An overseas founder may have a French company ready to deliver its first service to a German, Italian, Spanish or Belgian customer while the French VAT identification number is still being activated. The company may have a SIREN, SIRET, Kbis and a signed contract, but the customer’s procurement department is asking for a French VAT number before approving the invoice. The delay often sits between the Guichet unique, the French one-stop business formalities portal, the INPI (Institut national de la propriété industrielle, the French National Institute of Industrial Property) and the SIE (Service des impôts des entreprises, the French corporate tax office).
For a general business-to-business service, the answer can be yes: the French company may have to invoice without French VAT because the place of supply is the customer’s member state and the customer accounts for the tax under the reverse-charge mechanism. But the result does not flow automatically from the fact that the French number is pending. The company must identify the actual supplier, prove that the customer is a taxable business, classify the service, verify the customer’s VAT number through VIES, and preserve a file explaining why the invoice is issued hors taxes (HT, before tax).
This article addresses a French SAS (société par actions simplifiée, a simplified joint-stock company), a SARL (société à responsabilité limitée, a limited-liability company), or a French establishment of a foreign company supplying an EU business customer. It separates the tax answer from the document and reporting problem. A Kbis is the official extract issued from the French trade and companies register by the greffe, the registry office; it is not a VAT certificate. A pending identifier must never be replaced by a guessed number, a parent company’s number or the founder’s personal tax details.
I. Can a French company with a pending VAT number invoice an EU business customer under reverse charge?
A. Why the customer’s VAT status and place of supply matter
The first question is not whether the French VAT number has appeared in the tax administration’s database. It is which legal entity supplied what service to which customer. A French subsidiary that signed the consultancy agreement must invoice in its own name. A foreign parent that supplied the service directly must not use the French subsidiary’s Kbis merely because the subsidiary is easier for the customer to onboard. A branch, or succursale, is not a separate legal person from its foreign company even though it may have a French establishment record. The contract, invoice, bank receipt and accounting entry should identify the same supplier.
The second question is whether the customer is acting as a taxable person for the purchased service. In practical terms, the founder should obtain the customer’s full legal name, registered address, member state, local VAT number and confirmation that the service is bought for the customer’s economic activity. A corporate logo or a website is not enough. The relevant evidence is the customer’s legal and tax identity, together with the contract and the nature of the service.
The European Commission’s VIES (VAT Information Exchange System) service is the normal starting point for checking a VAT number issued by another EU member state: VIES VAT number validation. The founder should save the validation result, the date and time, the country selected, the number entered and, where the system does not produce a downloadable certificate, a dated screenshot or internal validation record. A result marked invalid may mean that the number is wrong, not activated for intra-EU transactions, temporarily unavailable, or not authorised for the relevant database. It is a warning requiring follow-up, not proof that the customer is a consumer.
The general place-of-supply rule for business-to-business services is in Article 259 of the French General Tax Code. It places a service in France in particular when the taxable customer has its economic establishment in France, subject to the statutory rules and exceptions. When a French company supplies a general service to a taxable customer whose economic establishment is in another EU member state, the service will ordinarily be located in the customer’s state. French VAT is then not collected as if the transaction were a domestic French sale. The customer accounts for the VAT in its own state under the reverse charge.
The wording “general service” matters. Advice, software development, marketing, design, translation, management support and many other professional services can fall under the general B2B rule, but the founder should not assume that every service does. Services connected with French real estate, admission to an event, passenger transport, restaurant and catering, short-term vehicle hire, and certain cultural or electronically supplied services can have special territorial rules. If the service is physically connected with an identified French property or event, the customer’s VAT number does not automatically move the place of supply to the customer’s country.
The tax-liability rule must also be read. Article 283 of the General Tax Code provides the rules under which VAT is paid by the person carrying out the taxable transaction and the cases in which the recipient becomes liable. Its opening principle is expressed in the official text as: “La taxe sur la valeur ajoutée doit être acquittée par les personnes qui réalisent les opérations imposables”. The reverse charge is therefore a legal allocation of the tax obligation. It is not a commercial discount and it does not mean that the transaction is outside all tax reporting.
