Hey, sweetie, what's the sales tax on your vaccine?

A company that operates as a hatchery—hatching eggs and then delivering chicks to poultry farmers—was the subject of a tax audit.

Following this,administration issued him a tax assessment, determining that the chick vaccination services billed by the company were subject to a 20% VAT rate.

The company challenged the tax assessment all the way to the Administrative Court of Appeals.

The company will then determine that it does indeed offer an optional vaccination service that may be billed separately.

It notes, however, that“the chick vaccination service is viewed as a means for client farmers—who are its typical recipients, and of whom it is well established that nearly 99% made use of the service during the 2017, 2018, and 2019, and that it is, moreover, required by certain specifications to which the farmers adhere, to benefit from the main service of chick sales under the best sanitary, technical, and economic conditions, particularly to optimize vaccine uptake or significantly limit the use of antibiotics.”

The Court considers that these vaccination services are ancillary to the sale of chicks. It therefore holds that the same VAT rate—10%—should apply to them.

The company's tax assessment is therefore rescinded.

CAA Lyon, April 23, 2026, No. 24LY03234

This legal watch produced by Mispelon Avocat, a law firm specializing in French tax audit and French tax litigation. You can follow this legal watch subscribing to the newsletter via this link.