Place of the company

Documents sent by Montreal International
Quebec generic indicators

Quebec gaming indicators (french only)

Call Montreal International - August 23rd

 * Their organization can help on two kind of topics : mobility (work visa, permanent residence, etc), and setup (creation of company, subsidies, tax credits, etc). Their service is free of charge.
 * Incorporation of a company is an easy task in Quebec. It takes a couple of days, and costs around 250 CAD
 * To provide a work visa, the immigration administration uses a lot of criteria but Montreal International can help with that (they’ll need a business plan) and in the video games industry, it should be fairly easy to get one, immigration likes this industry…
 * The easiest way to do this, the one that gives the best chance to have a work visa, is to create the Canadian company as a subsidiary company of the French one; then it is possible to use what is called inter-company transfers, which makes it very easy to get a work visa. We’ll need to look at the tax impact of doing that and whether it’s necessary to be employees of the French company, but it’s a lead we can work on.
 * It takes around 3-4 weeks to get the visa, once we start working on it.
 * There is no need for the few hundred thousands CAD in order to start our company and have a work visa, that I had read on a website. This is more for individuals who want to invest in Quebec (real estate, …), not for people who setup a company. This is excellent news as you can imagine 
 * Tax credits:
 * The tax credit (credit d’impot titre multimedia) can definitely apply our Canadian company, but it is based on salaries of Canadian employees only (or immigrants who have a permanent residence visa) who dedicate more than 75% of their time on development of the game.
 * Basically, 30% of the salary of these employees is either deduced from taxes at the end of the year, or given to the company if we don’t pay taxes, so it works like a subsidy. This explains why many game companies have a Canadian studio as a cost center, generating revenues in other countries. This could perfectly apply to us, with the revenues in france, which could solve some issues related to ISF.
 * They add a 7,5% if the game is localized in French language, so an overall credit of 37,5% of salaries.
 * For online games, the tax credit goes on as long as the game is updated, even once the first version is released. The administration decides to give or not the credit on a yearly basis.
 * Overall, it’s good news except that it only applies to Canadian employees but that was expected. We might therefore want to give recurring contractors in Canada an employee status, provided that the recurring contractors from other countries are treated on an equal basis.
 * Training subsidy :
 * It seems that the training expenses, if used in Canada (candian universities, etc), can be reimbursed to the company.
 * Next steps :
 * They’ll be sending me documents that give more details, I’ll share them on the ml
 * Meet them in October in Montreal, and define an action plan with their help
 * There is an interesting meeting in February ‘11 in Montreal for fund raising (it’s the biggest one in the year), it might interest us to go there to start meeting people.

France

 * Public funding :
 * FAJV (fonds d’aide au jv) (CNC) :
 * Submit, if ok, up to 200k€ advance.
 * Ex, pre-production funding : up to 35% of the expenses
 * Similar to ‘avance sur recettes’ from movie industry.
 * If game is released, reimburse advance on revenues, if not released, reimburse only 15%
 * Must be done mostly in Europe (issue for us ?)
 * OSEO : public organism, funds SME. Various loans possibilities.
 * SOFICA for video games in the future ?
 * Tax exemptions/Subsidies
 * Income tax 33%
 * JEI (jeune enterprise innovante) : anticipated reimbursement of the CIR, plus various tax exemptions
 * CIJV (credit d’impot jeu video) :
 * Is validated by CNC
 * Game must cost more than 150k€, released
 * Tax exemption on 20% of some of the expenses - depreciation, revenues of authors, salaries and social charges of prod, subcontracting up to 1M€.
 * Up to 3M€, per company per year.
 * Reimbursement can be immediate under certain conditions (TBC)
 * Must be done mostly in Europe (issue for us ?)
 * CIR (credit impot recherché) :
 * A part of R&amp;D expenses can become tax emption
 * CIR is applied on IS. Can be immediate if JEI or ‘PME de croissance’.
 * Crédit d’import export : in case we sell remotely, various tax exemptions
 * Crédit d’impôt creation : if artists salaries &gt;30% of the staff, some tax exemptions

Belgium

 * Public funding
 * Tax exemptions/Subsidies
 * Did not find anything specific to videogames
 * See tax shelter though : http://www.twist-cluster.com/cms/fr/actu/sectors/165-le-tax-shelter-elargi-au-jeu-video

Quebec

 * Public funding
 * Tax exemptions/Subsidies
 * Income tax 33%
 * Tax exemption = 25 to 35% of expenses (up to 35 if in French), including salaries (this last part is unclear, what is the difference with france ?).
 * Includes subcontracting if in Quebec, 50% of subcontracting else.
 * See http://www.investquebec.com/fr/index.aspx?rubrique=35&amp;page=1295

Other notes and questions

 * Private funding :
 * ISF has changed situation in france
 * Labour law : equivalent french CDI/CDD in Belgium/Quebec ?
 * Subcontractors =&gt; where should be the company that employs these subcontractors
 * Quebec : Social charges around 15% ( ?)

Next steps

 * lawyer
 * See Chambre de commerce France-Canada
 * See Chambre de commerce France-Canada