You formed a company in France from abroad, received your Kbis company identity certificate, and the business is running. Now the real test begins: paying French corporate tax on time, approving your annual accounts within six months of year-end, filing them with the greffe the clerk’s office of the commercial court, keeping up with VAT returns, and reacting correctly if the tax office sends a reassessment proposal. Miss one of these steps and the consequences arrive fast, even when you live in London, New York, Dubai or Singapore: late-payment interest, formal injunctions from the president of the commercial court with daily penalty payments, and a tax reassessment that becomes final because you answered too late or in the wrong form. This guide gives foreign founders and foreign groups the complete legal calendar of a standard French SAS simplified joint-stock company or SARL limited liability company subject to corporate tax, with the exact statutory deadlines, the calculation method for instalments, the filing chain from approval to publication in the BODACC official gazette of civil and commercial announcements, and the remedies that allow you to contest from abroad. Every decisive rule below is quoted from the statute or decision that states it, with an official link, so you can forward it to your accountant and act without guessing.
I. How Much Corporate Tax Does Your French Company Owe and When Do You Pay It From Abroad?
A. What Is the French Corporate Tax Rate and Base for a Foreign-Owned SAS or SARL?
A French SAS and a French SARL set up by a foreign founder are, as a rule, liable to French corporate tax, known as impôt sur les sociétés and universally abbreviated IS. Article 206 of the French General Tax Code states that “sont passibles de l’impôt sur les sociétés, quel que soit leur objet, les sociétés anonymes, les sociétés en commandite par actions, les sociétés à responsabilité limitée n’ayant pas opté pour le régime fiscal des sociétés de personnes”, which means that public limited companies, partnerships limited by shares, and limited liability companies that have not opted for partnership taxation fall within corporate tax whatever their business purpose. In practice, your SAS set up from abroad is therefore an IS taxpayer from its first financial year, unless you made a specific and time-limited option for a different regime, which most foreign founders do not. The branch alternative, called a succursale, follows different logic, and this article deals only with French companies, meaning subsidiaries with their own legal personality.
The headline rate is simple. Article 219 of the General Tax Code provides that “Le taux normal de l’impôt est fixé à 25 %.” That 25 percent standard rate applies to most foreign-owned SAS and SARL profits. A reduced 15 percent rate exists for small companies whose turnover excluding VAT is below 10 million euros and whose capital is substantially held by individuals, as explained on the official business-tax page of the Ministry of the Economy, but many foreign-owned structures do not meet the ownership condition when a foreign parent company holds the capital, so you should budget at 25 percent and treat the 15 percent rate as a bonus to verify with your accountant rather than a promise. On top of IS, a 3.3 percent social contribution applies when IS exceeds 763,000 euros, a threshold most young subsidiaries never reach, but groups should keep it in mind because the quarterly payment slip, called relevé d’acompte number 2571, collects IS and that contribution together, as the official tax calendar on impots.gouv.fr confirms each September when it calls for payment of the IS instalment and the 3.3 percent social contribution on IS by means of form 2571.
The taxable base is the accounting profit adjusted by tax rules, not turnover. Your French accountant starts from the statutory accounts, called comptes annuels, which comprise the balance sheet, called bilan, the profit and loss account, called compte de résultat, and the notes, called annexe. Article L123-12 of the Commercial Code requires that “Toute personne physique ou morale ayant la qualité de commerçant doit procéder à l’enregistrement comptable des mouvements affectant le patrimoine de son entreprise”, and adds that the trader must check assets and liabilities by inventory at least once every twelve months and draw up annual accounts at year-end. Article L232-1 of the Commercial Code continues that “A la clôture de chaque exercice le conseil d’administration, le directoire ou les gérants dressent l’inventaire, les comptes annuels conformément aux dispositions de la section 2 du chapitre III du titre II du livre Ier et établissent un rapport de gestion écrit.” From abroad, the practical lesson is direct: no credible IS computation exists without closed and inventoried accounts, and any quote for French corporate tax that starts from bank movements alone, without bilan, compte de résultat and annexe, is unreliable. Ask your accountant for the liasse fiscale, the standardized tax return bundle that reconciles accounting profit with taxable profit, and keep it with the filed return, because the tax office will start from it in any audit.
