The United States hasn’t been yet included in the French Ministerial Order consisting of the list of states for CbCR purposes. Discussions on the authority agreement between France and USA are still going on, which has a bit of suspense running whether the French entities of a US group have to file a CbC report in France.

Because of this, the OECD has provided some guidelines for the issues starting from 1st January 2016 encouraging the States on which local filing obligations exist for fiscal years for countries like US. In pursuit to OECD, a statement has been released on 4th December 2017 that these types of entities whose UPE is not located in a state will be relieved from any CbCR filling requirements starting from January 1st 2016 only if the following conditions are satisfied:

• The UPE voluntarily files a CbC report in its State of residence for the respective fiscal year.
• This CbC report complies with the requirements set out by the OECD.
• The local tax authorities of the State in which the UPE is located provide the French tax authorities with this CbC report.

According to information provided by the French Tax Authority verbally, the exchange of CbC reports should be possible on the basis of France-US Tax Treaty where it contains a provision of exchange. However, France may not penalize French entities of US Groups regarding CbC requirements if they satisfy at least one of the following conditions:

• The US UPE designates a surrogate parent entity (SPE) to file CbCR, and this SPE is located in a State that has signed the automatic exchange of information agreement with France.
• The US group decides to also file a CbC report in France.

The first condition however will still require the French entity to notify the name and location of the SPE on its French Tax Return and the second condition would require them to file a CbC report that are in good terms with the relevant French Standard as defined by the law.