What is the anti-fraud law?
Requirement to use certified software and cash register systems from January 2018
If a COMPANY subject to VAT counts “individuals” (i.e. non-VAT-) among its customers, it must use secure and certified accounting, management and/or cash systems software from January 2018.
This new law is part of the government’s new measures to combat fraud.
The Finance Act for 2016 establishes, from January 1, 2018, the requirement for professionals registering regulations to have certified management software, accounting or cash systems. These must present conditions of unalterability, security, retention and archiving of data for all transactions that participate in the formation of the company’s accounting and tax results. And to prove this compliance, it will be necessary to produce either a certificate issued by an accredited organization or an individual certificate from the publisher of the software, or risk being fined by the tax authorities.
In response to the concern expressed by companies about the implementation of this obligation, a press release dated 27 June 2017 from the Minister of Action and Public Accounts Gerald DARMANIN said that easing would be made by way to simplify and refocus the device on software and cash systems alone.
Section 46 of the 2018 Finance Bill under discussion in Parliament amends this scope. From now on, regardless of the qualification of your software, whether it is only a cash system, or accounting or management software, from the moment it allows the registration of sales transactions or services to non-customers. SUBJECT to VAT (individuals), it must comply with the four compliance conditions provided by law (unalterability, security, retention, data archiving) and be certified by a certificate issued by an accredited body or a individual certification from the software publisher. The effective date of the scheme has not been changed and remains set for 1 January 2018.
Situation as of December 1, 2017
What is the scope of the anti-fraud law?
Under the 2018 Finance Bill being discussed in Parliament, persons subject to the value-added tax that makes deliveries of goods and services that do not give rise to a billing in the tax sense, and which records these transactions using software or a cash register system, must use software or a system that meets the conditions of unalterability, security, retention and archiving of data in control of the tax administration.
The scope of the scheme concerns only metropolitan France as well as the DOM (with the exception of Guyana and Mayotte)
(*) Situation as of December 1, 2017
Who is concerned: Individuals or corporations, private or public law who register their clients’ own regulations, including those whose transactions are exempt from VAT or which fall under the deductible scheme in VAT base.
What software is affected: All computerized accounting systems, all business management and cashing systems that record data or information that contributes to the determination of accounting and tax results are concerned. and more generally all cash systems.
How to prove compliance: A certificate issued by an accredited organization or an individual certificate from the software publisher must be presented in accordance with a model set by the administration.
What are the penalties: A fine of 7500 euros, per software concerned. The offender has 60 days to regularize or face the same fine again. The production of a false document is a criminal offence punishable by three years’ imprisonment and a fine of 45,000 euros. Unannounced visitation rights for DGFIP. This monitoring procedure can be implemented from 1 January 2018; unannounced intervention under this procedure may thus take place from that date on
The nature of the conditions to be met
Unalterability condition: The original data on the regulations must be stored in the software and must be non-modifiable.
To comply with the unalterability requirement, the integrity of the data must be guaranteed by any reliable technical process.
Security condition: The accounting or management software or cash register system must secure the original data, the data of the changes recorded and the data allowing the production of the accounting documents.
The data must be secured by any reliable technical process such as the electronic signature of the data to allow this data to be returned to the state of its original record.
Preservation condition: All data must be retained as well as cumulative and summary data for cash systems.
Preservation can be done online or in an archive.
Archive condition: Mandatory archiving at the annual maximum allows data to be frozen and the archived documents to be given a certain date.
Archives can be kept in the system itself or outside the system when there is a purge procedure.
For cash systems, cumulative and summary data must be stored in the system itself.
Sources
Article 88 of the 2016 Finance Act of 29 December 2015
Comments BOI-TVA-DECLA-30-10-30-20160803
Frequent Questions about the Requirement to Use Secure Cash Software – DGFIP, July 28, 2017
Article 289 of the General Tax Code
Article 46 of the Finance Bill for 2018 under discussion in Parliament
Sage version compatibility
Information on 06/12/17 the Finance Bill for 2018 is being adopted in Parliament
Sage integrates these provisions for future versions of its solutions. The certificate of compliance will be available in each solution (forecast date below).
Sage 50c: from 19 December 2017
Sky: for the majority of products, during December 2017
Sage 100c: first half 2018
EP: first half of 2018
Generation Expert: first half of 2018
Line 1000: first half 2018
How do I get my certification from January 2018 in case of unannounced monitoring of my company by the DGFiP?
For subscribers equipped with one or more Sage 50c Sky, Sky Accounting, Sky Commercial Management or Sky Full Management solutions, the certificate is available directly in your software after downloading the December update 2017.
For subscribers equipped with one or more Sage Accountant solutions: GE Accounting Production, Link’up or V8 Accounting Production, the certificate will be sent to them by mail in January 2018.
For subscribers with one or more Sage 30 Online or Sage 100 Online solutions, the certificate will be sent to them by mail in January 2018.
For subscribers with one or more Sage One solutions, the certificate will be sent to them by email in January 2018.
For subscribercustomers equipped with one or more other Sage solutions that have not been shut down, the certificate will be available from January 29, 2018 on their MySage customer space. There is a certificate available by product, be sure to download each certificate for each product.
