I. How can a foreign director create and activate a French company tax account?

A. What is the correct impots.gouv.fr space after INPI registration?

The first point is to identify what has already happened and what has not. The French company is formed through a legal process; its tax access is a separate administrative process. The company’s formation file is submitted through the single business-formalities portal operated by the French National Institute of Industrial Property, known as INPI for Institut national de la propriété industrielle. Article L. 123-33 of the French Commercial Code describes “un seul dossier comportant les déclarations qu’elle est tenue d’effectuer” and states that “Ce dossier est déposé par voie électronique auprès d’un organisme unique désigné à cet effet.” The official text of Article L. 123-33 and the INPI explanation of the single portal and the National Register of Enterprises describe the filing channel; neither page replaces the company’s later tax-account activation.

After registration, verify the identifiers before opening the tax space. The SIREN is the nine-digit identification number of the legal entity. The SIRET is the fourteen-digit identification number of an establishment: it combines the SIREN with a five-digit NIC, or internal classification number. The APE code is the principal activity code assigned for statistical and administrative classification. The RCS is the Registre du commerce et des sociétés, the Trade and Companies Register. The RNE is the Registre national des entreprises, the wider National Register of Enterprises. The greffe is the court registry that handles the relevant corporate formalities. The Kbis is the official extract showing the company’s registration in the RCS; it is evidence of registration, not a password for the tax service.

The official impots.gouv.fr guidance on creating a secure professional space explains that business declarations and payments are transmitted electronically and that the professional space permits a company to declare and pay principal business taxes, request refunds and consult its tax account. A director should therefore treat the space as an operational control point, not as a merely optional profile. It can be used for corporate income tax, usually called IS for impôt sur les sociétés; VAT, or value added tax; CFE, for cotisation foncière des entreprises, the French business-property tax; and other services depending on the company’s activity and tax regime.

The crucial choice is between the mode simplifié and the mode expert. The simplified mode is intended for a person acting for the person’s own company and for an entity that does not yet have online services. The government’s simplified-mode instructions state that creating the space brings automatic adhesion to the available online services, subject to the specific limitation for European Union VAT procedures. A foreign founder who is the legal representative of one French subsidiary will often begin with this route, provided that the founder will control the services directly and can receive the company’s postal code at the registered office.

The expert mode is different. The official expert-mode instructions describe it as the route for a person who represents an enterprise or manages online services for several legal entities. It is therefore appropriate where an external accountant, a group finance officer, a management company or a legal representative will administer more than one company. The expert space is created first. The person then adds the French company by its SIREN, applies for the required services and follows the separate activation process for that company.

A foreign director should not select the expert mode merely because the company’s shareholder is foreign. The relevant question is who will manage the online services. A French subsidiary with a British, American, Canadian, Swiss or Singaporean shareholder can still use the simplified mode if its own legal representative is creating and controlling the space for that company alone. Conversely, a director who intends to let an accountant manage the filings should define the access and delegation arrangements before selecting a mode. A poor choice can create duplicated spaces, a disconnected accountant, or a situation in which the person who receives the code is not the person who must make the payment.

For the simplified mode, the practical sequence has four stages. First, the director opens the professional-space creation page and enters the company’s SIREN, the company email address, a personal connection email, a password and the holder’s contact details. Second, a validation link is sent to the company email. The official instructions state that this link is usable for 72 hours. Third, after the link is confirmed, an activation code is sent by post to the company. Fourth, the director returns to the professional space, selects “Activate my space/services”, enters the code and records the company’s bank details. The activation code must be used within 60 days of the space’s creation. Once this step is complete, the services are available in the professional space.

The 72-hour and 60-day periods are different. The first concerns validation of the email used by the company. The second concerns the postal activation code and the completion of the professional space. A founder who checks only the inbox can therefore believe that the process is complete while the postal step is still pending. The company should appoint a person to monitor the registered office, scan the tax correspondence, log the date on which the code arrived and transmit the code through a secure channel to the person authorised to activate it.

