On February 2, 2017, France published Form No. 2258-SD for country-by-country (CbC) reporting purposes. See BEPS Action 13. The form should be e-filed with the French tax authorities, with all information in English, within 12 months following the end of each financial year. The form adheres to the OECD CbC reporting template included in Annex III of the BEPS Action 13 final report.
On October 1, 2016, France published Decree No. 2016-1288 in the official gazette to implement the CbC reporting requirements introduced in the 2016 Finance Act, found in Article 223 quinquiesC of the Tax Code. The requirement to file the CbC report applies for fiscal years beginning on or after January 1, 2016. The form must be filed within 12 months following the end of a financial year.
The following companies are required to file the CbC report (see section 223d C):
- French groups with annual consolidated turnover before tax of at least €750 million that hold or control, directly or indirectly, companies or branches outside France and are not held by French companies (and already submitted the statement) or foreign companies (and required to file a similar statement under foreign law).
- French companies, owned or controlled, directly or indirectly, by a foreign entity if designated by the group for this purpose, or cannot demonstrate that another French or foreign entity has been designated for this purpose.
On January 27, 2016, France was among 31 countries that signed the OECD Multilateral Competent Authority Agreement for the automatic exchange of CbC reports (“CbC MCAA”). Under the CbC MCAA, signatories may exchange CbC reports with other signatories if they have CbC reporting requirements in place and are a party to the OECD Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters.
Among other things, the CbC MCAA provides that CbC report information will be used to assess high-level transfer pricing and other BEPS-related risks, but not as a substitute for a detailed transfer pricing analysis of individual transactions and prices based on a full functional and comparability analysis. The information may be used as a basis for further inquiry into the multinational’s transfer pricing arrangements in the course of a tax audit. If an adjustment resulting from further inquiries based on the CbC report leads to undesirable economic outcomes, the tax authorities of the jurisdictions of residence of the affected entities must consult each other in attempting to resolve the case.
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