A statutory auditor, also known as a CAC, acts as a company's legal and external auditor. He or she is responsible for verifying the conformity of all the company's financial data, so that it complies fully with standards.
This control is carried out by means of a legal audit, which is fully governed by current legislation .
Its mission is in the public interest, since the CAC certifies this data to the tax authorities and the French government.
In this article, we will link EURL and the statutory auditor, in order to understand the role of the statutory auditor in this type of legal form.
The appointment of a statutory auditor may be mandatory, depending on the company's legal status , sales and workforce. This procedure takes place at year-end.
EURLs must appoint a statutory auditor if their balance sheet exceeds 4,000,000 euros.
If sales exceed 8,000,000 euros, a CAC is also required. In terms of capacity, an EURL with at least 50 employees will have the same obligation.
In addition to these obligations, a statutory auditor may be appointed at the request of one or more EURL partners . For this appointment to be possible, the partners concerned must represent at least 10% of the company's share capital.
To appoint a statutory auditor properly, it is essential to record this wish in writing, in the form of minutes of the general meeting.
This CAC will be appointed, with at least one alternate, in accordance with specific procedures, to begin his or her duties as from the financial year following that in which the ceilings were exceeded.
The statutory auditor and his or her deputies will be appointed for a renewable period of six years. If theEURL no longer meets the precise criteria for the appointment of a CAC, the latter will still be appointed during this period.
The choice of auditor is in the hands of the EURL partners, and is made via an official list of CACs.
To view this list, simply go to the clerk's office of the commercial court or to the CNCC, the Compagnie Nationale des Commissaires aux Comptes.
It is vital to be extra vigilant at the end of each closing, as heavy penalties can be applied. Indeed, a manager or chairman of an EURL who fails to comply with the mandatory appointment of a statutory auditor may be fined 30,000 euros and/or sentenced to two years' imprisonment.
The procedure involves three distinct stages:
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Obtain a number of documents to be included in the company file: the minutes of the shareholders' meeting appointing the CAC, the letter of acceptance from the incumbent and alternate CACs, proof of registration on the list of CACs, and the M3-A form to be downloaded from the infogreffe website.
- Publishing an announcement in a legal gazette
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Submit your file with all the required documents to the appropriate CFE. On receipt, the CFE will forward the file to the clerk of the commercial court, who will issue you with an amended Kbis extract.
Appointing a CAC involves costs. On average, you will need to factor in 400 euros (incl. VAT) to file the application with the commercial court clerk's office, and to publish the legal announcement. In addition to these costs, the CAC's fees should also be taken into account, up to a total of 2,500 euros excluding VAT for one year's work.
These fees are set freely by the statutory auditor and may, of course, vary.
The EURL thus has its own criteria for CAC obligations, just like any other legal form.
While SARLs, SASs and SNCs must call in a statutory auditor when certain thresholds are exceeded, SAs and SCAs are subject to stricter rules.
In fact, these two types of structure are obliged to appoint a CAC as soon as their company is created, without any threshold conditions.
Make sure you know the maximum limits for your legal structure, otherwise you could be exposing yourself and your company to considerable risk.
Written by our expert Maeva Girardot
February 1, 2018