The expert mode has its own timetable. The space holder creates the expert account with a connection email and password, enters the SIREN of the entity or representative context and activates the space with a code sent by email. The official instructions state that the expert-space activation code is usable for 48 hours. The holder then goes to “My services”, chooses “I join” for the relevant French company, selects the services and waits for the company-specific postal code. That later code is valid for 60 days. If the accountant requests the services, the company must still communicate the code to the accountant; the accountant does not acquire a right to invent or bypass the code.

The director should prepare a short activation file before starting. It should contain the Kbis or registration evidence, the SIREN and SIRET details, the articles of association, the director’s identity document, the registered-office contract, the company email access, the bank’s exact legal name, the IBAN and the person’s authority to act. If the director is appointed by a foreign corporate shareholder, keep the appointment decision and the relevant power of attorney. If an accountant will use expert access, keep the engagement letter and the list of services requested. These documents are not all uploaded at the first click, but they explain the file if the administration, bank or SIE asks who is entitled to manage it.

The tax account should be created only after checking that the registration data is coherent. Compare the company name, registered-office address, director’s name, activity, date of registration and SIREN in the Kbis, articles, bank certificate, tax-space form and beneficial-owner filing. A missing accent, an abbreviated foreign corporate name or a registered office that has changed after the INPI filing can make the banking and tax records appear to concern different entities. Correct the corporate record through the appropriate channel before asking the tax service to resolve what is actually an identity mismatch.

B. Which authorization, banking and ownership checks determine access?

A professional tax space is not the same as a personal French tax account. The company is the taxpayer; the director, accountant or delegated finance officer is the user. The email used to connect belongs to the individual user, while the company email allows the administration to contact the legal entity. A foreign director should keep those two roles distinct. Using a private email as the only company contact can make the company unreachable when the director changes jobs, leaves the group or loses access to a foreign employer’s mailbox.

The company email should be controlled by the company and monitored on business days. If an accountant is the user, the company’s email should remain available to the company even if the accountant’s personal address is used as the connection identifier. If the company is owned by a foreign parent, the parent’s general mailbox is not automatically the right contact: the French company must be able to receive tax notices and answer questions about its own activity, bank account and representative.

Banking is the second major control. Activating the account permits the director to enter the bank coordinates used to pay taxes, but entering an IBAN is not the same as authorising every debit. The relevant mandate is a SEPA B2B mandate. SEPA means the Single Euro Payments Area; B2B means business-to-business. The mandate identifies the company as debtor, the bank as debtor institution and the tax administration as creditor. The bank must register the mandate before the first self-assessed tax payment. A bank account can therefore be valid for receiving funds while still being unable to support a tax debit.

The official guidance on online procedures and EDI explains that the company must create a professional space before using the online route and that the bank account intended for payment must be present and valid. EDI means échange de données informatisé, or Electronic Data Interchange: declarations are transmitted through an external partner such as an accountant or an approved provider. EFI means electronic filing through the administration’s online services. Even where the declaration is submitted through EDI, a professional space remains important because the associated bank account may need to be registered there for SEPA payment.

The tax service also distinguishes autoliquidated taxes from taxes paid through a different payment path. The simplified-mode instructions state that a signed SEPA B2B mandate is needed before the first payment of taxes such as VAT, IS, payroll tax, CVAE and withholding-tax amounts. CVAE means cotisation sur la valeur ajoutée des entreprises, a business value-added contribution that may apply depending on the company’s activity and thresholds. CFE and property taxes follow a different mandate rule in the official instructions. The director should therefore not sign a generic bank document and assume that every tax payment is enabled.

Ownership and authority must be coherent with the tax account. The beneficial owner is the natural person who ultimately owns or controls the company. The RBE is the registre des bénéficiaires effectifs, or register of beneficial owners. Article L. 561-46 of the French Monetary and Financial Code requires the relevant entities to declare “les informations relatives aux bénéficiaires effectifs”. The official Article L. 561-46 text should be read together with the company’s ownership chart, not treated as a formality that concerns only the bank.

