French CPA in Paris: Chartered Accountant (Expert-Comptable) for Foreign Subsidiaries

When a foreign company searches for a French CPA, it is usually trying to solve two questions at once: which regulated professional in France should handle the work, and which local firm can actually run the French accounting, VAT, payroll and annual-close process in a way HQ can use. That is the type of engagement we structure at Hayot Expertise for foreign companies, French subsidiaries, branches and international finance teams.

Our Paris 8 firm is led by Samuel Hayot, a French expert-comptable and statutory auditor (commissaire aux comptes) registered with the French Ordre des experts-comptables. We manage French compliance, bookkeeping, recurring tax work, payroll and communication with management teams outside France. You can contact us to scope your engagement.

This page is for companies, subsidiaries, branches and foreign groups. If you are a US individual living in France and need help with 1040, FBAR, FATCA or the France-US tax treaty, see our dedicated French CPA for Americans in Paris page.

A French CPA does not exist as a regulated title in France. The regulated equivalent is the expert-comptable, who handles bookkeeping, VAT, payroll, annual accounts and recurring tax filings. For statutory audit and account certification, the dedicated profession is the commissaire aux comptes.

A US CPA, UK ACA or Canadian CA title does not allow holders to practice statutory accounting in France. For a foreign group, the local counterpart remains the expert-comptable. Our article French CPA: the equivalent of the French expert-comptable covers the regulatory distinction in full.

If your first requirement is day-to-day delivery in English (monthly close packs, board reporting and payroll explained in English) rather than a compliance setup for a foreign-owned subsidiary, see our dedicated English-speaking accountant in Paris service. This page remains the right entry point for a French entity owned by a foreign group.

"French CPA" is therefore a convenient label, not a legal title. In France, the title and the practice of the profession are reserved to professionals registered with the Ordre des experts-comptables, under ordinance no. 45-2138 of 19 September 1945. There is no automatic equivalence and no mutual recognition agreement between France and the United States: France is not on the list of agreements concluded by the IQAB (AICPA and NASBA), which to date only covers South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Ireland and Mexico. A US CPA who wants to practise in France must obtain registration with the Ordre (a diploma recognized as equivalent to the DEC and an aptitude examination, subject to reciprocity). When you entrust us with your French accounts, you are dealing with a registered expert-comptable, the only professional authorized to keep and present them on your behalf.

We most often work on situations such as:

• a French subsidiary of a foreign group needing clean local books and reliable deadlines;
• a branch or French operating presence needing accounting, tax and social security structure;
• a foreign founder launching a French company and wanting to avoid setup mistakes;
• an HQ finance team or CFO needing a local partner for close, VAT and the French tax package;
• a foreign company hiring in France setting up payroll and employer compliance.

The objective goes beyond producing French numbers: making the French setup controllable for decision-makers managing multiple countries and reporting frameworks.

Local bookkeeping and close process#

We run French bookkeeping, document flow, account review and periodic close, with a documented working file HQ can actually use:

• day-to-day bookkeeping and bank reconciliations;
• monthly or quarterly review;
• support on sensitive account balances;
• annual-close preparation and permanent file;
• documentary coordination with HQ or external advisers.

VAT, tax and recurring compliance#

The French filing calendar is dense and penalized on late filings. We take care of the recurring obligations:

• French VAT: monthly CA3 return filed the following month, on the date set by your tax office, or annual CA12 for the simplified regime;
• Corporate income tax: four installments (15 March, 15 June, 15 September, 15 December) and balance on the 15th of the fourth month after year-end;
• Annual tax package (liasse 2050): within three months of year-end; for a 31 December year-end, the second working day after 1 May, plus fifteen days for electronic filing;
• responses to standard tax administration requests;
• local calendar management (CVAE, CFE, payroll-based taxes).

Where the tax component becomes more technical, this engagement coordinates with our French tax advisory service.

Payroll and employer compliance in France#

As soon as a company hires in France, payroll becomes a real compliance project:

• first-hire setup and DPAE declaration;
• payslips and monthly DSN filing on the 5th or 15th depending on headcount;
• recurring employer obligations (health insurance, provident scheme, employee savings);
• onboarding, offboarding and sick-leave formalities;
• alignment between French payroll requirements and group constraints.

