You run a French company from London, New York, Dubai or Singapore. The financial year ended on 31 December, spring passed in a blur of sales and hiring, and nobody held the annual approval meeting. Then two letters arrive in the same week: your French bank asks for the latest filed accounts before renewing the overdraft, and the greffe, the registry office of the commercial court, writes that your annual accounts were never deposited. A few weeks later, a court order follows: the president of the commercial court enjoins your company to file within one month under a daily penalty payment. This is the most common compliance failure of foreign-owned French companies, and it is also one of the cheapest to fix if you move fast, and one of the most expensive to ignore.
French law runs two clocks that foreign founders constantly confuse. First, the shareholders must approve the accounts within six months of the year end. Second, once approved, the accounts must be filed at the greffe within one month, or two months if you file electronically. Missing either clock exposes the company and you personally to a chain of consequences: a warning from the court president, a formal injunction with a daily fine called an astreinte, a criminal fine, heavier tax surcharges, and, as the Court of Cassation confirmed, a personal order to pay the daily fines when the company does not comply. None of these steps requires you to live in France, and none of them can be answered from abroad without understanding exactly who is asking and by when.
This guide walks through the full sequence for a foreign shareholder or director: how to tell whether your accounts are actually late, who can force the filing and what each week of delay costs, how to hold the late meeting and file online from another country, and how to answer an injunction letter so the final bill stays small. Every decisive rule below is tied to the exact statute or court decision that creates it, with the French terms explained as they appear.
I. What does French law require, and what does a missed filing trigger when you manage from abroad?
A. Are your accounts actually late: the six-month approval meeting and the one-month filing deadline?
Start with the vocabulary, because every letter you receive uses it. The RCS, registre du commerce et des sociétés, is the French company register. The greffe is the registry office of the commercial court that keeps it. The Kbis is the official identity certificate of your company, drawn from the RCS, and the BODACC, bulletin officiel des annonces civiles et commerciales, is the gazette where filings and court notices are published. Annual accounts, comptes annuels, means the balance sheet, profit and loss account and notes, plus the management report and, where one exists, the auditor’s report. Filing, dépôt, means sending these documents to the greffe so they are appended to the RCS file, where banks, suppliers, competitors and courts can consult them. Since 2023, most filings pass through the Guichet unique, the INPI one-stop shop for business formalities, which forwards them to the competent greffe.
The first clock is the approval meeting. In a SARL, the limited liability company with intuitu personae flavour most foreign founders avoid but still inherit through acquisitions, article L223-26 of the Commercial Code provides that the management report, the inventory and the annual accounts drawn up by the managers “sont soumis à l’approbation des associés réunis en assemblée, dans le délai de six mois à compter de la clôture de l’exercice sous réserve de prolongation de ce délai par décision de justice.” The papers must go before the shareholders in meeting within six months of the year end, unless a court extends the deadline. If the meeting was never convened, the public prosecutor or any interested person can petition the president of the competent court in summary proceedings to order the managers, under astreinte if needed, to convene it or to appoint an agent to do so. In a société par actions, which covers both the SA and the SAS, the vehicle most foreign founders actually use, article L225-100 of the Commercial Code sets the same rhythm: “L’assemblée générale ordinaire est réunie au moins une fois par an, dans les six mois de la clôture de l’exercice, sous réserve de prolongation de ce délai par décision de justice.” For a financial year closed on 31 December, the meeting must therefore happen by 30 June, and only a court decision obtained before the deadline moves it. In a SAS, the statutes organise how decisions are taken, but the obligation to close, approve and file on time applies identically, so a founder who treats the SAS as deadline-free discovers the mistake through the greffe’s reminder.
The second clock starts the day the meeting approves the accounts. Article L232-22 of the Commercial Code states for SARLs: “Toute société à responsabilité limitée est tenue de déposer au greffe du tribunal, pour être annexés au registre du commerce et des sociétés, dans le mois suivant l’approbation des comptes annuels par l’assemblée ordinaire des associés ou par l’associé unique ou dans les deux mois suivant cette approbation lorsque ce dépôt est effectué par voie électronique”. One month on paper, two months online. Article L232-23 of the Commercial Code imposes the same duty on every société par actions: “Toute société par actions est tenue de déposer au greffe du tribunal, pour être annexés au registre du commerce et des sociétés, dans le mois suivant l’approbation des comptes annuels par l’assemblée générale des actionnaires ou dans les deux mois suivant cette approbation lorsque ce dépôt est effectué par voie électronique”. The official English guidance on service-public.fr for filing annual accounts confirms the two deadlines in plain terms: one month after approval by the ordinary meeting or the sole shareholder, extended to two months when the filing is made online. Filing can be done online, on the spot or by mail, and the same page warns that directors sign electronically with a qualified certificate or FranceConnect+, the state authentication device.