The consequences of an incomplete ownership filing can extend to the company’s ability to operate. Article L. 561-47 of the same Code provides a mechanism for action when the beneficial-owner information is absent or not brought into compliance; after the statutory procedure, “il peut procéder à sa radiation d’office dudit registre”. The official Article L. 561-47 text is therefore relevant to a foreign director who is trying to prove authority to a bank, the tax administration or an accountant. The tax account should display the real legal entity and representative, not a convenient but inaccurate name from the foreign parent group.

The timing of the bank mandate also matters. Before registration, the company does not yet have the same legal personality as it has after registration. Article 1842 of the Civil Code provides that “Les sociétés autres que les sociétés en participation jouissent de la personnalité morale à compter de leur immatriculation.” The official Article 1842 text explains why the director should distinguish a personal pre-formation payment from a payment made for the registered company. Article 1843 of the Civil Code addresses the obligations incurred by people acting for a company in formation and the possible takeover of those obligations; its official text should be retained with the formation file.

Article L. 210-6 of the Commercial Code applies the same practical risk to commercial companies. The people who act for a commercial company before it acquires legal personality can remain jointly and indefinitely liable unless the company properly takes over the commitments. The official Article L. 210-6 text is relevant where the director has personally paid a tax adviser, registered-office provider, software supplier or bank before registration and later wants the company to reimburse the amount.

The Court of Cassation’s Commercial Chamber applied this framework in its published decision of 29 November 2023, appeal no. 22-21.623. The official Légifrance decision states: “Les personnes qui ont agi au nom ou pour le compte d’une société en formation avant qu’elle ait acquis la jouissance de la personnalité morale sont tenues solidairement et indéfiniment responsables des actes ainsi accomplis, à moins que la société, après avoir été régulièrement constituée et immatriculée, ne reprenne les engagements souscrits.” A director should therefore preserve the formation mandate, the company’s later takeover decision and the payment evidence rather than relying on an informal email.

The same issue appears in the published decision of 29 November 2023, appeal no. 22-12.865. The Court explains that “l’acte non expressément souscrit « au nom » ou « pour le compte » d’une société en formation est nul” in the official Légifrance decision. That wording is not a technicality for a foreign director. If the person who opens the bank relationship or signs the service engagement is not clearly acting for the company in formation, a later attempt to connect the payment mandate to the company can become a dispute about personal liability and authority.

Capital is a separate issue again. A French SAS is a société par actions simplifiée, or simplified joint-stock company. A SASU is its one-member form, société par actions simplifiée unipersonnelle. A SARL is a société à responsabilité limitée, or private limited-liability company. An EURL is its one-member form, entreprise unipersonnelle à responsabilité limitée. Article L. 225-3 of the Commercial Code provides that “Le capital doit être intégralement souscrit. Les actions de numéraire sont libérées, lors de la souscription, de la moitié au moins de leur valeur nominale.” The official Article L. 225-3 text concerns the amount released at subscription; it does not itself create the professional tax space.

For an SARL or EURL, Article L. 223-7 of the Commercial Code requires cash contributions to be released by at least one fifth, with the balance capable of being paid within five years. The official Article L. 223-7 text is relevant when the bank or accountant asks why the capital shown in the articles differs from the cash immediately available. The tax account should be opened for the company’s registered tax identity, while capital calls and operating funds remain documented in the company’s accounting records.

II. What must the foreign director do after activation to avoid missed tax deadlines?

A. Which services, tax choices and first declarations should be enabled?

Activation is only the start. Once the director can enter the professional space, the next task is to identify which services the company actually needs. A foreign-owned French company should not select services based solely on the parent’s tax profile. The French company’s legal form, activity, customer location, turnover, employee situation, property use and group transactions determine the relevant declarations.

