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Taxation IT Lawyers

Electronic bookkeeping requirements and development by the tax authorities of computer-based auditing methods carry with them obligations with which companies must comply. Economic operators are required to submit their accounting documentation in electronic format, meet requirements for electronic bookkeeping, use management, accounting and point-of-sale software that complies with fiscal regulations, adopt compliant electronic invoicing solutions, and prove for VAT purposes that they fulfil the conditions for raising and retaining invoices (in electronic or hard copy), particularly by putting in place robust audit trails.

There are heavy sanctions for non-compliance with these fiscal IT requirements, and these sanctions are likely to result in your company accounts not being accepted.

Required to reconcile their tax responsibilities with their IT ones, companies are often overwhelmed when confronted with their obligations, the tax authorities’ investigation techniques and the conditions under which computerised tax audits are carried out.

Our specialist taxation IT lawyers are in a position to provide you with advice and guidance in the area of prevention, and will also support you during computerised tax audits and any resulting litigation.

Given the variety of issues at stake, our approach combines the technical skills of our tax IT team with the legal expertise of our specialist lawyers. We also work in close collaboration with your company’s financial decision makers and IT technicians to ensure that any potential problems are identified. Our task is to assess the extent to which your tax IT system complies with the regulations in force for tax audits of computerised accounts and legal archiving; to survey and analyse the tax risks; to implement a realistic and effective action plan to bring your IT system up to standard; to set priorities for completion depending on the seriousness of the risk; to set out an efficient fiscal strategy in the event of a tax audit of your computerised accounts; to conduct a mock tax audit using the same IT tools used by the tax authorities (ACL software) and to make a list of the demands the tax authorities are likely to make if they audit you.

Enjoying a sterling reputation, our team will work alongside and with the support of your regular partners, to provide you with assistance both in terms of preventative audits and with any investigations that the authorities may carry out. We offer practical advice and guidance in all matters requiring the use of IT systems, from preparing and testing the accounting entries file and correcting any errors within it, checking that your electronic invoicing system is compliant and preparing, testing and checking the robustness of your audit trail for VAT purposes, to carrying out the demands for action that are likely to be made in the event of a tax audit of computerised accounts or of initiation of fiscal search and seizure proceedings by the authorities.

 
Frédéric Agez
Frédéric Agez
Associate
France, Neuilly-sur-Seine
Frédéric Agez joined the CMS Francis Lefebvre tax department in January 2015. He is responsible for tax IT matters, particularly concerning accounting entry files, electronic invoicing (EDI, electronic...
Audrey Ladarre
Audrey Ladarre
Associate
France, Neuilly-sur-Seine
Audrey joined the tax department of CMS Francis Lefebvre in 2021. She works in the field of IT taxation, and assists our clients in particular with computerized tax audits (requests for computerized...
Clement Reyrolle
Clement Reyrolle
Associate
France, Neuilly-sur-Seine
Clément Reyrolle joined CMS Francis Lefebvre in 2023. He specializes in tax law, with a particular focus on direct, corporate and personal taxation