Two frequent misunderstandings deserve a clear answer. First, having no French bank account, no office and no French-resident director does not remove IS liability: a company registered with the National Company Register, called Registre national des entreprises, and identified by its SIREN nine-digit business identifier, is a French taxpayer on its French profits. Second, losses do not disappear. They can generally be carried forward against future profits, which is why filing a return even in a loss-making first year matters: it records the deficit that will reduce next year’s bill. If your group charges management fees, royalties or intercompany prices to the French subsidiary, document them at arm’s length from day one, because transfer-pricing reassessments under the French rules are the most expensive surprise foreign groups face, and they arrive years later with interest.
For readers coming from our general formation guide, this tax and calendar article is the sequel to Setting Up a Company in France as a Foreign Founder: Bank Account, Kbis, VAT and Your First Hire, which covers the creation chain from the INPI Guichet unique single-window filing portal to the Kbis. Once the Kbis is issued, the calendar described below takes over, and it never stops.
B. How Do You Calculate, Declare and Pay Corporate Tax Instalments and the Balance From Abroad?
French corporate tax is paid in five steps: four quarterly instalments during the year, called acomptes, then a final balance, called solde. Article 1668 of the General Tax Code states the rule that “L’impôt sur les sociétés donne lieu au versement, au comptable public compétent, d’acomptes trimestriels déterminés à partir des résultats du dernier exercice clos”, and fixes the rhythm without ambiguity: “Les paiements doivent être effectués au plus tard les 15 mars, 15 juin, 15 septembre et 15 décembre de chaque année.” Each instalment is computed from the IS due on the last closed financial year, at the standard and reduced rates, and newly created companies or companies newly subject to IS are exempt from instalments during their first financial year or first tax period. From abroad, three consequences follow. First, in year one you generally pay nothing until the first balance, which helps cash flow but creates a false sense of lightness: year two brings four instalments plus possibly a balance. Second, the reference is always the last closed year, so a very profitable 2025 mechanically produces heavy March, June, September and December 2026 instalments even if 2026 is weaker, and you must actively manage modulation or suspension of instalments with your accountant rather than simply skipping a payment. Third, every payment is electronic, from a SEPA-compatible account, through your professional tax account on impots.gouv.fr, using form 2571 for instalments and form 2572 for the balance, and the payment must reach the competent public accountant by the 15th, not merely be ordered that day.
The annual declaration has its own deadline. Article 223 of the General Tax Code provides that “Toutefois, la déclaration du bénéfice ou du déficit est faite dans les trois mois de la clôture de l’exercice. Si l’exercice est clos le 31 décembre ou si aucun exercice n’est clos au cours d’une année, la déclaration est à déposer au plus tard le deuxième jour ouvré suivant le 1er mai.” For the standard case of a 31 December year-end, the IS return, with the liasse fiscale and the annexes including dividend schedules, is therefore due at the beginning of May, in practice the second working day after 1 May. Companies with a different year-end file within three months of closing. The official service-public business portal confirms in its English-language IS explainer that payment is made in five steps, four quarterly instalments and one balance, with each instalment paid to the tax office through the standard IS payment circuit described by service-public.fr, and your accountant files the return electronically through the EDI-TDFC channel. Keep the filing acknowledgment, because in a later dispute the date of filing determines interest and penalties.
