France requires most commercial entities to deposit annual accounts with the Registre du commerce et des sociétés (RCS). Those deposited accounts are public documents. They establish what a company declared — revenue, liabilities, equity, and the identity of the signing officer. They do not establish what a company concealed.
Control over a French entity is readable, in part, from filed financials. The signing director, the statutory auditor's identity, and the equity structure appear in the deposited dossier. What the dossier cannot show is whether the declared figures reflect actual economic activity or whether a parallel structure sits above the filing entity.
What the source showsAnnual accounts as deposited with the greffe: balance sheet, income statement, notes annexes, and the identity of the signatory director. Source: Registre du commerce et des sociétés (RCS) · verified 2026-09-01 Access conditionPublic access without registration through Infogreffe and data.inpi.fr. Certified copies carry a greffe fee set by ministerial order; the tariff is published by each greffe and by Infogreffe. Source: RCS · verified 2026-09-01 Filing obligationSA, SAS, SARL, SNC, and branches of foreign companies are subject to mandatory deposit. Micro-enterprises may elect confidentiality under Article L. 232-25 of the Code de commerce. Source: Code de commerce · verified 2026-09-01 What the source does not showBeneficial ownership beyond the declared gérant or président. Intra-group transfer pricing. Off-balance-sheet commitments not disclosed in the notes. Source: RCS · verified 2026-09-01This register is public and free of charge for basic consultation. What a requesting party pays for is the removed path: locating the correct SIREN identifier, navigating the greffe interface in French, obtaining a certified copy with an electronic signature accepted in cross-border proceedings, and interpreting the filing within the context of 35 parallel jurisdictions.
The deposited dossier at the RCS consists of documents submitted by the company's legal representative each financial year. The core documents are the bilan (balance sheet), the compte de résultat (income statement), and the annexe (notes to the accounts).
For SA and SAS entities above statutory thresholds, the statutory auditor's report (rapport du commissaire aux comptes) is included in the deposit. That report states whether the accounts give a true and fair view and flags any going-concern reservations. Its presence or absence is itself a control signal.
The dossier also records the identity of the signatory — the person who certified the accounts to the greffe. In a multi-layer structure, that person may be a nominee director. The filing identifies the declared signatory; it does not identify the economic principal behind that person.
BODACC (Bulletin officiel des annonces civiles et commerciales) publishes notices of deposit, including notices of failure to deposit. A missing deposit notice on BODACC is a separate data point from the absence of a document in the RCS file.
Source: Registre du commerce et des sociétés (RCS) / Infogreffe / BODACC · verified 2026-09-01
The filed accounts carry several indicators relevant to a control analysis.
The equity section shows whether the entity is in a state of capitaux propres inférieurs à la moitié du capital social — a statutory threshold under Article L. 223-42 and L. 225-248 of the Code de commerce. Breach of that threshold triggers a mandatory convening of shareholders. Whether that convening occurred is recorded in the greffe's separate deliberations file, not in the financial deposit.
The notes annexes, when complete, disclose related-party transactions, guarantees given, and off-balance-sheet commitments. Disclosure quality varies. A SAS with a single associé and a simplified presentation may file accounts that satisfy the legal minimum while disclosing almost nothing about the economic relationships that govern the entity.
The statutory auditor's identity, when present, is a cross-reference point. The same audit firm appearing across multiple entities in a structure is a pattern the filing layer makes visible.
Source: Code de commerce, Articles L. 223-42, L. 225-248 / RCS · verified 2026-09-01
Not every French entity files publicly accessible accounts. The confidentiality regime under Article L. 232-25 of the Code de commerce allows micro-enterprises — entities below two of three thresholds (balance sheet total, net turnover, average headcount) — to elect full confidentiality of their income statement. The balance sheet remains accessible to authorities but not to the general public.
Small companies (petites entreprises) may elect confidentiality of the income statement while keeping the balance sheet public. Medium and large companies have no confidentiality election available.
The practical consequence: an entity structured to remain below the micro-enterprise thresholds may file accounts that are legally compliant and publicly invisible. The absence of a public income statement is not an anomaly; it is a permitted election. Establishing which election was made requires examining the deposit record, not the absence of a document.
Source: Code de commerce, Article L. 232-25 / data.inpi.fr · verified 2026-09-01
The RCS financial deposit shows what the company declared. It does not show what the company omitted.
The ceiling of what the sources allow is stated before payment. Specifically:
The filing identifies the declared gérant, président, or directeur général. It does not identify the beneficial owner of the shares held by a holding company above the filing entity. That layer requires a separate ownership extract from the RCS or, where applicable, a request to the Registre des bénéficiaires effectifs (RBE). Access to the RBE for third parties was restricted following CJEU case law on beneficial ownership registers; the current access conditions require verification before any RBE-based claim is made.