Where payroll becomes central to the engagement, we extend through our French payroll service.

HQ coordination and group reporting support#

A foreign company needs more than French annual accounts. It needs a local partner connecting local production to group expectations:

• explaining French GAAP (PCG) to teams familiar with IFRS or US GAAP;
• producing local information in a format HQ can directly use;
• coordinating multi-currency and multi-standard reporting;
• clarifying deadlines, evidence and sign-off expectations;
• surfacing French compliance issues before they disrupt group reporting.

Multi-currency accounting, IFRS and transfer pricing#

For groups consolidating in IFRS, US GAAP or a proprietary group framework, the engagement includes:

• multicurrency bookkeeping (USD, GBP, EUR and others) with FX gain/loss treatment and translation adjustments;
• bridge from statutory French GAAP (PCG) accounts to the IFRS or US GAAP consolidation package HQ expects;
• handling of temporary differences (deferred tax assets/liabilities) and standard consolidation adjustments;
• transfer pricing documentation: intercompany flow mapping, pricing methodology, OECD-compliant documentation report, French Form 2257 filing with the tax package;
• coordination with group legal or tax teams on intercompany service agreements and pricing policies.

The arm's length principle (French Tax Code, art. 57) applies from the first euro invoiced between the subsidiary and its parent. Formal obligations are tiered: an annual 2257-SD return from EUR 50M of turnover or gross assets (art. 223 quinquies B), full master file and local file documentation from EUR 150M (Tax Procedures Code, art. L13 AA), with a penalty floor of EUR 50,000 per audited year when documentation is missing after formal notice (art. 1735 ter). The DGFiP may ask for the justification of intercompany flows in any tax audit, whatever the threshold.

The choice between a subsidiary and a branch is not only about tax: it is about what you make public and who carries the liability. A subsidiary (SAS, SASU or SARL) is a fully fledged French company: it files its own accounts, signs its own contracts and ring-fences the risk to its share capital. A branch has no separate legal personality: the foreign company itself is registered with the commercial court of the place of business, and answers for everything.

The least known difference concerns the commercial court registry. A foreign company opening a branch in France files, at registration, a translated and certified copy of its articles of association, then every year the accounting documents of the parent company as prepared, audited and published in the home state (French Commercial Code, art. R. 123-112). Opening a branch therefore means agreeing to file the group's accounts with a French registry, within the deadline set by the law of the home country. For many groups, that confidentiality argument weighs more than the tax differential.

One point should also be stated plainly to a subsidiary: the option that allows a small company to keep its profit and loss account confidential is not available to companies belonging to a group within the meaning of article L. 233-16 (Commercial Code, art. L. 232-25). Your French subsidiary, however small, will therefore publish its profit and loss account. Better to know this before setting a transfer pricing policy whose margin will be readable by your French competitors.

Finally, a permanent establishment is not a form you choose: it is a qualification the tax authority can apply as soon as an activity is carried on in France (a fixed place of business, an agent concluding contracts). A foreign company operating in France without a declared structure faces the reconstruction of its French profit, with the 80% surcharge applicable to undisclosed activity (French Tax Code, art. 1728). We frame this question before the first invoice, not after the first letter from the tax authority.

A foreign company carrying out taxable transactions in France without a permanent establishment there must register for VAT with the tax office for foreign businesses (SIEE, Direction des impôts des non-résidents, in Noisy-le-Grand): form EE0, together with an original certificate of VAT status issued by the home state. Processing times depend on how complete the file is; we build it complete from the outset to avoid back-and-forth.

The rule on the fiscal representative is finer than it is often described. Article 289 A of the French Tax Code only requires an accredited fiscal representative, jointly liable for the VAT, from businesses established outside the European Union and in a state not bound to France by a mutual assistance agreement on recovery, the list of those states being set by ministerial order. A company from the EU, or from a third country covered by such an agreement (the United Kingdom is one of them), registers directly and may simply appoint an agent, with no joint liability. Confusing the two situations means either imposing an unnecessary constraint and cost on yourself, or having the registration refused.