A concrete example helps. Suppose your SAS closed its first year on 31 December 2025 with 80,000 euros of taxable profit. At 25 percent, IS is 20,000 euros, payable as the balance in 2026 when the 2025 return is filed. For 2026, each quarterly instalment is computed from that 20,000 euros, meaning four payments that together anticipate the 2026 tax, with a final adjustment when the 2026 result is known. If 2026 profit doubles, a balance remains due; if it collapses, the excess instalments generate a repayment claim. Foreign directors often ask whether they can pay from a foreign bank account: yes for the transfer itself if the account is SEPA-reachable, but the payment must be routed through the French electronic tax procedure with the correct reference, and the direct-debit mandate, called mandat de prélèvement, must be valid, otherwise the payment bounces and late interest accrues while you thought you had paid. Calendar discipline beats cleverness here: diary the four 15ths, the May return, and the balance date, with a one-week internal anticipation, because French late-payment interest and the surcharge for late filing apply automatically and compound the cost of a missed email.
If the numbers look wrong, do not stop paying unilaterally. French law allows modulation of instalments when the expected full-year tax will be lower, under conditions and with a margin of error that carries its own surcharge if you underpay by too much. The safe method from abroad is a short written instruction to your accountant six weeks before each 15th: confirm the instalment base, confirm whether modulation is justified with a documented forecast, and confirm that the payment mandate is active. That email chain is also your evidence of good faith if the tax office later questions a delay.
II. What Is the Annual Legal Calendar of Your French Company and What Happens If You Miss a Deadline?
A. How Do You Approve and File Annual Accounts From Abroad Without an Injunction or Fine?
Every year, your French company must approve its accounts and file them, and both steps have statutory deadlines that apply even when all shareholders live abroad. For a SARL, Article L223-26 of the Commercial Code provides that “Le rapport de gestion, l’inventaire et les comptes annuels établis par les gérants, 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.” For a company limited by shares, which includes the SAS most foreign founders choose, Article L225-100 of the Commercial Code states that “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.” With a 31 December year-end, the ordinary general meeting, called assemblée générale ordinaire, must therefore be held before 30 June, and only a court order can extend that period. From abroad, organize the meeting by written consultation or vidéoconférence if your articles, called statuts, allow it, sign minutes, called procès-verbal, and record the allocation of profit, called affectation du résultat, because the filing office will ask for the approval resolution and the allocation resolution.
Courts enforce this six-month rule strictly, including against small companies whose shareholders forgot the meeting. In an order of 3 June 2026, the Strasbourg judicial court, ruling in summary proceedings under case number RG 26/00855, recalled that “Aux termes de l’article L223-26 alinéa 1 du code de commerce, le rapport de gestion, l’inventaire et les comptes annuels établis par les gérants, 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. Si l’assemblée des associés n’a pas été réunie dans ce délai, le ministère public ou toute personne intéressée peut saisir le président du tribunal compétent statuant en référé afin d’enjoindre, le cas échéant sous astreinte, aux gérants de convoquer cette assemblée ou de désigner un mandataire pour y procéder.” The court held that a 40 percent shareholder had standing to seek that injunction and granted the request for a meeting on the 2024 accounts with detailed arrangements in the operative part. See the full text of the Strasbourg order of 3 June 2026, RG 26/00855. The message for a foreign owner is blunt: any interested person, including a minority shareholder, the public prosecutor, or in practice a creditor, can force the meeting through the court, with a daily penalty payment, called astreinte, for delay. Diary late May as your internal deadline and file a court extension request before 30 June if the accounts are not ready, rather than silently passing the date.
After approval comes filing with the greffe. Article L232-23 of the Commercial Code requires that the annual accounts, the management report where applicable, the auditor’s report where one exists, and the allocation proposal and voted allocation resolution be filed with the court clerk for attachment to the Trade and Companies Register, called Registre du commerce et des sociétés and abbreviated RCS, “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”. In plain terms: one month after the meeting on paper, two months if filed electronically, which is now the standard route. The service-public business portal summarizes this filing duty and the competent office on its official page for filing company annual accounts with the greffe, and the filed accounts are then announced in the BODACC, which makes them visible to banks, suppliers and future litigation opponents.
