France – Company

Introduction to setting up a Company in France

Establishing a subsidiary in France may be preferential to setting up a branch; local clients, suppliers, and government authorities are generally more inclined to do business with a company that is locally incorporated.

A subsidiary is regarded as a limited liability company and as a result it must have its own name – the parent company is advised to organise this before registration. The process of obtaining a name for the subsidiary is free of charge and can be fully completed online.

What are the main requirements for a French Company?

– The minimum share capital required is €1
– The Memorandum & Articles of Association of the subsidiary
– The resolution of the parent company detailing its decision to form the subsidiary
– Certification of the subsidiary’s French bank account

The documents listed above must be filed with the local trade register in order for the subsidiary to be registered.

All required documents must be presented or translated into French by a sworn translator. Notary and apostille are required if the parent company’s domicile country is outside the Hague convention.

What are the accounting requirements of a French Company?

The subsidiary must set up a French bank account in order to deposit the required share capital.

As a French resident company, the subsidiary must announce itself to the French Tax Authorities and comply with the national accounting standards.

All accounts must be kept in French. VAT returns can be submitted monthly or quarterly, depending on the subsidiary’s tax structure, and tax returns annually.

Please contact us in order to discuss your accounting requirements.

Taxes

A summary of French Corporate Taxes is available here.

We will handle every aspect of the Company formation for you. Using our expert knowledge we can offer a company formation package in which we take care of company registration, issue of the certificates of registration, local directors, local representative and place of business in France, tax registration, VAT registration, and translation of documents into French.

Our unique one stop solution for all European formation requirements also offers formation packages to set up multiple companies. The benefits for establishing multiple companies include further increased exposure and global presence, and we can organise everything for you.

A summary of French Corporate Taxes is available here.