You run your company from London, New York, Dubai or Singapore. One day a French customer places an order, or a French business asks you for consulting days, software licences, equipment or goods stored outside France. The money arrives and your team invoices from the home office, because nobody in your company lives in France. Then the questions start. Your customer asks for an invoice with French value added tax and a French VAT number. Your parcel is stopped because import VAT has to be paid. Your accountant warns you that France wants you to register, appoint a representative and file returns, and that every month of delay adds penalties. These questions are urgent and the answers are stricter than most foreign founders expect. France taxes the supply of goods and services performed on its territory even when the supplier sits abroad, and it forces any business that carries out taxable transactions in France to identify itself, keep records the tax administration can audit and file periodical returns. The administrative court of appeal of Marseille showed the cost of getting this wrong on 12 May 2022 in case 20MA04739, where a French company that deducted VAT invoiced to an American group without a fiscal representative in France kept the full reassessment. This article answers the two questions every foreign seller asks first: when does your first French sale make you a French VAT taxpayer, and how do you register, appoint a fiscal representative and file without penalties.
I. Your first sale to a French customer: is the VAT French, and who charges it
A. Is your sale taxed in France: goods shipped to France, services used in France and imports through French customs
French VAT, known in France as TVA (taxe sur la valeur ajoutée), applies first to transactions connected with French territory, whatever the nationality or residence of the supplier. The basic rule sits in Article 256 of the CGI (Code général des impôts, the French General Tax Code): “Sont soumises à la taxe sur la valeur ajoutée les livraisons de biens et les prestations de services effectuées à titre onéreux par un assujetti agissant en tant que tel.” In plain English, supplies of goods and services made for payment by a taxable person acting as such are subject to VAT. A taxable person (assujetti) is any business carrying on an economic activity, including your foreign company from its very first commercial transaction. The same article defines a supply of goods as “le transfert du pouvoir de disposer d’un bien corporel comme un propriétaire”, the transfer of the power to dispose of tangible property as owner, and it expressly treats electricity, gas, heat, cold and similar supplies as tangible goods. If you sell equipment, stock, components or energy delivered in France, you are making a supply of goods within the meaning of this article.
Services follow a separate territorial rule that surprises many foreign providers. Under Article 259 of the CGI: “Le lieu des prestations de services est situé en France : 1° Lorsque le preneur est un assujetti agissant en tant que tel et qu’il a en France : a) Le siège de son activité économique, sauf lorsqu’il dispose d’un établissement stable non situé en France auquel les services sont fournis ; b) Ou un établissement stable auquel les services sont fournis ; c) Ou, à défaut du a ou du b, son domicile ou sa résidence habituelle ;” In other words, when your customer is a French business acting as such, with its head office, branch receiving the services, domicile or habitual residence in France, the place of your service is France and French VAT rules govern it. Consulting days, software development, design work, marketing services, intra-group management fees and licences supplied to a French company are therefore French-taxable services even when your consultants never set foot in France. The administrative courts hear a steady stream of disputes on exactly this point: the administrative court of appeal of Nantes ruled on the place of business services in case 24NT00814 of 2024, the administrative court of appeal of Versailles in case 18VE00653 of 2019, and the Conseil d’Etat, the supreme administrative court, in case 465719 decided by its 8th and 3rd chambers together, all published on the official record at CETATEXT000050667361, CETATEXT000039166527 and CETATEXT000047693550. The lesson for a foreign seller is practical: never assume that working from abroad keeps your services outside French VAT, because the law looks at where your customer is established, not where your laptop sits.
Goods arriving from outside the European Union face a third entry point, importation. Article 291 of the CGI states simply: “Les importations de biens sont soumises à la taxe sur la valeur ajoutée.” And it defines the concept: “Est considérée comme importation d’un bien : a. l’entrée en France d’un bien, originaire ou en provenance d’un Etat ou d’un territoire n’appartenant pas à l’Union européenne, et qui n’a pas été mis en libre pratique”. When your American, British, Emirati or Asian company ships goods that clear customs in France, import VAT becomes due at the border, and someone has to pay it and later deduct it or bear its cost. The French customs office will ask for a French VAT identification number or for a representative entitled to act, and goods can wait in the warehouse while the paperwork is sorted. Distance sales of goods already inside the Union to French private individuals follow their own threshold and declaration logic through the European One-Stop Shop, called OSS, which lets a supplier established in one Member State declare the VAT of all Member States of destination in a single return, but the OSS never replaces the French registration when you hold stock in France, have a French establishment or perform domestic French supplies. The first reflex of a foreign seller should therefore be a map of its flows: which goods physically enter or sit in France, which services are received by French taxable customers, and which imports cross a French customs post, because each answer points to a different French VAT obligation.