Missing the filing triggers a court injunction with a daily fine, plus Treasury recovery. Article L611-2 II of the Commercial Code provides that “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.” A recent illustration shows how mechanically this works. By order of 16 December 2024, the president of the Manosque commercial court ordered the legal representative of a Manosque company to file its 2023 accounts within one month of notification under a 100-euro-per-day penalty, then liquidated the penalty at 5,200 euros for the period from 21 January to 13 March 2025. On appeal, the Aix-en-Provence Court of Appeal confirmed the mechanism on 21 May 2026 under case number RG 25/04414, recalling that “En application de l’article L.232-23 du code de commerce, 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, ses comptes annuels.” See the full text of the Aix-en-Provence Court of Appeal decision of 21 May 2026, RG 25/04414. The court adjusted only the liquidated amount to reflect the actual filing date of 5 March 2025. For a foreign director, the lesson is that good faith and late filing do not cancel the penalty; only prompt filing stops it, and the liquidated sum is recovered like a Treasury claim.
Your practical filing chain from abroad is therefore: close accounts with your accountant by April, hold the general meeting before 30 June by vidéoconférence or written consultation if allowed, sign and archive the minutes and the allocation resolution, file electronically with the greffe within two months of the meeting, check the BODACC notice, and store the filing receipt, called récépissé de dépôt. If you cannot meet 30 June, instruct French counsel to request a court extension before the deadline, citing the need for foreign documents or auditor work, and keep the order with the company records. Never let accounts drift unfiled for two consecutive years: banks treat missing filings as a credit signal, the court sends injunctions automatically, and a later buyer or investor will discount the company for the compliance gap.
B. How Do You Handle VAT Returns and Contest a Tax Reassessment From Abroad?
VAT, called taxe sur la valeur ajoutee and abbreviated TVA, runs on its own monthly calendar and catches many foreign founders by surprise, because it starts as soon as the company invoices, long before the first IS balance. Article 287 of the General Tax Code states that “Les redevables soumis au régime réel normal d’imposition déposent mensuellement la déclaration visée au 1 indiquant, d’une part, le montant total des opérations réalisées, d’autre part, le détail des opérations taxables”, with VAT payable each month, and quarterly filing allowed when annual VAT due is below 4,000 euros. Companies under the simplified regime file one annual return with two half-yearly instalments. In practice, most operating SAS companies with real activity are on the standard monthly return, called CA3, filed electronically with payment, while small service companies may qualify for simplified filing. Your VAT number, obtained at registration and shown on every invoice with the FR prefix, the SIREN-based identifier and the two check digits, must be validated in the European VIES system for intra-EU sales, and each invoice must show the VAT treatment: French VAT, intra-EU reverse charge, called autoliquidation, or export outside the EU. A foreign director who confuses the VAT calendar with the IS calendar is the classic error: VAT is monthly, IS instalments are quarterly, the IS return is annual in May, and the accounts meeting is before 30 June. Four different clocks, four different forms, one company.
The second half of this section is defensive: what to do when the French tax office questions the company. The procedure almost always starts with a reasoned reassessment proposal, called proposition de rectification. Article L57 of the Tax Procedures Book guarantees that “L’administration adresse au contribuable une proposition de rectification qui doit être motivée de manière à lui permettre de formuler ses observations ou de faire connaître son acceptation.” That single sentence is your shield: the proposal must state the facts, the legal basis and the financial consequences with enough detail that you can usefully reply, and when the office rejects your observations its reply must also be reasoned. Courts review this motivation carefully, though they reject purely formal complaints when the taxpayer demonstrably understood the reassessment. In a judgment of 31 May 2024 under case number RG 22/09086, the Paris judicial court examined a 23 December 2014 proposal page by page, noting that on page 2 it bore the heading registration duties followed by facts, legal reasons and consequences, with a table of departmental tax, collection fee and municipal tax, and held that “Il résulte de l’ensemble des éléments qui précèdent qu’aucune ambiguïté ne pouvait être décelée dans la teneur des taxes et impositions soumises à rappel dans la proposition de rectification du 23 décembre 2022, le grief de l’insuffisance de motivation, infondé, devant être dès lors rejeté”, before rejecting the claim on the merits because the company had bought as a dealer with a four-year resale condition it could not prove it had met. See the full text of the Paris judgment of 31 May 2024, RG 22/09086. The teaching point for a foreign company is precise: challenge motivation only with concrete gaps, such as missing amounts, missing years or missing legal basis, and always pair the formal argument with substantive evidence, because a court that finds you understood the claim will move to the merits and decide there.