Start with the account dashboard and confirm that the company’s name, SIREN, registered address and contact details are correct. Then check the “consult” services, the secure messaging service, the result-declaration service, the VAT-declaration service and the payment services. If the company will be taxed under IS, confirm that the service for declaring and paying corporate income tax is available. If it will collect or recover VAT, confirm the relevant VAT service and the European Union VAT options. If the company owns or occupies business premises, identify the CFE service and the dates on which the first declaration or notice will appear.

IS means impôt sur les sociétés, French corporate income tax. VAT is value added tax, called TVA in French for taxe sur la valeur ajoutée. CFE means cotisation foncière des entreprises, a local business-property tax generally linked to the premises and activity. DGFiP means Direction générale des finances publiques, the French public-finance administration. SIE means service des impôts des entreprises, the business-tax department responsible for the company’s tax relationship. An international founder should use these terms accurately when sending a secure message or asking which office manages the file.

Do not confuse an inactive online service with the absence of a tax obligation. A company can owe VAT or need to file a corporate result even if the service is not yet displayed. The official EFI and EDI guidance lists online services for consulting the tax account, declaring results, declaring and paying VAT, declaring and paying IS, paying other taxes and using secure messaging. It also explains that the filing date is available through the professional space and that the return and its payment must follow the same mode where the relevant rules require it.

The director should decide whether the company will use EFI or EDI. EFI is the administration’s online filing route. EDI is transmission through a private technical partner, often an expert-comptable, meaning a French chartered accountant, or another approved provider. EDI can be useful for a group that already has accounting software and centralised reporting. It does not eliminate the need for a secure tax relationship, a valid bank account or a person who can read the DGFiP messages. The engagement with the accountant should state who chooses the tax regime, who signs or validates the return, who monitors rejection messages and who retains the transmission evidence.

The first tax choices should be confirmed against the actual activity. A company selling goods in France may have VAT obligations that differ from a consultancy providing services to a business customer in another European Union Member State. A French subsidiary receiving management charges from its foreign parent may need transfer-pricing evidence and a coherent VAT analysis. A company with no French premises may still need to examine CFE and registered-office consequences. The director should therefore prepare a transaction map: French customers, European Union business customers, non-EU customers, imports, exports, intra-group services, dividends, loans, payroll and property use.

The professional space is also used to handle tax certificates and administrative correspondence. A bank, investor, contracting authority or regulated partner may request an attestation fiscale, meaning a certificate showing the company’s tax position. A foreign director should download the certificate only after verifying that the company’s declarations and payments are up to date. A certificate generated from an incomplete account can create an inaccurate impression of compliance. Keep the date, file name, relevant tax period and recipient in the company’s evidence folder.

CFE deserves specific preparation. The official CFE guidance states that the professional space is required to consult and pay a CFE notice. The Service Public Entreprendre CFE page explains that the tax can apply to a company carrying on a habitual professional activity in France, subject to the applicable exemptions and new-company rules. The company should not wait until a notice is due before checking the space. Confirm the registered office, the actual place of activity, whether the company uses premises, whether an exemption or reduction could apply and which SIE can answer a question about the tax base. The initial-year position and later annual notices should be recorded in the calendar with the relevant form and deadline.

For a company with employees, the tax-space question is not the whole payroll setup. Payroll involves social-security declarations to URSSAF, the network that collects French social-security contributions, and potentially DSN, the déclaration sociale nominative, or monthly standardised social declaration. Payroll tax, withholding-tax amounts and corporate taxes may have separate payment routes. The foreign director should ensure that the accountant or payroll provider has access to the right systems and that the tax-space bank mandate is not being treated as an authorisation for URSSAF debits.

The tax calendar should begin on registration day, not on the day the code arrives. Record the registration date, the first financial year-end, the IS return period, VAT filing frequency, the date on which the company first trades, the first CFE action, payroll start date and any cross-border reporting deadline. A company that has no turnover can still have an administrative filing or a request for information. “No revenue” is not the same as “no tax account” and is not a sufficient reason to ignore a message from the SIE.