Two refinements matter for founders abroad. First, if the meeting refuses to approve the accounts, the company is not dispensed from filing: a copy of the refusal deliberation must be deposited within the same time limit, a rule stated in both L232-22 and L232-23. Silence is never an option; even a dispute between shareholders must leave a trace at the greffe. Second, lateness is easy to check from another country: ask your accountant for the dated approval minutes and the greffe filing receipt, then compare with the BODACC publication. If the meeting happened in July for a December year end without a court extension, the approval itself is late. If the meeting approved on time but nothing was filed within the month, or within two months online, the filing is late. Most foreign-owned companies the cabinet sees are late on both clocks at once, which means two cures are needed, not one: hold the late meeting properly, then file immediately.
B. Who can force the filing, and what does each month of delay cost?
The first person to notice is the greffier, the court clerk. Article L232-24 of the Commercial Code provides: “Le greffier, lorsqu’il constate l’inexécution du dépôt prévu au I des articles L. 232-21 à L. 232-23 , informe le président du tribunal de commerce pour qu’il puisse faire application de l’article L. 123-5-2 ou du II de l’article L. 611-2 ainsi que le représentant de l’Etat dans le département.” When the clerk sees that no accounts were filed, he alerts the president of the commercial court and the State representative in the département, the French administrative district. This is why the first letter often arrives without any prior warning: the system is automatic, and living in another country is no excuse because the registered office, siège social, remains in France and service there is valid.
The president of the court can then issue an injunction with a daily penalty. Article L611-2, II of the Commercial Code states: “Lorsque les dirigeants d’une société commerciale ne procèdent pas au dépôt des comptes annuels dans les délais prévus par les textes applicables, le président du tribunal peut, le cas échéant sur demande du président d’un des observatoires mentionnés à l’article L. 910-1 A, leur adresser une injonction de le faire à bref délai sous astreinte.” The procedure is detailed in the regulatory part of the code. Article R611-13 explains that the president issues an order enjoining the legal representative to file “dans un délai d’un mois à compter de la notification ou de la signification de l’ordonnance, sous peine d’astreinte”, fixing the daily rate and the hearing details, and adds the sentence founders dislike most: “Elle n’est pas susceptible de recours.” The order itself cannot be appealed. Article R611-14 organises notification through the clerk, with bailiff service if the letter goes unclaimed. If the company has vanished from its declared address, the case is struck off but the president informs the public prosecutor and the clerk records the cessation of activity on the RCS, a public black mark your bank will read before you do.
If the order is ignored, the money becomes personal. When the president records non-compliance and liquidates the astreinte, it is the legal representative who is condemned in his own name, not the company. The Court of Cassation, Commercial Chamber, 7 May 2019, No 17-21.047 (full decision on Légifrance), published in the Bulletin, states the rule word for word: “lorsque le président d’un tribunal de commerce, ayant enjoint sous astreinte au représentant légal d’une personne morale de déposer les comptes annuels, constate le défaut d’exécution et liquide l’astreinte, le représentant légal est condamné à titre personnel”. The same decision carries a practical lesson for directors abroad: the manager had filed his cassation memorandum in the name of the company instead of his own name, and the Court declared the appeal lapsed, noting the memorandum was drawn up “en sa qualité de représentant légal de la société”, in his capacity as legal representative, rather than personally. When the order targets you, every response must be made in your own name, through French counsel if you cannot attend, because the debt will be yours. Article R611-16 adds where the money goes: “Le montant de la condamnation prononcée est versé au Trésor public et recouvré comme en matière de créances étrangères à l’impôt.” The liquidated daily fines are paid to the Public Treasury and recovered like non-tax public claims, which the Treasury can pursue across borders within Europe with far more stamina than a private creditor.
The court president is not the only one who can move. Article L123-5-1 of the Commercial Code provides: “A la demande de tout intéressé ou du ministère public, le président du tribunal, statuant en référé, peut enjoindre sous astreinte au dirigeant de toute personne morale de procéder au dépôt des pièces et actes au registre du commerce et des sociétés auquel celle-ci est tenue par des dispositions législatives ou réglementaires.” Any interested person, the public prosecutor, a summary judge, an injunction under astreinte, and if needed the appointment of an agent to file in your place. A competitor did exactly that to obtain a rival’s accounts: the Court of Cassation, Commercial Chamber, 3 March 2021, No 19-10.086 (full decision on Légifrance), published in the Bulletin, approved an appeal court that had held that “les actions prévues par ces dispositions spéciales ne sont pas exclusives de celle fondée sur les dispositions de droit commun prévues par l’article L. 232-23 du code de commerce, qui font obligation à toute société par actions, et non à son dirigeant, de déposer ses comptes.” Special procedures do not exclude the general one, and the duty lies on the company itself. For a founder abroad, the message is double: a disgruntled ex-employee, a supplier or a competitor can force your accounts into the open, so filing late but voluntarily almost always costs less than being forced to file under astreinte with your margins on public display.
