French CPA for a Foreign Company: What the Role Really Covers

Quick answer. A French CPA keeps the books under French GAAP, produces the FEC and the corporate tax return, handles VAT and intra-EU flows, then restates those accounts for the parent company. For a foreign company, this is the single point of contact who makes the subsidiary compliant with French law while still speaking the group's language.

A foreign company opening a subsidiary in France quickly learns that local compliance cannot be left to a piece of software. The books must be kept in euros and in French, taxation follows its own calendar, and head office still expects reporting it can read in its own framework. This is exactly the space a French CPA covers. The English term can mislead: it is not just an equivalent title, but an operational role with very concrete missions. For the origins of the label itself, see our analysis of what the French CPA title actually means. Here, we detail the real work: what a firm delivers, month after month, for a French subsidiary of a foreign group.

The first reason is legal. Article L123-22 of the French Commercial Code requires accounting documents to be prepared in euros and in French, and kept for ten years. Books held only in the group's software, in dollars and in English, are therefore not compliant. Article 54 of the French Tax Code goes further: during an audit, the tax administration can demand a certified translation by a sworn translator of records kept in a foreign language.

The second reason is operational. A foreign director rarely masters the French chart of accounts, the local tax calendar or the VAT obligations. The French CPA bridges two worlds: applying local law while feeding information back to head office in a usable format. It is this dual skill, technical and linguistic, that defines the role. Our French CPA engagement for foreign groups is built on this single-contact principle, able to deal with the group CFO and the French tax office alike.

The scope goes well beyond bookkeeping. Here are the blocks we handle for a French subsidiary.

1. Bookkeeping and review under French GAAP. We keep the accounts under the French chart of accounts (PCG), produce the trial balance, the general ledger and the journal, then review the accounts at closing. This base feeds everything else and is handled through a dedicated bookkeeping and accounts review.
2. FEC production. The accounting entries file (FEC) is required under Article L47 A-I of the Book of Tax Procedures and must contain 18 standardised fields set by Article A47 A-1 of the same code (order of 29 July 2013). A compliant FEC is built upstream, not on the day of an audit.
3. Tax return and income filing. A subsidiary subject to corporate income tax files return no. 2065 together with schedules 2050 to 2059, via EDI-TDFC electronic transmission. The corporate tax return is where accounting profit becomes taxable profit.
4. VAT and intra-EU flows. We prepare the VAT returns, monitor any VAT credit, file the recapitulative statement of intra-Community supplies and, where required, respond to the EMEBI statistical survey.
5. Reporting to the parent company. We convert the French accounts into a reporting format compatible with the group's framework and provide the consolidation packages expected by the group auditor.

VAT is often the first friction point for a foreign group. Two obligations coexist and must not be confused. The recapitulative VAT statement, handled by the DGFiP, is mandatory from 1 euro of intra-Community supply. The EMEBI statistical survey, run by Customs and INSEE, is based on sampling: only companies selected by INSEE must respond each month. Confusing the two leads either to missing a tax obligation or to wrongly filing a statistical one.

For a company established outside the European Union and liable for VAT in France, the matter is stricter: Article 289 A of the French Tax Code requires the accreditation of a fiscal representative. The rules for granting and withdrawing this accreditation are set by decree no. 2022-589 of 20 April 2022. We cover this mechanism in our dedicated article on appointing a fiscal representative. A company established within the European Union can register directly, without an accredited representative.

This is the technical heart of the job and the value least visible to a director who has never opened a French chart of accounts. French GAAP, US GAAP and IFRS do not classify transactions the same way, do not treat depreciation, provisions or leases alike, and do not follow the same matching rules. Our work is to keep the French statutory accounts, then build a bridge to the group's framework.

In practice, we set up a mapping matrix between the PCG accounts and the group chart of accounts, we document the restatements (for example on leases or valuation differences), and we deliver the consolidation package to the group auditor. When head office publishes consolidated accounts under international standards, this reconciliation becomes a quarterly deliverable in its own right, not a year-end formality.

The role varies with the form of presence and the size of the subsidiary. A branch has no separate legal personality but still bears French accounting and tax obligations; a liaison office with no commercial activity has a lighter scope. We help weigh these structures in our comparison of subsidiary, branch and liaison office.

Payroll deserves specific attention. As soon as an employee is hired in France, social obligations are added: the annual social security ceiling (PASS) is set at 48,060 euros in 2026, that is a monthly ceiling of 4,005 euros, the base parameter of most contributions. A foreign group often underestimates this dimension.

Finally, the taxation of the foreign director or shareholder intersects with international tax treaties. The reduced corporate income tax rate of 15% applies in 2026 on profits up to 42,500 euros, and the flat tax on dividends reaches 31.4% after the CSG increase set by the 2026 social security finance act. These parameters weigh on the choice between repatriating cash via dividends or via a royalty, a question we address as part of a corporate taxation engagement.

In the files of French subsidiaries of foreign groups, friction always comes back to the same places. Here are the ones we see most.

• The underestimated risk. Many groups assume their in-house software is enough. Without a compliant FEC and statutory accounts in French, the first tax audit becomes immediately harder, because the inspector opens the FEC first.
• The VAT base exemption. It applies in 2026 up to 37,500 euros for services and 85,000 euros for trade, but it is rarely relevant for a subsidiary invoicing its group: VAT liability remains the rule.
• The calendar mismatch. Head office thinks in quarterly closings, the French administration in an annual financial year with corporate tax instalments. A French CPA synchronises both to avoid last-minute corrections.
• Bookkeeper versus chartered accountant. Leaving only data entry to a foreign bookkeeper does not cover responsibility for the statutory accounts, as we explain in the difference between a bookkeeper and a chartered accountant.

Our reading is simple: for a foreign company, the real value of a French CPA is not compliance taken alone, but the ability to keep two accounting systems and two calendars aligned without losing information. Head office does not want to wait for closing to understand its subsidiary's performance, and the French administration does not want to discover improvised restatements.

Recently, a North American technology company asked us to take over its French subsidiary: data entry was done abroad, but no compliant FEC existed and reporting to head office relied on a manual spreadsheet. By rebuilding the statutory accounts under French GAAP, setting up the FEC and a bridge to their framework, we made the subsidiary auditable on both sides. This is exactly the work a title alone does not capture.

As a firm registered with the Ordre des experts-comptables and also practising statutory audit, we carry responsibility for the reliability of the accounts we produce, which reassures both the foreign director and the group auditor. This local anchoring is the essence of our support for international groups.

Hayot Expertise tip. Before the first closing, agree with your French firm on the reporting format head office expects and the timetable for delivering consolidation packages. Defining this bridge from the outset avoids restating the accounts every quarter and secures the dialogue with the group auditor.