In an economy where family-owned businesses dominate, the choice between giving, bequeathing, and selling is not just a family matter. Conditional exemptions, highly contrasted registration fees, capital gains regime: each path obeys its own fiscal logic, and it is often that logic that determines the outcome.
A Matter of Paramount Importance
A study by the Arab Institute of Business Leaders attributed 70% of Tunisian GDP to family businesses, and noted that 72% of them had undertaken no action to transfer power. These figures describe a structural fragility in that the generation that built the business rarely passes it on according to a plan, and taxation, which varies greatly depending on the chosen mode, is too often revealed at the moment of the deed or at death.
The paradox is that Tunisian law offers leaders real instruments. Gratuitous transfers fall under the Code of Registration and Stamp Duties, which reserves favorable treatment for the transmission of the production tool, while the sale is subject to the capital gains tax regime. Three doors thus open, but they do not lead to the same cost, nor to the same timeline, nor to the same degree of control over the company.
Donation: the lowest tax cost
