French corporate tax filing: how to cut your accountant bill by 80%
Most of your accountant's bill isn't about tax expertise — it's data cleanup. Here's how to take control and slash your costs by five.
The hidden cost of French tax filing
For any corporation subject to French corporate tax — whether it's a property-holding SCI, a SAS, or a SARL — the annual tax filing (known as "liasse fiscale") is both mandatory and expensive.
Consider a typical case: a property investor running an SCI with three rental properties. Their annual accountant bill might look something like €2,600 — monthly bookkeeping at €150, tax form preparation at €600, and corporate tax return at €200.
That's a significant sum. But what's more revealing is what you're actually paying for.
What your accountant really does
When you break down the time a chartered accountant spends on a typical file, a striking pattern emerges: roughly 90% of the work is data organization. Sorting bank statements, categorizing expenses, reconciling entries. The core expertise — tax strategy, legal validation, advisory — represents only a fraction of the billable hours.
In other words, you're paying a professional who charges €80-120 per hour to do work that could be done at €15-20 per hour.
Taking control of the preparation
The goal isn't to eliminate your accountant. It's to transform their role: instead of handing them a mess to sort through, deliver clean data that only needs validation.
Here's what the new workflow looks like:
Year-round, income and expenses are recorded as they occur — ideally through automatic bank synchronization. Each transaction is categorized according to French accounting standards.
In December, an automated export generates the key documents: balance sheet, income statement, cash flow table, and the tax filing forms themselves (form 2065 for SCI, 2033 for SAS/SARL).
In January, these pre-filled documents go to the accountant. Their work drops from 10 hours of processing to 2 hours of review.
The financial impact
The numbers speak for themselves:
| Item | Before | After |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly bookkeeping | €1,800/year | €0 (self-managed) |
| Tax filing prep | €600 | €300 (review only) |
| Corporate return | €200 | Included |
| Management tool | — | €264/year |
| Total | €2,600 | €564 |
That's €2,036 saved per year, with zero additional tax risk.
Important limitations
This approach doesn't replace accounting expertise. Your accountant remains essential for legal validation, tax optimization advice, official filing, and professional liability coverage.
What changes is the nature of their involvement: it shifts from full-service management to a focused review engagement. And that's precisely what makes the cost reduction so dramatic.
Who should consider this approach?
This model works particularly well for small to medium structures: SCIs with fewer than 10 properties, SAS/SARL with revenue under €100,000. Beyond that, operational complexity often justifies more comprehensive accounting support.
For eligible structures, however, the math is clear: preparing your own data with the right tools isn't just about savings. It's also a way to better understand your own finances — which, in itself, is immensely valuable.