A group structure needs an additional reconciliation. The French subsidiary may have a foreign corporate shareholder, a foreign director, a French accountant and a bank account held in the company’s name. Those four actors can use different languages, time zones and document conventions. The board or shareholder decision should state who is authorised to manage the tax space, who can give the accountant the activation code, who can sign a SEPA B2B mandate and who can respond to a tax audit or information request. The company should avoid sharing one password among the parent, director and accountant; use the access and delegation features applicable to the selected mode.

Finally, compare the tax-space data with the RBE and the company’s bank file. If the foreign parent has changed name, merged, moved its registered office or appointed a new director, the French company’s ownership and authority evidence may require an update. If the French company’s actual activity has changed from the activity described in the articles, the director should assess whether an amendment, a new APE code or a regulated-activity authorisation is required. A tax account is a live administrative record, not a static copy of the day of incorporation.

B. What should be done when the account is blocked, a code expires or the SIE rejects a service?

The first response to a blocked tax account is diagnosis, not repeated registration. Identify whether the failure concerns the company email link, the postal activation code, the professional-space password, the SIREN match, the bank coordinates, the SEPA mandate, a service adhesion or a tax return itself. Each problem has a different remedy. Creating a second professional space can make the record less clear and may not solve a company-address or identity problem.

If the 72-hour simplified-mode email link expires, start the email-validation stage again with the company address that the administration can actually reach. If the postal activation code expires after 60 days, request a new activation process rather than entering an old code repeatedly. If the foreign director cannot receive postal mail at the registered office, ask the domiciliation provider to explain its scanning and forwarding procedure, update the contact process and maintain evidence of the date on which the letter was received. The postal route is an identity-control measure; it is not an obstacle that can be ignored because the director lives abroad.

If the expert-mode activation code expires after 48 hours, recreate the expert space activation. If the company-specific service code expires after 60 days, submit the service adhesion again. The official response on when services become available distinguishes the simplified sequence from the expert sequence and confirms that the company-specific code is sent to the company’s postal address for the services requested in expert mode.

If the payment fails, check the bank before contacting the SIE. Confirm the legal account name, IBAN, account status, B2B mandate, Reference Unique de Mandat (RUM), bank registration date and whether the account is authorised to accept the relevant debit. RUM means the unique mandate reference used to identify the SEPA mandate. The official simplified-mode instructions warn that a first payment can be rejected if the bank has not correctly recorded the mandate. Preserve the rejection notice, the tax payment screen, the bank confirmation and the date on which the mandate was registered.

If the service is not visible, verify whether the company should use simplified or expert mode, whether the relevant service has been selected, whether the company email has been validated and whether the SIREN is correct. In expert mode, the space user may exist while the company’s services are not yet attached. The user must request the services for that SIREN and wait for the company-specific activation. In a group, one expert space may manage several entities, but each entity’s service access still needs to be configured.

If the SIE asks for evidence, answer through the secure messaging service where possible and attach a concise file. The file should identify the company, SIREN, tax period, question, legal representative, accountant if any, action requested and attachments. Attach the Kbis, appointment decision, mandate, bank certificate, relevant return, tax payment evidence and ownership chart only where they answer the question. Redact irrelevant personal data. Keep the message receipt and the administration’s response in the same folder as the tax return.

If the company has missed a filing deadline, do not wait for the account to become perfect before contacting the administration. Ask the accountant or SIE what filing and payment route is available, submit the required return through the correct channel and document the technical reason for any delay. The official teleprocedure guidance states that failure to use mandatory electronic procedures can trigger a penalty of 0.2% of the amounts due, with a minimum of €60. The exact consequences depend on the tax, return, period and facts; a technical problem is not automatically a legal defence.

The director should distinguish a technical refusal from a tax disagreement. A technical refusal concerns access, identity, code, service adhesion or payment configuration. A tax disagreement concerns the tax regime, tax base, deductible expense, VAT treatment, corporate residence, permanent establishment or penalty. The first needs account and service correction. The second may require a reasoned submission, an accountant’s analysis, a tax lawyer’s advice or a formal administrative remedy. Sending a tax argument to a password-support channel rarely resolves the underlying issue.

