FRANCE Law and Practice Contributed by: Anthony Roustan and Cédric Dubucq, Bruzzo Dubucq
Criminal Enforcement The Brigade nationale de répression de la délinquance fiscale (BNRDF) investigates complex fraud cases in co-ordination with Europol and the OECD’s JIT - SIC network. The Parquet National Financier (PNF), established in 2013, prosecutes major financial and tax fraud cases. 6. Penalties and Sanctions 6.1 Tax Penalties Administrative Penalties The administrative penalty framework includes gradu - ated sanctions: • late filing surcharge – 10%; • interest on late payment – 0.20% per month; • bad faith penalty – 40%; and • fraud penalty – 80% for abuse of law or conceal - ment. International Specific Penalties Additional penalties apply to international reporting failures: • EUR100,000 for a missing country-by-country report; • EUR10,000 minimum for deficient transfer pricing documentation; and • EUR1,500 to EUR10,000 per undeclared foreign account, plus proportional penalties up to 80%. An extended ten-year assessment period applies where assets or accounts were held abroad without proper declaration. 6.2 Criminal Penalties Tax fraud carries five years’ imprisonment and a EUR500,000 fine. Aggravated cases involving offshore accounts or shell companies are punished by seven years’ imprisonment and a EUR3 million fine. Money laundering of tax fraud proceeds is an autono - mous offence carrying up to ten years’ imprisonment. Legal persons are also criminally liable, with fines mul - tiplied by five and potential ancillary sanctions, includ -
• DAC6 – requires intermediaries to report cross- border arrangements meeting specified hallmarks; • country-by-country reporting – applies to multi - national groups with revenues exceeding EUR750 million; and • Common Reporting Standard (CRS) – requires financial institutions to report on non-resident account holders.
Individual Disclosure Obligations Taxpayers must separately report on: • foreign bank accounts; • trust holdings; and • foreign insurance contracts.
Non-compliance triggers penalties and extended assessment periods of up to ten years, reflecting France’s emphasis on international tax transparency. 5.5 Role of Tax Authorities and Enforcement Measures Key Authorities The Direction générale des finances publiques (DGFiP) is the primary tax authority. Specialised units include the Direction des vérifications nationales et interna - tionales (DVNI) for large enterprise audits and cross- border matters, and the Direction nationale des enquêtes fiscales (DNEF) for fraud investigations. Audit and Investigation Powers Powers available to the tax authorities include: • desk audits and on-site audits lasting up to one year for large enterprises; and • unannounced “dawn raids” ( perquisitions fiscales ) authorised by judicial order, allowing seizure of documents and electronic data. Tax authorities have access to a variety of data from the other administrations, as well as from banks and, since 2026, from crypto-assets platforms. Tax authorities are allowed to request administrative documents from contractors of the verified taxpayer (providers, clients, banks, etc) in the course of a tax audit.
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