The French company should test the following sequence before choosing the words on the invoice:
- Is the supplier the French company, the foreign parent or a branch?
- Is the customer a business acting as a taxable person, rather than a private consumer?
- Is the customer’s economic establishment in another EU member state, and is its VAT number valid or adequately evidenced?
- Is the service covered by the general B2B rule or by a special place-of-supply rule?
- Is the French company under the ordinary VAT regime, the franchise in base, an exemption, or an option affecting its obligations?
The customer’s country also matters. The ordinary EU reverse-charge analysis is not the same as a supply to a United Kingdom, United States or Swiss company after the customer’s country has left the EU VAT territory. A non-EU business may still be a taxable person and the place-of-supply result may still be outside France, but the invoice wording, evidence and reporting may differ. A French company should not copy an “EU reverse charge” template onto a United Kingdom invoice without checking the applicable rule.
The franchise in base must be separated from the reverse charge. Article 293 B of the General Tax Code provides a regime that can dispense a qualifying business from paying VAT while the statutory conditions and turnover thresholds are met. A business using the franchise may need the wording “TVA non applicable, article 293 B du CGI”, where CGI means Code général des impôts, the French General Tax Code. That wording does not mean “the VAT number is pending”. A company must not use the franchise wording merely to avoid dealing with an activation delay, and it must not combine incompatible tax references on the same invoice.
Goods require a separate analysis. Article 262 ter of the General Tax Code links exemption of qualifying intra-EU deliveries to conditions including transport to another member state and the purchaser’s VAT identification. In its commercial chamber judgment of 10 February 2015, appeal no. 12-28.770, the Court of Cassation stated: “qu’un assujetti à la TVA disposant de justificatifs de l’expédition de biens à destination d’un autre Etat membre et du numéro d’identification à la TVA de l’acquéreur est présumé avoir effectué une livraison intra-communautaire exonérée,”. The verified decision is available on Cour de cassation, appeal no. 12-28.770. A service invoice cannot borrow the evidential logic of a goods shipment, and a goods seller cannot rely on a service template.
The case law must be used within its facts. The 2015 judgment supports the importance of transport documents and the buyer’s VAT identification for goods; it does not create a universal rule that every EU customer automatically receives a VAT-free invoice. The safest file treats the customer’s VAT validation, contract, deliverable and place-of-supply analysis as separate pieces of evidence.
The existing Service Public guidance on services within the European Union confirms the practical distinction between a sale to or purchase from an EU business, the customer’s VAT status, the HT invoice and the mandatory “autoliquidation” wording when the customer must account for the tax. It is useful for a foreign founder because it presents the operational rule in a way that a procurement team and an accountant can both follow. The official impots.gouv.fr guidance on an EU business should be checked alongside the Code when the supplier is not yet fully identified in the tax systems.
B. What must the invoice say when the French VAT number is pending?
The invoice remains a real legal document even when an identifier is delayed. Article 289 of the General Tax Code requires a taxable person to ensure that an invoice is issued for relevant supplies to another taxable person or a non-taxable legal person, including specified advances. The same article states that an invoice is, in principle, issued when the supply or service is performed and that a document modifying the initial invoice must refer to it specifically and unambiguously. A company cannot solve an activation delay by calling a completed service “pro forma” and leaving the customer without a proper accounting document.
Professional invoicing also has a commercial-law foundation. Article L441-9 of the French Commercial Code begins: “Tout achat de produits ou toute prestation de service pour une activité professionnelle fait l’objet d’une facturation.” That sentence means that a professional purchase or service must be invoiced. The obligation does not disappear because the parties are in different member states or because the supplier is waiting for a tax-office confirmation.