The following control table gives a practical closing sequence for a foreign director:

Control	Evidence to keep	Action if it fails
Company identity	Kbis, SIREN, SIRET, APE code, articles and registration receipt	Reconcile the INPI, registry, bank and tax records before creating duplicate spaces
Mode selection	Decision showing who manages the space and whether one or several companies are involved	Use simplified for the company’s own single-space manager or expert for a representative managing multiple entities
Email validation	Company mailbox, validation message, date and screenshot or receipt	Restart the link stage if the 72-hour window has expired
Postal activation	Envelope, code receipt date, registered-office forwarding record and activation confirmation	Request a new code if the 60-day window has expired or the letter cannot be located
Bank payment	IBAN, B2B mandate, RUM, bank confirmation and first payment receipt	Ask the bank to register the mandate before attempting the payment again
Services	List of activated services, accountant engagement and EFI or EDI choice	Request the missing service for the correct SIREN and retain the activation notice
Calendar	IS, VAT, CFE, payroll and annual-account deadlines with responsible person	Contact the SIE or accountant immediately and record the reason for any late filing

The director should also create a written handover protocol. It should state where the company tax email is monitored, who has authority to use the professional space, who may receive an activation code, who controls the bank mandate, who checks the secure mailbox and who takes over when the director or accountant changes. For a foreign group, the protocol should be available in English for internal management while the messages and legal documents sent to the French administration remain accurate and, where needed, translated into French.

A change of director requires a prompt review of the tax space. Update the company’s legal records, check the professional-space holder, remove access that is no longer authorised and provide the new director or accountant with the evidence of the existing services. A change of registered office also affects postal activation, SIE jurisdiction, CFE treatment and the reliability of the company email and mail-forwarding process. Treat these changes as a coordinated corporate, tax and banking project rather than as isolated clicks.

The same applies when a foreign parent sells the subsidiary or appoints a new corporate representative. The beneficial-owner filing, director appointment, bank mandate and tax-space access must tell the same story. If the company has a corporate president, the individual who operates the tax space should be able to show the delegation from the legal representative. If the company uses an accountant, the engagement should state whether the accountant prepares, submits, pays or merely reviews returns.

The legal and practical risk is not the difficulty of typing a SIREN. It is the gap between a registered company and a controlled evidence trail. A foreign director who preserves the registration evidence, activation dates, bank mandate, ownership record, secure messages and tax calendar can explain the company’s actions if a code expires, a payment is rejected or a service is not displayed. That evidence also makes a later handover to a new director, accountant or group finance team much faster.

Conclusion

A French company does not acquire a fully operational professional tax account merely because the INPI filing has produced a Kbis. The foreign director must verify the SIREN and company data, choose the simplified or expert mode according to the person who will manage the services, validate the company email, obtain the postal or electronic activation code, record the bank coordinates and ensure that the SEPA B2B mandate is registered before the first self-assessed payment.

The director should then activate the services that match the company’s actual activity: IS, VAT, CFE, payroll-related taxes, secure messaging and, where appropriate, EDI or EFI reporting. The 72-hour email window, the 48-hour expert-space code, the 60-day postal activation periods and the bank’s mandate-registration step should be placed in a written calendar. If access fails, diagnose the precise stage, preserve the evidence and contact the SIE, tax-portal assistance or accountant without waiting for a deadline to pass.

For a foreign-owned company, the strongest protection is consistency. The Kbis, articles, director appointment, beneficial-owner declaration, bank account, tax space and accountant mandate should identify the same company and the same authorised people. A foreign director can manage a French company remotely, but remote management requires a clear delegation system, a monitored French registered-office address and an evidence file that can be understood by the company, the bank and the French administration.

For a coordinated review of the French company’s registration, tax access, authority chain and first compliance calendar, see the firm’s French company-formation and corporate-law service.

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