Ruling: Sale & rent back’ transactions within groups

A company with limited deductions is considering financing the construction of a building with a loan and then selling the usufruct of the building for 30 years to another company within the same group.
The value of the usufruct will be 97.5% of the construction cost and will allow the deduction of VAT.
The other company will then lease the building to the first company for 25 years, with the rent equal to the value of the usufruct plus profit.
This transaction has no other purpose than to gain tax advantage by allowing VAT to be spread over 25 years.
The authorities consider this an artificial construction with no economic value.
If the other company actually acted as an intra-group bank and carried out a refinancing operation, the transaction would be treated differently.