Question 10990 — woods and forests

Summary

Mr. Michel Larive draws the attention of the Minister of Agriculture and Food to the existence of a distortion of competition between forestry cooperatives and independent professionals. Developed in 2001, the DEFI-Forêt system (tax incentive scheme for investment) aims to encourage forestry investment, and to encourage owners to manage and develop their forest in a sustainable manner. THE The system offers, for example, insurance terms against bad weather (DEFI Assurance), or a contractual model with professionals in the sector (DEFI Contract), which gives right to a tax credit for forest owners. It also provides for a reduction in income taxes for the acquisition of wood and forests, under certain conditions (DEFI Acquisition). But according to the National Association of Technicians and independent forest managers (ANATEF), since 2014, the situation has evolved to the detriment of forest owners wanting to manage their forests with the help of independent forest technicians. Indeed, forestry cooperatives, which only concern 3% of French forest owners, benefit from very significant advantages. To access the DEFI Travaux system, the minimum surface area is set at 10 ha for a single owner, but it is lowered to 4 ha for forestry cooperatives. Cooperatives also benefit from a more attractive tax credit rate for DEFI Works and DEFI Contract. This rate goes from 18% for a forest owner involving an independent forest technician to 25% for a forest cooperative. Always in a desire to favor these cooperatives, the DEFI Contract provides for the conclusion of management contracts which do not require owners to have a minimum surface area, but are conditional on the existence of supply contracts to be able to market the timber cuts. However, independent forestry technicians cannot sign this type of contract because they do not purchase or resell the wood they manage. In fact, only forestry cooperatives can therefore benefit from this device. The amending finance law for 2017 extended the DEFI system until 2020, but without rectifying the inequalities mentioned above. Worse, article 16 further aggravates the inequity of access in favor of forestry cooperatives by completely removing the threshold allowing them to benefit from the DEFI Travaux for cooperatives, while it is maintained for independent forestry technicians. THE significant advantages granted to forestry cooperatives create a situation of unfair competition between forestry professionals, and put independent forestry technicians in difficulty. Considering these elements, he asks him to justify the advantages granted to forestry cooperatives to the detriment of independent owners, and to propose measures aimed at reducing these inequitable treatment.

Machine translation from French. The official text remains authoritative.

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