Recent history of French Accounting Regulation: five years of convergence towards IFRS

Since 1999, the French accounting rules have been undergoing many reforms generated by the IFRS. In France, adoption of IFRS standards is mandatory for the accounts published by listed companies, and optionally for consolidated accounts of the non-listed companies. The accounts of French companies must be published in accordance with French standards but the convergence of the French standards and the international standards is in progress. Since 2005, several texts inspired by the IFRS have applied the international standards to all firms. This in-depth reform involves many tax consequences, but the progressive convergence of the individual accounts towards IFRS should not be done at the expense of the accounting and taxation connection. In this paper, we will try to give a progress report on the adoption of international standards and the divergence from French traditional accounting. After having reviewed the organisation of accounting standard setting bodies, we will examine the accounting reform and the impact on tax contingencies by respecting the constraints of IFRS standards. Lastly, we will examine the issue of application of international standards to SMEs and the likelihood of adoption in France.