FRANCE Law and Practice Contributed by: Anthony Roustan and Cédric Dubucq, Bruzzo Dubucq
ing publication of conviction and exclusion from pub - lic procurement. 6.3 Interaction Between Tax and Criminal Procedures Automatic Referral Mechanism Before 2018, tax authorities had to submit the case to a specific commission (the Commission des Infrac- tions Fiscales ) in order to be allowed to refer a tax fraud to the prosecutor. It was not mandatory for the tax authorities to refer a tax fraud. Since 2018, a reform introduced mandatory automatic referral to the public prosecutor when administrative penalties exceed certain thresholds. Specifically, referral is triggered when a 100% penalty is applied on a base exceeding EUR100,000 or an 80% penalty on a base exceeding EUR200,000. The PNF may also initiate proceedings independently. Automatic referral also applies when a penalty of 40% is applied for the second time to a taxpayer, provid - ed that the first penalty applied on a base of at least EUR100,000. Current debates in parliament are discussing the pos - sibility of reducing these thresholds and removing the Commission des Infractions Fiscales , to simplify the process of referral for smaller offences. Co-Ordination The Commission des Infractions Fiscales reviews referrals from the tax administration. Tax audits and criminal investigations may run in parallel, with the tax administration authorised to share information with judicial authorities. Taxpayers must carefully manage their rights across both proceedings simultaneously. 7. Administrative Co-Operation 7.1 Legal Framework for Administrative Co- Operation France’s international co-operation framework in tax matters rests on multiple legal instruments: • the OECD Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance (ratified 2004);
• the EU DAC directives (DAC1 through DAC8), progressively expanding automatic exchange to financial accounts, tax rulings, country-by-country reports, cross-border arrangements, digital plat - forms and crypto-assets; • bilateral treaty exchange-of-information clauses, modelled on the OECD Model; • numerous Tax Information Exchange Agreements (TIEAs); and • the EU Recovery Directive for mutual assistance in tax claim collection. This multi-layered framework makes France one of the most active jurisdictions in international tax co- operation. 7.2 Exchange of Information Clauses in Tax Agreements Automatic Exchange France participates in automatic, spontaneous and on- request exchange of information. Automatic exchange under the CRS covers financial account data with over 100 jurisdictions. France also exchanges country-by- country report data, tax ruling information and report - able arrangement data automatically. Crypto-Asset Reporting France has committed to the OECD Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework (CARF) and EU DAC8, intro - ducing automatic exchange on crypto-asset transac - tions from 2026. France consistently receives posi - tive OECD Global Forum peer reviews on exchange effectiveness. 7.3 Other Forms of International Tax Collaboration France participates in the OECD’s International Com - pliance Assurance Programme (ICAP) for multilateral transfer pricing risk assessments. Joint tax audits are conducted under the Multilateral Convention and the EU joint audit framework introduced by DAC7. France is a founding member of JITSIC, which facili - tates real-time intelligence sharing against aggressive tax planning schemes. It also participates in the EU Fiscalis programme, supporting inter-administration co-operation and capacity building.
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