The document should first identify the supplier accurately. It should show the French legal name, legal form, registered office, share capital where the applicable invoice rules require it, SIREN and SIRET where available, invoice number, issue date, service date or period, customer identity, description, quantity or unit, price, currency, payment date and late-payment terms. SIREN is the nine-digit identifier of the legal entity; SIRET is the fourteen-digit identifier of the entity and a particular establishment. A Kbis is evidence of the company’s registration data, not a substitute for a VAT identification number.
If the SIRET is still being allocated, the company should use the official factual wording accepted for a pending establishment identifier, such as “Siret en cours d’attribution”, only when that is the actual situation. If the SIRET exists but the French VAT number has not been activated, the invoice should not describe the SIRET as a VAT number. A French VAT identifier normally contains the country code, control characters and the SIREN. The company should never invent the control characters or display the parent company’s number as its own.
For the tax line, a general B2B service to a taxable EU customer will normally be shown HT with the French wording “Autoliquidation”, meaning that the customer declares and pays the VAT in its own member state. The invoice should include the customer’s verified VAT number and the supplier’s French VAT number when the applicable rules and the company’s status require it. Where the supplier’s number is genuinely pending, the founder should obtain a written position from the SIE and document the activation request rather than assuming that the customer’s VAT number cures every missing field.
This is the central practical distinction: a pending French VAT number may coexist with a transaction that is not subject to French VAT, but it does not make the invoice requirements disappear. A foreign founder should not write “VAT exempt because the number is pending”. The correct explanation is more precise: the service is located under the B2B territoriality rule, the recipient is liable under the reverse charge, and the company’s own identification and reporting file is being completed.
Article 242 nonies A of Annex II to the General Tax Code lists mandatory invoice information, including the supplier’s individual VAT identification number, the customer’s VAT number in specified intra-EU operations and the “Autoliquidation” indication when the customer is liable for the tax. A procurement portal may reject an invoice that is legally understandable but technically incomplete. The founder should therefore address the customer’s request before the service date where possible, obtain the customer’s written acceptance of the pending status, and keep the exchange with the invoice file.
The amount of VAT should not be added as a precaution. If the tax is due from the customer under reverse charge, a French VAT amount on the invoice can create a correction problem and may expose the issuer to the rule that tax mentioned on an invoice can become payable. In its commercial chamber judgment of 25 March 2020, appeal no. 18-19.355, the Court of Cassation explained: “que la taxe sur la valeur ajoutée (TVA) est acquittée par la personne qui effectue l’opération imposable et que c’est le professionnel qui la facture qui en est redevable ;”. The verified judgment is available at Cour de cassation, appeal no. 18-19.355. The decision concerned the transmission of a receivable, so it should not be stretched beyond its facts; it nevertheless shows why an invoice must not carry a tax line chosen as an administrative placeholder.
The invoice should also distinguish an ordinary invoice from a credit note or corrective document. When the French VAT number becomes active, the company should not delete the first invoice and create an unexplained replacement. Article 289 treats a document that modifies the initial invoice and refers to it specifically and unambiguously as an invoice. The correction should identify the original number and date, state whether the change concerns the supplier identifier, customer identifier, tax wording or amount, and preserve the original and corrected documents together.
The timing of payment can change the analysis. Article 269 of the General Tax Code separates the taxable event from the moment when VAT becomes payable and contains rules for advances and services, including the option for payment on debits. A customer’s advance received while the French VAT number is pending cannot be ignored. The company should record the contract, the advance, the service date, the invoice and the tax position in the period required by the applicable rule.
II. What should a foreign founder do before filing and after activation?
A. Which evidence and declarations protect the French company?
The first protection is a written pre-invoice classification memorandum. It does not need to be a long opinion, but it should answer the questions that a French tax auditor, a customer’s finance team or a bank will later ask. Identify the supplier, customer, service, delivery period, customer establishment, customer VAT number, VIES result, applicable place-of-supply rule, reason for reverse charge, wording placed on the invoice, reporting route and person responsible for correcting the file after activation.