On top of the civil machinery sit criminal fines. The official English guidance on service-public.fr puts the criminal fine at 1,500 euros for the head of the business if the accounts are not filed, increased to 3,000 euros for a repeat offense. The same page adds the civil sequence in plain English: the President of the Commercial Court may order the director to lodge the accounts within one month, commonly setting a daily penalty payment for each day of delay. Separately, managers who never even put the accounts before the shareholders face heavier fines: article L241-5 of the Commercial Code punishes SARL managers who fail to submit the inventory, accounts and management report to the shareholders with “9 000 € d’amende”, worded as “Est puni de 9 000 € d’amende le fait, pour les gérants, de ne pas soumettre à l’approbation de l’assemblée des associés ou de l’associé unique l’inventaire, les comptes annuels et le rapport de gestion établis pour chaque exercice.” For SAs, article L242-10 mirrors it: “Est puni d’une amende de 9 000 euros le fait, pour le président ou les administrateurs d’une société anonyme, de ne pas soumettre à l’approbation de l’assemblée générale ordinaire les comptes annuels et le rapport de gestion prévus à l’ article L. 232-1 .” In distribution and food retail, a sectoral injunction exists too: article L123-5-2 lets the president enjoin filing “à bref délai sous astreinte”, capped at “2 % du chiffre d’affaires journalier moyen hors taxes réalisé en France par la société au titre de cette activité, par jour de retard à compter de la date fixée par l’injonction”, two percent of average daily French turnover per day of delay, a rate that bankrupts the strategy of waiting.
The tax side adds its own meter. Late accounts usually mean a late corporate tax return, and article 1728 of the General Tax Code increases the tax due by “10 % en l’absence de mise en demeure ou en cas de dépôt de la déclaration ou de l’acte dans les trente jours suivant la réception d’une mise en demeure d’avoir à le produire dans ce délai”, ten percent with no formal notice or if filed within thirty days of one, and “40 % lorsque la déclaration ou l’acte n’a pas été déposé dans les trente jours suivant la réception d’une mise en demeure”, forty percent beyond that. Add the commercial consequences no statute needs to state: French banks condition loans, overdrafts and even account retention on recent filed accounts, and an RCS file showing missed filings plus a Treasury recovery is the fastest way to lose credit while living too far away to plead your case at the branch. The English guidance also warns that persistent non-filing reads as a distress signal: the court president may open an economic and financial inquiry and summon the director for a prevention interview, because persistent non-filing is treated as a possible signal of financial difficulties.
II. How do you fix a late filing from abroad without making things worse?
A. What do you file first: hold the late meeting, sign the right papers, file online today?
Work in the order the law expects, because each step cures one clock. First, close the books with your French accountant, expert-comptable, the regulated accounting professional, and get the full package: balance sheet, profit and loss, notes, management report, auditor’s report if your company has a commissaire aux comptes, the statutory auditor, plus the draft allocation of profits. Second, convene the shareholders late but properly: written notice with the agenda, the statutory notice period from your articles, and proof of sending to every shareholder at their last known address. A late meeting is valid; an undocumented meeting is a future annulment claim. Record in the minutes that the meeting is held after the deadline, approve the accounts, vote the allocation resolution, and have every required signature collected, electronically if your articles allow, otherwise by couriered originals. If the deadline has not yet expired but you know you will miss it, instruct French counsel to petition for a court extension before expiry, since both L223-26 and L225-100 allow prolongation only “par décision de justice”, and judges dislike backdated emergencies.
Third, file electronically the same day the meeting is held. Electronic filing doubles your post-approval window to two months under L232-22 and L232-23, costs less than paper, and produces a timestamped receipt you can email to the bank within the hour. File through the Guichet unique to the greffe of the company’s registered office, attaching exactly what the articles list: accounts, allocation proposal and voted resolution, auditor reports where they exist. If the shareholders refused approval after a genuine debate, file the copy of the refusal deliberation within the same deadline instead of nothing; a filed refusal closes the greffe’s file, while silence reopens the injunction chain. Keep the filing receipt, the BODACC notice when published, and the updated company documents in one folder: this is the paper trail that stops the next reminder and proves diligence if a judge later liquidates an astreinte.