Once registered, the company files its VAT returns (a monthly CA3 in the general case, on the date set by the tax office), recovers input VAT on its French purchases and applies, depending on its flows, the intra-EU reverse charge, the distance-selling rules or the OSS one-stop shop. This is the part we run end to end, in French for the tax authority and in English for HQ.

Taken on its own, a French company only has to appoint a statutory auditor (commissaire aux comptes) if it exceeds two of the following three thresholds: EUR 5M total balance sheet, EUR 10M revenue excluding VAT, 50 employees (Commercial Code, art. D. 221-5, amounts raised by decree no. 2024-152 of 28 February 2024 for financial years opened since 1 January 2024).

But a controlled company is subject to lower thresholds: EUR 2.5M total balance sheet, EUR 5M net revenue, 25 employees (art. D. 821-172). A seemingly modest French subsidiary can therefore fall within statutory audit when it would have stayed below the thresholds as an independent company. And if the subsidiary itself heads a French sub-group, the standard thresholds are assessed on the combined figures of the entities it controls (art. D. 821-171).

We check this configuration from the first financial year, together with HQ, because a late appointment is rarely settled without friction: the statutory auditor must be appointed by the shareholders for six financial years, and a missing mandatory appointment weakens corporate decisions. When an audit is required, we coordinate the engagement with the group auditor and prepare the accounts in a format that avoids duplicate work. Our firm is itself registered as a statutory auditor: we speak the language of audit, but we cannot be both the expert-comptable and the statutory auditor of the same company, an independence rule we apply without exception.

The arm's length principle (French Tax Code, art. 57) applies to your French subsidiary from the first euro invoiced to or received from the parent company, with no size condition: management fees, royalties, re-invoiced services, intercompany loans, guarantees. The tax authority may add back to the French result any advantage granted to a related company without a market consideration.

Formal obligations, on the other hand, are tiered. From EUR 50M of revenue excluding VAT or gross assets (a threshold also assessed at the level of companies holding or held at more than 50%), a simplified annual return, form 2257-SD, is due within six months of the filing deadline of the tax package (art. 223 quinquies B). From EUR 150M, a threshold lowered from 400 to 150M by the Finance Act for 2024 for financial years opened since 1 January 2024, full documentation is added: master file and local file (Tax Procedures Code, art. L13 AA).

The figure that changes behaviour is the penalty. Missing documentation after formal notice is punished by the higher of 0.5% of the undocumented transactions or 5% of the profits reassessed under article 57, with a floor of EUR 50,000 per audited financial year (art. 1735 ter), raised from 10,000 to 50,000 on 1 January 2024. That floor makes intercompany documentation worthwhile well before the legal thresholds: this is why we document a subsidiary's intercompany flows from its first year, even when no form is yet required.

If your group has consolidated revenue of at least EUR 750M in two of the previous four financial years, your French subsidiary falls within the scope of the 15% global minimum tax (French Tax Code, art. 223 VJ et seq., introduced by article 33 of the Finance Act for 2024), applicable to financial years opened on or after 31 December 2023.

The obligation most often forgotten is not the computation of the top-up tax, usually driven by HQ: it is the annual notification of group membership, form 2065-INT-SD, to be attached every year to the subsidiary's corporate tax return. The information return 2259-SD is then filed in XML format within fifteen months of the year-end, extended to eighteen months for the first year in scope (art. 223 WW); exemptions exist depending on the parent's state, to be checked case by case. A missing or late filing costs EUR 100,000 per information return, capped at EUR 1 million per financial year for all the French entities of the group (art. 1729 F bis). For the subsidiary of a listed group, we put both forms in the closing calendar alongside the tax package.

The executive or manager your group sends to take up a position in France may qualify for the impatriate regime (French Tax Code, art. 155 B), provided they were not tax resident in France during the five calendar years preceding the year they took up their duties, whether transferred within the group or hired directly from abroad.

The regime exempts from income tax the impatriation bonus, for its actual amount or, on an option reserved to people recruited directly from abroad, for a flat 30% of net remuneration, as well as the share of remuneration corresponding to days worked outside France, within a limit, at the taxpayer's choice, of 50% of total remuneration or 20% of taxable remuneration alone. It adds a 50% exemption on foreign-source investment income, intellectual property income and capital gains on securities. The regime runs until 31 December of the eighth calendar year following the year of taking up duties: an arrival in January 2025 is covered until 31 December 2033.