The second protection is an activation file for the SIE. The request should contain the French legal name, SIREN, registered office, Kbis if available, business activity, expected turnover, first service date, EU countries targeted, customer identities, customer VAT numbers, contracts, expected invoicing pattern and the reason the French VAT number is needed. The founder should state whether the company is asking for ordinary identification, an option, a retroactive effective date or clarification of the franchise in base. Messages sent through the tax administration’s secure channel and the replies should be exported or stored with dates.
The third protection is customer evidence. Ask the EU customer to provide its legal name exactly as it appears in its VAT records, its full address, member state, VAT number, purchasing entity and confirmation that the service is acquired for its business. If the customer uses a group procurement company, identify the entity receiving the service rather than relying on the brand that signed the email. A customer number that belongs to a different group company can undermine the reverse-charge analysis.
The fourth protection is proof of the service itself. Keep the signed agreement, purchase order, statement of work, delivery emails, meeting records, software access logs, reports, acceptance messages, timesheets and payment record. The evidence should show that the French company performed the service, not merely that the parent company had a group relationship with the customer. A French founder managing from abroad should also identify who approved the work and where the French company’s personnel, contractors and systems were located.
The fifth protection is the reporting calendar. Article 287 of the General Tax Code requires a VAT debtor identified under the relevant provisions to submit a VAT return. A reverse-charged EU service may produce no French output VAT to collect, but the transaction can still need to be included in the French VAT return and in a European Services Declaration, known in France as the DES (déclaration européenne de services). The founder should use the current declaration instructions and deadline displayed by the French customs administration rather than relying on an old calendar copied from another company.
The DES is not a substitute for VIES evidence, and VIES is not a substitute for the VAT return. The first proves or supports the customer’s status at a given time; the second reports the transaction to the tax administration. The invoice, sales ledger, VAT return, DES and bank receipt should reconcile by customer, period, currency and HT amount. If the customer’s number is invalid, the company should document the validation attempts and the customer’s response rather than silently filing a different transaction category.
Input VAT is a separate question. A new French company can incur VAT on incorporation costs, software, professional fees, equipment or local purchases even when its first sale to an EU business is invoiced under reverse charge. Article 271 of the General Tax Code governs deduction of input VAT in connection with taxable operations and the required evidence. In its judgment of 23 November 2022, appeal no. 21-13.613, the Court of Cassation held that a company “n’avait pas perdu sa qualité d’assujettie du seul fait de sa cessation d’activité”. The verified judgment is available at Cour de cassation, appeal no. 21-13.613. The case concerned liquidation and does not grant an automatic deduction to every newly formed company; it supports the narrower point that taxable status and the timing of activity must be analysed rather than assumed from a temporary interruption.
The founder should therefore keep an input-VAT schedule separate from the EU sales schedule. For each purchase, record the supplier, invoice, business purpose, VAT amount, date, connection to the French company, payment and the period in which deduction is claimed. If the French VAT number is activated later, ask the accountant or SIE how the earlier invoice should be included. A later number can complete identification; it does not retroactively change the nature of the purchase.
Payment timing also deserves a control. If the company has opted for payment of VAT on debits, the customer’s deduction timing may be linked to the invoice rather than receipt of payment. In its judgment of 1 October 2025, appeal no. 24-14.456, the Court of Cassation stated: “le client d’un assujetti, lorsque cet assujetti a opté pour le paiement de la TVA d’après les débits, doit déclarer la TVA déductible figurant sur les factures dans le mois de leur réception”. The verified decision is available at Cour de cassation, appeal no. 24-14.456. Its facts concerned a liquidation and a credit of deductible VAT, so the sentence is not a universal answer to every invoice. It is a useful warning that a pending identifier, an invoice date and a tax return can affect more than the seller’s onboarding process.
