Accounting firm in France

Is bookkeeping mandatory in France ?

Bookkeeping for your activity in France will be an obligation in most cases. You can do this inhouse, or outsource to an accounting firm in France (boutique) like ours.

Exceptions to this obligation of bookkeeping in France :

. the micro-enterprise scheme in France is exempt from bookkeeping because taxation is in this case solely based on the level of sales. However, in excess of EUR 40k of salesfor service providers and 80K for merchants, this scheme is no longer possible ;

. distance selling are also exempt from bookkeeping, since they only have tax obligations for VAT and customs purposes for Intrastat returns.

. the liaison offices have no accounting obligation in France,

. Foreign Employers registered at the CNFE in Strasbourg do not have to keep accounting books in France.

Can bookkeeping be done from
abroad ?

Remember that there is no obligation to revert to an accouting firm in France to update your accounting books , it can be held in-house. However, if you use an external service provider in France, it must be registered by the Order of Accountants (as it is a regulated profession).

Can you outsource to an accounting firm abroad?

Two cases :

1) You are a subsidiary (company under French law): you will have to comply with the specifications (called FEC, see explanations below in part “IFRS standards”) of the French tax administration. So we deeply recommend to outsource to an English speaking accounting firm based and registered in France.

2) You are a branch: you can keep the books in your language, but tax services will have the possibility to ask you for a certified translation of your books, in case of control only. For branches, providing with a Mapping is authorized (general balance mapped to the PCG General Chart of Accounts standard).

In these two cases (subsidiary, branch), if you wish to keep the books by yourself and APRZ carries out only the annual financial statements and the tax return (CIT return), our fees are on a time-spent basis.

Is French accounting compliant
with IFRS standards ?

In France, accounting is in most cases an accruals accounting (cash accounting is reserved for certain civil companies or individuals), with a COA chart of accounts defined by the PCG standard. The French accounting standard is PCG, which tends to approach IFRS.

The FEC tax standard, File of all accounting Entries, imposes a specification for the submission of a txt file of all entries for a tax year, for control purposes. The descriptions must be in French, a certain amount of information must be entered: account, description, part number, journal, date, debit, credit, etc.

Accounting firm in France

Is bookkeeping mandatory in France ?

Can bookkeeping be done from abroad ?

Is French accounting compliant with IFRS standards ?

+33 675 900 340

Can bookkeeping be done from
abroad ?

Is French accounting compliant
with IFRS standards ?