
For fiscal reasons.

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ovi256
I wanted to share juicy anecdotes about a company I know that does this, but
that would be counterproductive. Let's just say asking for tax discounts and
credits because you do R&D (or you classify your software dev as R&D) is very
usual in France. A key phrase to research if you want to know more is "JEI -
jeune entreprise innovante".

~~~
sgentle
Huh, fascinating. My dilettante translation of the French Wikipedia entry:

"The statute of Jeune Enterprise Innovante (JEI), created in the 2004 budget
bill, applies to small to medium businesses (in the EU, that means <250
employees, <50mil turnover, <40mil assets). The businesses must be less than 8
years old with R&D representing at least 15% of their expenses."

The benefits seem ridiculous. The article says they include exemption from
revenue tax, payroll tax and an exemption from capital gains tax for
associates (investors? not sure if I read that bit right).

Seems like the Wikipedia article might be a bit out of date, though. A French
government website had a different list of benefits not including anything
about capital gains, but adding an exemption for property tax.

Someone native should probably check my understanding, but it looks like you
get a pretty sweet deal if you can convince the French government you're doing
R&D.

~~~
tripa
Indeed you get a pretty sweet deal, and I know a few that do.

But the R&D benefits aren't only for startups, most big companies try to fit
all they can under CIR ("Crédit d'impôt recherche"— _research tax exemption_
).

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Amokrane
Cool, I think I'll be in! Are there any limitations regarding teams
compositions? Is it [1...Inf]?

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sylvinus
There are no hard limits but I guess [1...4] is reasonable. Looking forward to
seeing you there, feel free to ask more!

~~~
Amokrane
Thanks!

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sgentle
I'm curious about something. The website's in English (with no French
translation), even though presumably all the people involved speak French.

Is this a common in the French startup scene? I remember seeing a video from
TCFRecipes that was in English too...

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eneveu
Small data point, but we all spoke English at the first Paris Hacker Meetup (
<http://parishackers.org/> ), since a few hackers weren't French. This might
have been biased, since most people were HN, and HN is in English...

ParisJUG (Paris Java User Group) is in French, but we sometimes have foreign
speakers giving talks in English.

That being said, developers usually know English better, since English is the
lingua franca of development.

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alain94040
Unrelated, but if you are reading this you are probably an entrepreneur in
Paris, so you should know that you can join a group of HN-minded people with
the Founder Institute Paris's new session. More info at
<http://founderinstitute.com/apply/paris>

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mtrn
Nice. I guess I'll take a visit to Paris.