A founder should also separate French company law documents from tax documents. The Kbis, articles of association, president or gérant appointment, shareholder resolution, bank account and registered office prove corporate identity and authority. The VAT application, VIES records, invoice, DES, VAT return and tax correspondence prove the tax treatment. The greffe’s acceptance of a company filing does not itself prove that a customer’s VAT number is valid, and a VIES result does not prove that the person signing the contract had authority to bind the company.
The following checklist can be used before releasing the first invoice:
- Match the contract, legal entity, Kbis, SIREN, SIRET, bank account and invoice name.
- Classify the service and test every special territoriality rule before applying Article 259.
- Obtain and validate the customer’s VAT number through VIES; record the date and the result.
- Confirm that the customer is acting as a taxable business and identify its economic establishment.
- Ask the SIE for written guidance on the pending French number and any effective date.
- Prepare the invoice HT with the correct “Autoliquidation” wording where the customer is liable.
- Do not add French VAT, use Article 293 B wording or use a parent company number unless the applicable rule supports it.
- Calendar the VAT return, DES and any corrective invoice after activation.
B. How should the company correct a rejected invoice, VIES problem or tax-office delay?
The most common operational problem is a customer portal that rejects the invoice because the French VAT number is blank or not yet visible. The answer should begin with the legal classification, not with a random number. Send the customer the French company’s legal name, SIREN, SIRET, Kbis, registered office, SIE activation request, VIES evidence for the customer and a concise explanation that the service is treated under the B2B place-of-supply rule. Ask the customer’s tax or procurement team whether it can accept a pending supplier identifier or whether it requires a pro forma document until the SIE confirms the number.
A pro forma document can help a customer approve a purchase order, but it should not be used to disguise a completed service or to postpone an invoice indefinitely. If the service has been performed or an advance triggers an invoice obligation, issue the legally required document with accurate information. The founder can attach the pro forma, but the accounting record must distinguish it from the final invoice.
The second problem is an invalid VIES result for the customer. Check the country prefix, remove spaces and punctuation, repeat the search, and ask the customer to confirm whether the number is activated for intra-EU transactions. Keep each result. If the customer sends a different number, verify the new number and confirm which entity receives the service. If no valid number is available, do not select reverse charge solely because the customer says it is a business. Analyse the customer’s taxable-person status, the type of service and the applicable French or foreign rule, then obtain professional advice where the facts are unclear.
The third problem is a customer that supplies a VAT number but asks the French company to add French VAT “just in case”. A customer’s commercial preference cannot replace the statutory analysis. Explain whether the service is located in the customer’s state, whether the customer is liable under reverse charge and which invoice wording is required. If the customer insists that its local law requires a different document, obtain that request in writing and reconcile it with the SIE’s position. Do not add French VAT without analysing the risk that the invoiced tax becomes payable or that the customer is unable to recover it.
The fourth problem is an advance payment. An advance can be commercially useful, but it creates a date and an accounting trail. Under Article 269, the taxable event and exigibility depend on the nature of the operation and the relevant election. Record the date of the advance, the contract, the service period, the invoice and the customer’s VAT status. If the tax-office number is activated after the advance, do not create a second transaction. Link the corrective document to the original and explain the tax treatment in the ledger.
The fifth problem is an invoice that included French VAT even though the customer should have reverse-charged the service. Article 272 of the General Tax Code governs correction of VAT invoiced in circumstances such as cancellation, termination or irrecoverability and the conditions for an adjustment. The company should stop issuing the same template, send a credit note linked to the original invoice, issue the corrected HT invoice with “Autoliquidation” where appropriate, update its VAT records and retain the customer’s acknowledgement. A credit note with no traceable link to the original invoice is weak evidence.
The sixth problem is the opposite: the company omitted French VAT on a transaction that was actually a domestic French supply or a special service subject to French VAT. The absence of an activated number does not make a French tax liability disappear. The company should identify the taxable event, calculate the amount, contact the SIE, correct the invoice and amend the return if required. It should not defend a wrong treatment by saying that the customer accepted the invoice.
