Any natural citizen of France has the opportunity to deduct from income tax a certain percentage of investments in photovoltaic systems. This promotes the integration of systems into new buildings or the purchase of technologies for the generation of electricity from solar energy.

Support by means of 'crédit d’impôt', regulatory tax mechanisms, will apply to the end of 2012 (Introduction Instruction fiscale 5 B-10-09 N°38). It is worth noting, however, that supported systems must comply with EN 61215 or NF EN 61646 (Art.1 Arrêté du 9 février 2005).

50% of the net hardware cost of systems for the generation of electricity from renewable energy sources installed at a principal residence are eligible to be deduced from income tax (Art. 200 quater Cl. 1 c, 5 d Code Général des Impôts). The caps for the period from 1.1.2005 to 31.12 2012 are defined as follows per principal residence: € 8,000 per single person, € 16,000 for married couples or couples living together in a quasi-marital relationship (PACS = Pacte Civil de Solidarité) + € 400 per child, and € 200 per child where care is split (Art. 200 quater Cl. 4 Code Général des Impôts).

In multi-family dwellings or apartment blocks, every resident can claim the percentage paid of the total investment (Chapter 1 Cl. 2 Instruction fiscale 5 B-26-05 N° 147).

The capacities of the funded systems should not exceed 3 kWp. Systems with higher capacities are only supported if the electricity consumption of the building is higher than half of the nominal installed capacity (Article 1 Cl. 7 Instruction fiscale 5 B-17-07 N° 88).