International corporate tax: compliance, optimisation and security in France

Yes, but abolition has been pushed back to 2030 after Parliament rejected an earlier plan to bring it forward to 2028. For 2026, rates are frozen at their 2024 level (maximum 0.28%), with no repeat of 2025's one-off surtax.

France applies four VAT rates: 20% (standard), 10% and 5.5% (intermediate/reduced), and 2.1% (super-reduced). Most professional services and B2B invoicing fall under the standard 20% rate; we confirm the exact rate once we know your activity.

The 10% rate covers restaurant and takeaway food service, hotel and short-term furnished accommodation, passenger transport, renovation work on dwellings over two years old, unprocessed agricultural products, firewood, non-reimbursed medicines, and admission to fairs, museums and zoos.

5.5% covers essential food products, books, gas and electricity subscriptions, energy-renovation work, equipment for disabled persons, and live-entertainment tickets. 2.1% is reserved for social-security-reimbursable medicines, registered press, and the first 140 performances of certain live shows.

For an on-site audit (vérification de comptabilité), you must hand over the FEC at the inspector's first visit. For a remote examination (examen de comptabilité), you have 15 days from receiving the notice; missing either deadline exposes you to a fine or a surcharge on reassessed amounts.

An on-site audit of an SME is capped at three months, extendable to six months if your accounts are seriously unreliable. The tax authorities can generally reassess the last three years, extended to ten years for undeclared activity or undisclosed foreign accounts.

A permanent establishment arises from a fixed place of business through which you habitually carry on business, such as an office, workshop or branch, or from a dependent agent who habitually negotiates or concludes contracts in your name, or from completing a full commercial cycle in France.

Yes. A single employee who habitually negotiates the key terms of contracts can create a dependent-agent permanent establishment, even without formal signing authority, if approval abroad is a mere formality.

It can. If an employee's home office is effectively at your disposal and core business activities, especially contract negotiation, are habitually carried out there, the French tax authorities can treat it as a fixed place of business or a dependent-agent permanent establishment.

Yes. A website or server alone generally is not enough, but a local agent who habitually negotiates deals, or a co-working space used habitually for your business, can still create a permanent establishment even without a registered office.

The authorities assess corporate tax and VAT on the establishment's profits and turnover for all open years, treat the situation as undeclared activity (extending the reassessment period to ten years), and apply late-payment interest plus an 80% penalty instead of the standard 40%.

Yes, unless your country has a mutual assistance agreement with France covering tax recovery. Otherwise you must appoint a France-based, VAT-registered fiscal representative before carrying out taxable transactions.

You must file a CVAE return once turnover exceeds 152,500 euros, but you only pay the tax once turnover exceeds 500,000 euros. For 2026, rates stay frozen at their 2024 level (up to 0.28% for turnover above 50 million euros), and full abolition, repeatedly postponed, is now scheduled for 2030.

It is not turnover-based at all. The margin scheme (used goods, art, antiques) applies transaction by transaction, whenever you resell an item bought without deductible VAT, typically from a private individual. You report the margin within your normal VAT return, not as a separate filing; from 1 September 2026 the rules simply move to new article numbers under the recodified VAT code, with no change to substance.

The fee depends on the complexity of your flows, the number of jurisdictions involved and the type of engagement, whether filing or structuring. We provide a quote after analysing your situation.