Two reflexes condition everything, and they belong to payroll: the impatriation bonus must be stated separately in the employment contract before the first payslip, and days worked abroad must be tracked month by month. That is why we treat article 155 B as a payroll and contract matter, not only as a line on the employee's income tax return.

From 1 September 2026, every business subject to VAT in France must be able to receive electronic invoices through an accredited platform, including a freshly registered subsidiary, including a branch. The issuing obligation is phased: large companies and mid-caps on 1 September 2026, SMEs and micro-businesses on 1 September 2027 (timetable set by article 91 of the Finance Act for 2024; the impots.gouv.fr page, updated in July 2026, mentions no postponement).

For a foreign group, the point of attention is the connection. Going through an accredited platform is mandatory, and the HQ ERP must produce a format of the European EN 16931 core (Factur-X, UBL or CII) for French invoices. A subsidiary invoicing from an unconnected group system will issue non-compliant invoices from 2026 or 2027 depending on its size, and will no longer be able to receive those of its French suppliers. We frame the platform choice, the invoicing mandate and the testing of flows before the deadline, together with the group's IT team.

Every French company keeping computerized accounts must be able to hand over, in a tax audit, a fichier des écritures comptables (FEC) in the standard format, in French, with labels and a chart of accounts compliant with the Plan Comptable Général. It is the first document the auditor asks for, and the first rejection point for subsidiaries kept on the group system: entries in English, an in-house chart of accounts, unclosed periods, non-sequential numbering.

Two set-ups are possible, and we run both. On our system: we keep the French books under the PCG in our software and build an adjustment bridge to the group framework; the FEC comes out natively compliant. On your ERP: the group keeps the entries in its system, and we deliver the mapping from the group chart of accounts to the PCG, the extended trial balance documenting each GAAP adjustment, a compliance check of the extracted FEC and, at year-end, the annual accounts and the tax package prepared from that base. In both cases, the French tax package and HQ reporting start from the same set of entries, presented differently, with no double entry.

This is also where the PCG to IFRS or US GAAP bridge is built: leases, revenue recognition, provisions, deferred tax, translation differences. We deliver a documented reconciliation package, line by line, that the group auditor can review without retranslating.

In practice: the subsidiary keeps and files its accounts under the PCG, and every difference (leases, revenue, provisions, deferred tax) is documented in the reconciliation package to the group framework. None of the three frameworks replaces the other two.

Even with a strong group finance function, France keeps its own rules on VAT, closing, payroll, documentation and filings. A setup can look simple on paper and become technical quickly once there is:

• a French entity issuing invoices;
• employees in France;
• French VAT (especially on intra-EU distance sales);
• annual statutory accounts to prepare;
• intercompany flows or HQ reporting deadlines to feed.

The role of the firm: reduce compliance risk, prevent deadline slippage and give management a reliable read on the French position.

Key legal obligations for a foreign subsidiary in France#

A foreign group rarely underestimates the tax itself; it underestimates the cost of delay. Late-payment interest runs at 0.20% per month, 2.40% per year, and it adds to the surcharges: 10% for a return filed late, 40% beyond thirty days after a formal notice, 80% for undisclosed activity, which is exactly the risk of an undeclared permanent establishment (Tax Code, art. 1728). A deliberate understatement is surcharged at 40% and fraudulent manoeuvres at 80% (art. 1729). Voluntary regularization, which halves the late-payment interest, is always cheaper than discovery in an audit: that is the purpose of our compliance calendar, kept for each subsidiary and shared with HQ. In a tax or URSSAF audit, we prepare the FEC and supporting documents, answer the auditor's requests and keep HQ informed in English at every stage.

Step 1: Legal and tax registration#

Obtain the SIREN number from the Commercial Court, register for French VAT (EU VAT number), and affiliate with social security bodies (URSSAF, pension funds).

Step 2: Accounting framework selection#

Statutory accounts are prepared in French GAAP (Plan Comptable Général). If the group consolidates in IFRS or US GAAP, a reconciliation package is produced in parallel.

