France: New important compliance burden for companies in France

International Tax Review is part of Legal Benchmarking Limited, 1-2 Paris Garden, London, SE1 8ND

Copyright © Legal Benchmarking Limited and its affiliated companies 2025

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 & shared bottom lb ros

More from across our site

The South Africa vs SC ruling may embolden the tax authority to take a more aggressive approach to TP assessments, an adviser tells ITR
Indirect tax professionals now rate compliance as a bigger obstacle than technology and automation; in other news, Italy approved a VAT cut on art sales
AI-powered tax agents are likely to be the next big development in tax technology, says Russell Gammon of Tax Systems
FTI Consulting’s EMEA head of employment tax and reward tells ITR about celebrating diversity in the profession, his love of musicals, and what makes tax cool
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and US President Donald Trump have agreed that the countries will look to conclude a deal by July 21, 2025
The firm’s lack of transparency regarding its tax leaks scandal should see the ban extended beyond June 30, senators Deborah O’Neill and Barbara Pocock tell ITR
Despite posing significant administrative hurdles, digital services taxes remain ‘the best way forward’ for emerging economies, says Neil Kelley, COO of Ascoria
A ‘joint understanding’ among G7 countries that ‘defends American interests’ is set to be announced, Scott Bessent claimed
The ‘big four’ firm’s inaugural annual report unveiled a sharp drop in profits for 2024; in other news, Baker McKenzie and Perkins Coie expanded their US tax benches
Representatives from the two countries focused on TP as they met this week to evaluate progress under a previously signed agreement – it is understood
Gift this article