The seventh problem is a mismatch between the French company and its foreign parent. A parent may have issued the quote, collected the deposit or performed part of the service while the French subsidiary issued the final invoice. The group should map the service, personnel, contract, customer promise and cash flow. If the parent supplied the customer directly, the French subsidiary should not retroactively present itself as the supplier merely to obtain a French VAT number. If the French company supplied the service, the group should document any parent support as a separate intercompany transaction.
The eighth problem is a change in the customer after the invoice. If the customer assigns the contract to another group company, changes its member-state establishment or supplies a new VAT number, issue a documented amendment or corrective invoice. Do not simply edit the PDF. Article 289 requires a specific and unambiguous reference to the initial invoice for a document that modifies it. The correction record should state what changed, when, why and whether the service, price or tax treatment changed.
The ninth problem is a tax-office delay that continues after the first invoice. Send a structured follow-up through the SIE channel with the original request, filing receipt, SIREN, Kbis, first invoice, customer VAT evidence, requested effective date and a precise question. Ask whether the number is pending allocation, pending activation, rejected, or already allocated but not visible in the relevant database. Those statuses are not interchangeable. A written response is more useful than an informal telephone assurance because it can be shown to the customer and reconciled with the tax return.
The tenth problem is a founder who works from outside France and assumes that the company has no French compliance footprint. A foreign director or shareholder may manage a French SAS or SARL remotely, but remote management does not remove the company’s invoice, VAT, bookkeeping or tax obligations. The director should give the accountant access to the SIE correspondence, customer evidence and company bank statements. The legal calendar should name a person responsible for the VAT return and DES, even when all customers are abroad.
The competitive online material is useful but incomplete for this fact pattern. Official Service Public pages explain the general EU service rule and the required “Autoliquidation” wording. LegalPlace provides a broad guide to service VAT rates, territoriality, declaration and compliant invoicing. Bpifrance Création explains the territoriality of EU services and separates sales from purchases. Those pages are helpful starting points, but a foreign founder still needs an operational bridge between the pending French identifier, the customer’s VIES status, the SIE request, the exact invoice, the DES and the corrective document. That bridge is the practical delta in this article: it treats the activation delay as a documented corporate workflow rather than as a generic definition of reverse charge.
Article 289 also supports the correction workflow because a document that changes the initial invoice must refer to it specifically and unambiguously. The founder should therefore keep one chronological file: customer onboarding, contract, VIES validation, SIE application, invoice, payment, service evidence, VAT return, DES, activation notice and corrected invoice. That sequence reduces the risk that a later reader will see only the absence of a French VAT number and miss the legal reason why no French VAT was charged.
Conclusion
An activated French VAT number is important for the company’s identification and reporting, but it does not by itself decide whether French VAT belongs on an invoice to an EU business customer. For a general B2B service, the French company may be able to invoice HT with the French wording “Autoliquidation” when the customer is a taxable person established in another EU member state and the place-of-supply rule puts the service in that state. The customer’s valid VAT number, the VIES record, the service classification and the evidence of delivery remain essential.
The safe workflow is to identify the actual supplier, distinguish a Kbis and SIRET from a VAT identifier, obtain written SIE guidance on the pending number, validate the customer, issue a real invoice with accurate fields, file the VAT return and DES, and correct the original invoice transparently once the number is active. French VAT should not be added as a placeholder, and Article 293 B should not be used merely because activation is delayed.
For the wider entry route, see the firm’s guide to setting up a business in France as a foreign founder. The firm’s VAT registration guide for a foreign company addresses the broader registration question; this article focuses on the narrower cross-border B2B invoice and reverse-charge problem.
Need a quick opinion on your case
Book a telephone consultation within 48 hours with a lawyer from the firm.
We can review your EU customer, VIES evidence, pending French VAT number, invoice wording and reporting file.
+33 6 46 60 58 22 (Maître Reda Kohen)
Contact the firm