Your contest calendar from abroad should be: reply to the proposition de rectification within the stated period, usually 30 days extendable by 30 days on request before expiry, with numbered observations and exhibits; request the departmental review, called recours hiérarchique, and the advisory commission where available; pay or guarantee the sums when a recovery notice, called avis de mise en recouvrement, arrives, while filing a formal claim, called réclamation contentieuse, to stop enforcement within its own deadline; and bring the case before the administrative or judicial court according to the tax, with French counsel and translations of foreign exhibits. Keep every French acronym straight in your file: DGFIP the public finances directorate that audits, SIE the business tax office that manages the file, LPF the Tax Procedures Book that sets the procedure, and CGI the General Tax Code that sets the substance. Store the proposal, your observations, the administration’s reply, the recovery notice and the claim receipts in one chronological bundle, because limitation and admissibility turn on dates, and a director abroad who forwards everything to counsel within 48 hours wins more cases than one who debates the merits for three months and misses the claim deadline.
Two final preventive habits close the calendar. First, reconcile VAT, IS and accounts quarterly with your accountant: the turnover declared on CA3 returns, the turnover in the accounts, and the income in the IS return must tell the same story, since software cross-checks now flag divergences automatically. Second, treat every official letter as triggering a deadline, even when written in dense French: proposition de rectification means 30 days, mise en demeure means pay or contest now, injonction du president du tribunal means one month under daily penalty, convocation en assemblée means act before 30 June. When in doubt, ask for the English courtesy translation but answer on the French original’s deadline, because only the French text binds.
Conclusion
A foreign-owned French company lives by four clocks: quarterly IS instalments on the 15th of March, June, September and December with an annual return at the start of May; a shareholders’ meeting before 30 June and electronic filing with the greffe within two months; monthly or quarterly VAT returns from the first invoice; and a 30-day reply discipline for any reassessment proposal. The statutes set each deadline in plain terms: 25 percent IS under Article 219, instalments from the last closed year under Article 1668, the May return under Article 223, approval within six months under Articles L223-26 and L225-100, filing within one or two months under Article L232-23, monthly VAT detail under Article 287, and a reasoned proposal you can answer under Article L57. Courts apply them without indulgence, as the Aix-en-Provence, Strasbourg and Paris decisions above show: injunctions with daily penalties for missing accounts, forced meetings at a minority shareholder’s request, and motivation review that rewards precise challenges backed by evidence rather than general complaints. Organize your company around these dates with a French accountant and French counsel reachable from abroad, keep the Kbis, SIREN, greffe receipts, BODACC notices, liasse fiscale, CA3 acknowledgments and every tax proposal in one file, and you will turn French formalism from a trap into an asset: a clean calendar that reassures banks, suppliers, investors and the administration. If a deadline has already passed or a reassessment has already arrived, act this week, because in French tax and company procedure, the fastest documented response is usually the cheapest.
Need a quick opinion on your case
You run a French company from abroad and face a corporate tax, accounts filing or reassessment deadline? Our firm offers a consultation by telephone within 48 hours with an attorney of the firm. Call +33 6 46 60 58 22 or reach us through our contact page, and keep your Kbis, the last approved accounts, the IS return and instalment notices, the VAT returns, and any proposition de rectification ready for the call.