Filing late still counts, and it stops the daily meter from running further. Only the actual deposit ends future daily penalties; the judge then fixes the final amount for the elapsed period when liquidating, which is why filing the week you learn of the problem is worth more than any legal argument filed months later. Do not try to rewrite history by backdating minutes or manufacturing an approval date: French courts treat falsified corporate documents as a criminal matter, and a bank that discovers the mismatch will close the file it had just reopened. If several years are missing, file year by year from the oldest, because each year’s approval and allocation must exist before the next year’s opening balances make sense, and tell the accountant to align the tax returns in parallel so the 1728 surcharges stop growing. For Paris and Ile-de-France companies, the competent greffe is the registry of the Paris commercial court for a Paris siège, and Paris filings are verified strictly given the volume; e-filing with a complete PDF set avoids the most common rejection, and a Paris-based counsel can obtain the filing receipt and BODACC proof the same week while you sign from abroad.
B. How do you answer the injunction letter and keep the bill down?
Read the order the day it arrives and calendar two things: the one-month filing deadline running from notification or bailiff service, and the hearing date the order states for review. Article R611-13 requires the order to fix the astreinte rate and to mention “les lieu, jour et heure de l’audience à laquelle l’affaire sera examinée”, so the envelope tells you the daily price and the courtroom. Remember its last line, “Elle n’est pas susceptible de recours”: you cannot appeal the order itself, which means your energy must go into complying and documenting, not into challenging the paper. If you live abroad, mandate a French lawyer or a formal agent immediately with a written power of attorney covering receipt of service, filing at the greffe, and representation at the hearing; the L123-5-1 procedure even allows the president to appoint an agent to file, so courts expect representatives and penalise no-shows.
Then file before the hearing and arrive with proof. Bring the greffe receipt, the approved minutes and allocation resolution, and the BODACC publication if already out, and ask the court to record voluntary compliance before any liquidation of the daily fines. Judges liquidating under R611-16 look at conduct between the order and the hearing; a founder who filed within days of learning of the injunction from abroad presents the opposite picture from one who waited for the Treasury notice. Never ignore the mail: under R611-14, an unclaimed letter leads to bailiff service, and an address where the company no longer sits leads to the case being struck off with the prosecutor informed and cessation of activity recorded on the RCS. For a foreign director who moved flats in Paris or changed the registered office without updating the RCS, this is the nightmare scenario: the order is deemed served, the fines accrue, the company is flagged as ceased, and the bank freezes the account, all before you open a single letter. Keep the RCS address current and open a forwarding and scanning arrangement with your domiciliation provider, the company that hosts your registered office.
Two final shields complete the defence. First, respond always in your own name for anything touching the injunction, because the condemnation is personal: the 7 May 2019 ruling above shows an appeal dying for a memorandum filed in the company’s name, and your counsel should head every letter with your personal capacity as dirigeant, the company director, alongside the company. Second, watch limitation periods for any parallel personal claim arising from the delay: article 2224 of the Civil Code states “Les actions personnelles ou mobilières se prescrivent par cinq ans à compter du jour où le titulaire d’un droit a connu ou aurait dû connaître les faits lui permettant de l’exercer.” Five years from knowledge, with each acknowledgement restarting the clock, which is why you should neither sign reconnaissances de dette, acknowledgements of debt, lightly nor let an unanswered demand age. If the liquidation decision itself seems wrong, note that unlike the initial order, it can be appealed under the no-mandatory-representation procedure, with the public prosecutor also entitled to appeal, so have counsel check the amounts, the rate applied and the starting date within the appeal window. Readers who want the full yearly sequence around this filing will find it in our companion guide Your French Company Has a Legal Calendar: Approve Accounts, Hold the Meeting and File From Abroad, and newcomers should start from the formation pillar Setting Up a Company in France as a Foreign Founder: Bank Account, Kbis, VAT and Your First Hire, which walks through the Kbis, the official company identity certificate issued by the greffe, the registry office of the commercial court, the Guichet unique one-stop shop and the first hires that create these very deadlines.
Conclusion
Missed French accounts filings follow a fixed chain: the greffe clerk notices under L232-24, the court president enjoins under L611-2 within a one-month order that cannot be appealed, the daily fines accrue, and the 7 May 2019 Court of Cassation ruling turns them into your personal debt to the Treasury if the company still does not file. Meanwhile any interested party can force publication through L123-5-1, the criminal fine runs to €1,500 and €3,000 for repeats, skipping the meeting itself costs up to €9,000 under L241-5 and L242-10, and late tax returns add ten then forty percent under 1728 CGI. The cure runs the chain backwards from abroad: close the books, hold the late meeting with real minutes, e-file the same day through the Guichet unique, answer any injunction in your own name with proof in hand, and keep the RCS address alive so no letter ever accrues fines behind your back. A disciplined week of filings costs accountant fees; an ignored injunction costs your personal money.
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