France: New important compliance burden for companies in France
International Tax Review is part of the Delinian Group, Delinian Limited, 4 Bouverie Street, London, EC4Y 8AX, Registered in England & Wales, Company number 00954730
Copyright © Delinian Limited and its affiliated companies 2024

Accessibility | Terms of Use | Privacy Policy | Modern Slavery Statement

France: New important compliance burden for companies in France

rives.jpg

tuleau.jpg

Hélène Rives


Yves Tuleau

At the moment, companies in France may present computerised or paper accounting records for the purposes of a tax audit, at their own discretion. Under the third amended Finance Act for 2012, companies will be required to keep their accounting records in computerised form and to provide them to the tax authorities in the same format, under the technical norms and with the mandatory information as requested by tax provisions. Printed records will no longer be accepted.

Taxpayers failing to comply with this new rule will be liable for penalties as high as five per 1000 of the declared or reassessed gross revenue, that is as high as €500,000 ($658,000) penalties for a € 100 million company.

More importantly, a company's failure to present computerised accounting records could be considered willful opposition to the French tax authorities (FTA), which then could determine the taxable basis of the company unilaterally.

This new provision will apply to tax audits for which an audit notification is sent to the company after January 1 2014. Because tax audits launched in 2014 will cover previous financial years (in particular 2011 and 2012), this measure is effectively retroactive and requires that companies get prepared to provide appropriate accounting files upon the first visit of the tax inspector in case of tax audit.

Hélène Rives (helene.rives@fr.landwellglobal.com) and Yves Tuleau (yves.tuleau@fr.landwellglobal.com)
Landwell & Associés – member of the PwC network, Paris

Tel: +33 (0) 1 56 57 42 20 and +33 (0) 1 56 57 40 31

Website: www.landwell.fr

more across site & bottom lb ros

More from across our site

Despite the relief, Brazil’s government has also presented a bill which seeks to re-impose a tax burden on companies’ payroll, one local tax specialist told ITR
Jeremy Brown arrives at the firm after a near 16-year career with Deloitte
PwC could elect a woman into the senior leadership position for the first time; in other news, KPMG Australia has extended its CEO’s term
The Senate report into PwC’s scandal is titled ‘The cover up worsens the crime’
Law firms that are conscious of their role in society are more likely to win work, according to a survey of over 23,000 in-house professionals
The firm’s tax business generated a quarter of HLB’s overall revenues in 2023
While successful pillar two implementation will require collaboration across all units, a combination of internal and external tax advice is at the centre of the effort
Binance has also been accused of manipulating foreign exchange rates via currency speculation and rate-fixing
Six individuals should have raised questions over information they received but did not breach professional standards, according to the firm
The partnership of KPMG UK has installed Holt for a second term as CEO and senior partner; in other news, a Baker McKenzie partner has sued the IRS
Gift this article