Question 7857 — liberal professions

Summary

As part of the action plan for business growth and transformation (PACTE), the Government wishes to reduce the obligations weighing on small businesses, in order to facilitate their development. Among the measures envisaged for this purpose, the raising of certain regulatory and tax thresholds constitutes an important direction for reducing the administrative burdens applicable to them. In this context, the Government plans, in fact, to raise the thresholds for legal certification of accounts by an auditor to the level provided for by European law, that is to say €8 million in turnover, €4 million in balance sheets and 50 employees. An analysis, carried out by the General Inspectorate of Finance, has in fact demonstrated that the relevance of legal audit thresholds lower than those set by European law has not been established, both from the point of view of the quality of small business accounts and their access to financing. The report from the General Inspectorate of Finance also demonstrates that the costs borne by small French companies which are not covered by the European obligation of legal certification of accounts are high (of the order of 600 million euros, or on average €5,511 per year for a company located below the European thresholds). For this reason, it seems relevant, in view of the limited financial issues associated, to make the intervention of an auditor optional in small companies, while 75% of them use in parallel the services of an accountant, who already contributes to the accounting quality in these structures. This approach is in line with the objective set by the Prime Minister, in the circular of July 26, 2017 relating to the control of regulatory flows and their impact, to identify and eliminate over-transpositions of European law into our national law, while a significant number of Member States have set thresholds identical to or higher than those provided for by European law. It is also fully consistent with the Government's guidelines aimed at establishing a new contract with businesses based on restoration of links of mutual trust between the State and economic actors, and thus, a reduction in the weight of controls and increased individual accountability, as evidenced by the creation of a right to make an error, provided for by the bill for a State serving a society of trust. Raising audit thresholds constitutes a challenge for the profession of auditors, implying an in-depth evolution of its activity. In order to study in detail the consequences of this reform and to consider the necessary support measures, the support of a mission chaired by Patrick de Cambourg, president of the Accounting Standards Authority, was requested on the future of the profession. This mission will notably aim to identify new missions, legal or not, that can be entrusted to the auditors; of seek means to strengthen the attractiveness of this profession and enable the maintenance of sufficient territorial coverage of the profession in the territories; to propose assistance measures to professionals most affected by the reform; finally, to formulate proposals aimed at promoting the development of accounting expertise and enriching its support and advisory missions to companies that do not have an auditor. The conclusions of this mission will allow the Government to adopt, by summer 2018, an action plan aimed at supporting the implementation of the increase in audit thresholds.

Machine translation from French. The official text remains authoritative.

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