The filing shows the statutory auditor's conclusion. It does not show the working papers, the management letter, or any reservations communicated privately to the board.
The filing shows the balance sheet date figures. It does not show intra-year movements, dividend distributions made after year-end, or asset transfers completed before the balance sheet date and not separately disclosed.
A negative result in the BODACC insolvency notices does not guarantee the absence of a filed petition. Proceedings initiated after the last BODACC update are not reflected until the next publication cycle.
The filing language is French. Certified translations for use in foreign proceedings are outside the scope of the extract itself.
Two sources may return different figures for the same entity and the same year. Infogreffe retrieves documents from the greffe's own file. data.inpi.fr (INPI) retrieves from the national deposit. Where a document was filed with the greffe but not yet propagated to INPI, the two sources diverge.
A more significant divergence occurs when the BODACC deposit notice shows a filing date that does not match the document date on the retrieved PDF. Late deposits are common. The gap between the financial year-end and the deposit date is itself a data point: a company that consistently deposits accounts eleven months after year-end is operating at the outer edge of the legal deadline.
Where the statutory auditor's report references a figure that differs from the balance sheet total in the same dossier, that discrepancy is recorded in the extract and flagged in the analysis layer of the Standard and Extended tiers.
Source: Infogreffe / data.inpi.fr (INPI) / BODACC · verified 2026-09-01
| Tier | Price | What is included | Not included |
|---|---|---|---|
| Signal | €440 | Retrieval of the most recent deposited annual accounts from RCS/Infogreffe; identification of filing entity by SIREN; confirmation of confidentiality election status; BODACC deposit notice check; summary of key balance sheet figures; identification of signatory director | Statutory auditor's report analysis; multi-year trend; cross-reference to ownership layer; translation |
| Standard | €890 | All Signal content; three-year filing history; statutory auditor's report (where filed) with reservation flags; BODACC insolvency notice check; identification of related-party disclosures in the annexe; control signals summary (equity threshold status, audit presence, filing regularity) | Beneficial ownership layer; intra-group structure mapping; certified translation for foreign proceedings |
| Extended | €1,800 | All Standard content; five-year filing history; cross-reference of signatory director against RCS ownership extract; BODACC cross-check across related SIREN numbers where identifiable; discrepancy log between Infogreffe and INPI sources; annotated extract suitable for use in due diligence documentation | Legal qualification of findings; representation in proceedings; certified translation; RBE access (subject to current access conditions) |
Does a French company have to file financial statements publicly? Most commercial entities — SA, SAS, SARL, SNC, and foreign branches — are subject to mandatory deposit with the RCS. Micro-enterprises may elect full confidentiality of their income statement. Small companies may elect confidentiality of the income statement while keeping the balance sheet accessible. The election status is itself retrievable from the deposit record.
How recent are the filed accounts available through Infogreffe? The most recent deposit corresponds to the last financial year for which the company met its filing deadline. For a December year-end, the deposit deadline falls in the following year. Accounts for the most recently completed financial year may not yet be deposited at the time of the request. The Signal tier confirms the date of the most recent available filing before the full extract is produced.
What is the difference between Infogreffe and data.inpi.fr? Infogreffe is the platform operated by the network of greffes des tribunaux de commerce. data.inpi.fr is the national platform operated by INPI, which receives deposits from the greffes. Both carry the same underlying documents, but propagation timing differs. Where the two sources diverge, the discrepancy is noted in the extract.
Can the filed accounts identify the beneficial owner of a French company? Filed financial accounts identify the declared signatory and, in some cases, the majority shareholder where disclosure is required in the annexe. They do not identify beneficial owners in the sense of the anti-money-laundering framework. The Registre des bénéficiaires effectifs (RBE) is a separate source; its current access conditions for third parties require verification before use.
What does the statutory auditor's report add? For entities above the statutory audit threshold, the commissaire aux comptes issues a report stating whether the accounts give a true and fair view. Reservations, emphasis of matter paragraphs, and going-concern qualifications appear in that report. Its presence in the dossier is confirmed at the Signal tier; its content is analysed at Standard and Extended.
How long does retrieval take? Standard retrieval from Infogreffe or INPI for a single entity is a matter of hours once the SIREN is confirmed. The analysis layer — cross-referencing, discrepancy logging, control signals summary — adds one to three working days depending on the tier and the complexity of the filing history.
Disclaimer: This report is a factual compilation from official registers and public sources. It is provided for informational purposes only, does not constitute legal advice, and contains no legal qualification of the facts established. VLO Law Firm assumes no liability for actions taken or not taken based on this material. For advice regarding your particular situation, please contact info@vlolawfirm.com.
Author: Elena Moretti — Partner, Continental Europe, VLO Law Firm