Deadline for claiming withholding tax refunds: the Council of State calls for standardization

Generally, the deadline for claiming a refund of withholding tax expires on December 31 of the year following the year in which the tax was withheld, whereas for corporate income tax, this deadline expires on December 31 of the second year following the payment of the tax.

The Conseil d'Etat, in a decision dated February 2, 2022 (CE, 9th and 10th Ch., Feb. 2, 2022, No. 441511, Lebon T.), had ruled that when the principle of equivalence under European Union law applied, taxpayers were entitled to the same time limit as in the case of corporate income tax. They could therefore, under these circumstances, file a claim until December 31 of the second year following the payment of the withholding tax.

Yesterday, the Conseil d'Etat that Article R*196-1 of the General Tax Code, insofar as it established a special one-year time limit for withholding taxes, violates the principle of equality. It gave the Minister three months to take steps to remedy this illegality.

It is therefore likely that, going forward, the deadline for taxpayers to claim tax withholdings will expire on December 31 of the second year following the payment of the withholding.

CE, 8th and 3rd Div., Feb. 16, 2026, No. 500909, Lebon T.

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