Declare your transfer pricing policy

The thresholds for the transfer pricing documentation obligation and for the transfer pricing policy declaration obligation are different.

• Obligation to have a transfer pricing documentation
  This obligation applies if your company (or your parent company, your subsidiary or a company in the tax consolidation group) has net sales (or total gross assets) of at least €150 million.
  => Article L 13 AA of the livre des Procédures Fiscales
• Obligation to file a transfer pricing declaration (Form 2257-SD) each year
  This obligation applies if your company (or your parent company, your subsidiary or a company in the tax consolidation group) has net sales (or total gross assets) of at least €50 million.
  => Article 223 quinquies B of the Code Général des Impôts

Therefore, companies with a turnover between €50 million and €150 million are not strictly required to have documentation but they must nevertheless declare their transfer pricing policy.

The Form 2257-SD must be sent electronically to the French tax authorities within 6 months following the corporate tax return filing.

For the financial year ending on 31 December 2024, the Form 2257-SD must be sent to the French tax authorities on November 4, 2025 at the latest.  

There is a €150 penalty for failure to declare (article 1729 B of the Code Général des Impôts). In the event of omission or inaccuracy, a fine of €15 per error is applied. The total fine cannot be less than €60 or more than €10,000.
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Although the penalty for non-declaration is low, it is essential to bear in mind that this form gives the tax authorities an overview of your transfer pricing policy. It enables them to quickly assess the nature and volume of intragroup transactions and the countries involved. This form therefore plays a key role in planning tax audits.
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In the age of data mining, failure to declare your transfer pricing policy may arouse suspicion and attract particular attention from the French tax authorities.

The Form 2257-SD must be completed by "legal entities established in France".
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This declaration must be completed by :

• French companies with net sales (or total gross assets) of at least €50 million
  If this threshold is not reached at the level of the French company, it must be reached at the level of the parent company (or a subsidiary or a company in the tax consolidation group).
• Permanent establishments in France (branches) of foreign companies
  The threshold of €50 million in net sales (or total gross assets) must be reached at the level of the permanent establishment (branch) or foreign company.
  

Are exempt from completing this declaration:

• French companies that do not carry out any transactions with foreign entities of the group.
  Domestic transactions are not covered by this declaration.
• Companies whose transactions with foreign entities are less than €100,000 per type of transaction.
  This threshold is identical to that for transfer pricing documentation.
  

Note: for tax consolidation groups, the parent company must file 2257-SD returns for each member company. It must therefore file as many returns as there are companies in the tax group subject to the reporting obligation.
The €100,000 threshold for the amount of transactions to be declared is assessed at the level of each company and not on a consolidated basis.

The Form 2257-SD is a simplified version of the transfer pricing documentation.
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It contains two types of information:

• General information on the group:
  ‍- description of the activities and main assets held by the group and used by the reporting entity
  - presentation of the transfer pricing policy
• Information specific to the reporting entity:
  nature and location of transactions with group companies, aggregate amounts by type of transaction and transfer pricing method used
  

The Form 2257-SD (Cerfa no. 15221), entitled "Annual declaration of transfer pricing policy", can be downloaded from the Direction Générale des Finances Publiques website (www.impots.gouv.fr).

You can also find it among the tax forms offered by the software you use for your tax returns.

Please note: the Form 2257-SD must be completed in French and sent electronically to the French tax authorities.

This obligation was introduced in two stages:

• The law of 6 December 2013
  This is the law to fight against tax fraud and economic and financial crime.
  This law introduced article 223 quinquies B of the Code Général des Impôts, requiring companies subject to the obligation to have transfer pricing documentation to file an annual transfer pricing declaration.
  This applied to companies with net sales (or total gross assets) of at least €400 million (at the level of the company, its parent company, its subsidiary or a company in the tax consolidation group).
• The law of 9 December 2016
  This is the law on transparency and the fight against corruption and the modernisation of economic life.
  This law significantly broadened the scope of companies covered by this reporting obligation, lowering the threshold to €50 million net sales (or total gross assets).

Since the Law of 9 December 2016, there has been a dissociation of the applicable thresholds between the transfer pricing documentation obligation (threshold set at €400 million and lowered to €150 million since 2024) and the obligation to file Form 2257-SD (threshold set at €50 million).

Calling on the services of a lawyer specializing in transfer pricing ensures that Form 2257-SD is correctly completed and complies with your transfer pricing policy and/or documentation.
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This reduces the risk of errors or penalties.