It should have been declared before 31 March 2012. Further to the financial problems it could have put to the smallest companies, it was also an incredible administrative burden, from the very beginning. The French FEBEA took several actions against it. It is happy with a first victory, explained in a press release issued on 4 May 2012.
The FEBEA press release
The FEBEA has launched three lawsuits against the tax on cosmetics before the Conseil d’Etat (State Council). The first to these cases was a provisional ruling granting suspensive effect.
President Grangé Cabane himself had defended the claim by the industry during a hearing held on 24 April – a hearing during which the ANSM (the new name of the Afssaps) had to accept the validity of the FEBEA claim, and accepted to give a further delay to send the statements.
The State Council, through a provisional decision released on 30 April, has officially confirmed:
• The Agency published its decision too late. In fact, companies had to send the Agency, not later than 31 March 2012, a statement issued on 23 March (eight days only before the closure of the delay in the sending of the statement.)
Given this very short deadline, given the fact that a misinformed statement, or a lack of, would be fined astronomical amounts (up to 45,000 €) – many SMEs of our industry would have suffered irreparable harm.
•The commitment of the Agency to give cosmetics companies a further six-month delay (until 30 September 2012) to comply with their obligation of …