Step 3: Tool setup and document flow#

Deploy accounting software compatible with French requirements and group currencies; create a shared document space between HQ and the local firm.

Step 4: Monthly monitoring#

Bank reconciliations, account review, VAT returns, payroll DSN filings, real-time dashboards accessible to HQ.

Step 5: Year-end close and filings#

Statutory accounts in French GAAP, filing with the Commercial Court, tax package (liasse fiscale 2050), management report, beneficial ownership declaration where required.

• Regulated French firm: registered with the Ordre des experts-comptables, with dual commissaire aux comptes qualification.
• Working capacity in French and English: French rules explained to HQ, board or foreign investors without translation drift.
• Unified local execution: bookkeeping, VAT, annual accounts, payroll and documentary coordination in one operating framework.
• Paris 8 anchor, nationwide coverage: offices at 58 rue de Monceau, remote support across France.
• Digital tooling: close-process dashboard, shared document space with HQ, automated data capture.

For a wider France-entry perimeter, see also our company formation service or broader accounting support in Paris 8.

1. Initial scoping: French structure, calendar, obligations, risk areas.
2. File takeover: documents, tools, deadlines, reporting expectations.
3. Operational setup: accounting, filings and payroll workflow.
4. Recurring support: French obligations managed, decisions escalated to management or HQ.

The objective: a reliable French framework, readable for HQ and sustainable over time.

This case is illustrative: it combines common situations and does not describe an identified client.

A US software company sets up a SASU in Paris to employ three engineers and a sales representative. HQ keeps its books under US GAAP on its ERP, consolidates quarterly and wants monthly reporting in the group format. The employees are hired in France; the country manager is transferred from Boston and meets the conditions of the impatriate regime. The parent company charges management fees and licenses its technology.

The first month's framing settles five decisions: French books kept under the PCG in our software, with a mapping of the group chart of accounts so that HQ finds its own lines; a written intercompany service agreement and a documented pricing policy from day one, because the EUR 50,000 penalty floor does not depend on size; the impatriation bonus stated in the country manager's contract before the first payslip; a check of the statutory audit thresholds taking into account that the SASU is a controlled company; connection to an accredited e-invoicing platform before the first French invoice goes out.

The cruising rhythm is then as follows: monthly VAT and DSN filings, a reporting package in the group format by day 10, a quarterly review with HQ's financial controller, then the year-end close with PCG accounts, the tax package, approval of the accounts, filing with the registry and an up-to-date beneficial ownership declaration. What HQ gets: a French entity readable in its own format, with no double entry, and a single counterpart who answers the group auditor's questions in English and the tax authority's in French.

Our fees depend on the volume of entries, on payroll and on the level of reporting HQ expects. The benchmarks below are indicative and exclusive of VAT; the exact scope is confirmed after a first scoping discussion, and every engagement is covered by a written engagement letter.

Payroll, coordination with the group auditor and exceptional engagements (tax audit, restructuring, merger) are quoted separately. Our full fee schedule details the base package and the options.

A subsidiary set up outside Paris follows the same French rules, but its file goes through the commercial court registry and the URSSAF office of its own area, and its labour market has its own collective agreements. We run these entities remotely from Paris.

• French CPA in Lyon: chemicals, health and life sciences, services
• French CPA in Marseille: international trade, shipping, Euroméditerranée
• French CPA in Toulouse: aerospace, space and their supply chain
• French CPA in Bordeaux: wine trade, aerospace and defence, digital
• French CPA in Nice: Sophia-Antipolis, technology and R&D
• French CPA in Lille: logistics, retail, close to Belgium and the United Kingdom
• French CPA in Nantes: digital, shipbuilding and aerospace
• French CPA in Strasbourg: European institutions, German and Swiss groups

If you need a French CPA equivalent, an expert-comptable in Paris for your foreign company in France, we scope the engagement, prioritize the risks and set up a practical local framework quickly.

Hayot Expertise, 58 rue de Monceau, 75008 Paris. On-site in Paris and remote support across France.

Contact us for an initial scoping call within 24 hours on your French entity or project.