Every registered company in France carries a fixed set of legal obligations — annual filings, corporate registers, statutory declarations, and director documentation. Missing any one of them carries real consequences. Our registered Paris Bar lawyers manage your entire compliance calendar, end-to-end, so nothing is ever overlooked.
No sales pitch. Protected by professional secrecy. We respond within one business day.
French law places a continuous series of statutory obligations on every registered company from the moment of incorporation. These obligations do not diminish with company size, ownership structure, or trading activity. They run on fixed deadlines — and every missed deadline carries a legal consequence that falls directly on the company’s directors.
French companies must convene their annual general meeting, approve accounts, and deposit them at the greffe within strictly defined timeframes. We draft every document, manage every vote, and file on your behalf — without exception.
The RBE must be filed at incorporation and updated within 30 days of any change in ownership or control. Non-compliance is a criminal offence under French law. We manage every declaration and update as part of our standard mandate.
Every structural change to your company — address, management, capital, bylaws — triggers a formal legal process. We handle the full sequence: EGA drafting, legal notice publication, and greffe filing, within every applicable deadline.
Corporate compliance in France is a legal discipline. Every document we produce carries the full weight of Paris Bar registration — and every communication between you and our firm is protected by attorney-client privilege.
| Capability | Frenchco | Generic accountant / DIY |
|---|---|---|
| Regulated by Paris Bar / OEC | ✓ | ✕ |
| Minutes & resolutions drafted by a French lawyer | ✓ | Online template |
| Statutory calendar managed proactively (we chase, not you) | ✓ | ✕ |
| RBE filing & 30-day update commitment | ✓ | ✕ |
| Modifications (address, gérant, capital, bylaws) included | ✓ | Billed per act |
| Director-liability protection in case of audit or dispute | ✓ | ✕ |
| Attorney-client privilege on every exchange | ✓ | ✕ |
| Single point of contact for legal, tax & corporate matters | ✓ | ✕ |
Onboarding completes within five to ten business days. From that point, your statutory calendar is live and your obligations are under active management.
We retrieve your Kbis, review your bylaws, examine your RBE status, and audit all prior AGM filings to establish your current legal position and identify any gaps requiring immediate attention.
We build your full 12-month statutory calendar — every deadline, every trigger, every required filing — and share it with you as a live document you can access at any time.
We draft and file every required document as each deadline approaches. AGM convocations, minutes, account deposits, RBE updates, register entries — managed in full without requiring your intervention.
Every quarter, your assigned Paris Bar lawyer reviews any structural changes to your company and converts them into the correct corporate act before any regulatory deadline is reached.
No hourly billing. No unexpected charges. Third-party costs — greffe fees and legal notice publications — are invoiced at cost, transparently and line by line.
Yes. A dormant company registered in France carries the same annual statutory obligations as an active one. The AGM must be held, accounts approved, and the greffe deposit made regardless of whether any commercial activity took place during the year.
French law requires the AGM to be held within six months of the financial year-end. For a calendar-year company that means no later than 30 June. The approved accounts must then be deposited at the greffe within one month of the AGM. We monitor and initiate both milestones well in advance.
The Registre des Bénéficiaires Effectifs identifies every individual with ultimate ownership or control exceeding 25% of the company. It must be updated within 30 days of any change in that structure. Non-compliance is a criminal offence carrying fines and potential imprisonment for the legal representative.
Yes. This is among the most common mandates we handle. We act as your on-the-ground Paris Bar legal contact, managing all local statutory obligations and communicating with you entirely in English, regardless of your location.
French law requires every company to maintain a register of share movements, a register of decisions, and an attendance record. These are inspected by tax authorities, courts, and counterparties during due diligence. We maintain all three as part of our standard mandate.
Yes. Our legal compliance mandate and accounting services are fully compatible and frequently combined under a single brief, giving you one point of contact for all French legal and financial obligations.
We audit your current position on day zero, prioritise outstanding obligations by legal urgency, and complete all regularisation work within ten business days. You are kept informed at every stage.
These are the recurring situations we are engaged to resolve — each of which a proper compliance mandate would have prevented entirely
Decisions are discussed and agreed upon, but no procès-verbal is ever formally drafted or retained. The gap surfaces during a share transfer or financing round when the buyer's legal counsel flags missing documentation as a deal risk.
Shares are transferred to a new investor but the beneficial owner register is never updated. The discrepancy is identified during a subsequent bank or regulatory compliance review, exposing the legal representative to criminal liability.
Repeated late filing of annual accounts establishes a documented pattern of mismanagement. This record is available to creditors, counterparties, and courts, and can be cited directly in liability proceedings against the director.
The company has no properly maintained decision register or attendance record. During a tax audit, the inspector requests the registers as the primary reference for corporate acts taken over the period. Their absence undermines every position the company needs to defend.
Management, address, and capital have all changed since incorporation — but the articles of association still reflect the original position. A notary conducting due diligence on a property acquisition identifies the inconsistency and requires full regularisation before the transaction proceeds.
When the gérant or président faces a personal liability claim, the primary line of defence is a well-maintained file of properly executed corporate minutes. Without it, there is no contemporaneous record of the decisions taken and the basis on which they were made.
I was initially worried about the legal complexities of setting up a business in France, but the team at FrenchCo was exceptional. Their professional and approachable experts made the process straightforward and fast. From start to finish, we were well taken care of, and our company was officially registered in five days. Highly recommend their services for anyone looking to start a business in France!
Starting a business in a foreign country seemed daunting, but the team at FrenchCo made the entire process seamless. Their registered lawyers and accountants guided us every step of the way, from the paperwork to the final company registration. Thanks to their expert advice, we had our company set up in just five days. We couldn’t have asked for a smoother experience!
Request a free compliance review with one of our registered Paris Bar lawyers. We assess your statutory position and identify any outstanding obligations at no cost and with no commitment.