B. Who pays the French VAT: you, your French customer under reverse charge, or nobody until you are identified
Once a sale is French-taxable, the next question is who actually hands the money to the Treasury. The starting point is that the supplier pays. Article 283 of the CGI opens with the principle: “La taxe sur la valeur ajoutée doit être acquittée par les personnes qui réalisent les opérations imposables”, VAT must be paid by the persons who carry out the taxable transactions. If your foreign company is established in France for VAT purposes, has a French VAT number and invoices with French VAT, you collect the tax from your customer and remit it on your French return. Your invoice must then show your French VAT identification number, the rate and the amount, and your customer, if it is itself a French taxable business, deducts that VAT on its own return. This is the ordinary circuit, and it is the reason French customers routinely demand your French VAT number before they pay your first invoice: without it they cannot secure their deduction, and they may prefer to buy from a competitor whose paperwork is complete.
The same article then organises the main exception, the reverse charge (autoliquidation), which shifts the payment from the foreign supplier to the French customer. The text continues with the reverse-charge rule: where a covered supply is made by a supplier established outside France, the tax is self-assessed by the buyer, recipient or customer acting as a taxable person and holding a French VAT identification number. In practice, when a supplier established outside France provides certain services to a French taxable customer that holds a French VAT number, the customer self-assesses the French VAT on its own return, simultaneously as tax due and as deductible tax, so the transaction is cash-neutral for a fully taxable customer. Many cross-border consulting, IT, intra-group and professional services fall into this mechanism, which is why your French customer sometimes tells you to invoice without VAT and to mention the reverse charge: it is not evasion, it is the statute working as designed, and the amount due is identified on the return described in Article 287. The trap is that the reverse charge only works when the customer is genuinely a taxable person holding a French VAT number. Sales to French private individuals, to small businesses under the franchise (exemption for small enterprises), to public bodies acting outside their taxable activity or to customers without a French number fall outside the mechanism, and the foreign supplier must then charge French VAT itself, which requires a French VAT identification first. Misreading the customer is therefore the most expensive common mistake: invoicing without VAT to a customer that cannot reverse-charge leaves the tax unpaid and both parties exposed, while charging French VAT without a French number produces an invoice your customer cannot use.
The Marseille case shows what happens when the paperwork behind the invoice does not match the economic reality. In CAA Marseille, 2nd chamber, 12 May 2022, no. 20MA04739, a Toulon company acted as the commercial representative in Europe of an American group, National Bronze and Metals Inc, and deducted VAT on purchases of materials whose invoices were made out in the name of the American company, passing the tax on through debit notes. The audit found that the American company bought materials from French suppliers without deducting the VAT for want of a fiscal representative in France, recharging it through internal debit notes, while the auditors took the view that “seule NBM Inc pouvait déduire cette TVA” and that “la TVA devait être rappelée auprès de la société NBME” The court upheld the full reassessment for the period 1 January 2015 to 30 November 2016, holding that the French company could not be treated as an agent acting in the name and on behalf of the non-EU principal and could not deduct VAT on invoices that were not addressed to it: “elle n’était pas la destinataire des factures d’achat de matériaux libellées au nom de la société NBM Inc. et ne peut donc pas prétendre déduire la TVA liée à ces achats.” Two lessons follow for every foreign seller. First, deduction follows the invoice: only the person named on a proper invoice deducts, and re-billing VAT through internal debit notes does not create a right to deduct. Second, an American principal buying in France without a fiscal representative cannot lend its VAT position to its French distributor. If your group buys materials or services in France through a foreign entity, either that entity registers and appoints a representative so it can deduct, or the French company buys in its own name. Improvised circuits between the two always fail on audit.
II. Getting your French VAT number, appointing a fiscal representative and filing without penalties
A. How a company with no French office gets a French VAT number: the foreign-companies tax office, SIREN and SIRET numbers and the accredited fiscal representative
Registration is not optional once you carry out taxable transactions in France, and the clock runs fast. Article 286 of the CGI provides: “Toute personne assujettie à la taxe sur la valeur ajoutée doit : 1° Dans les quinze jours du commencement de ses opérations, souscrire au bureau désigné par un arrêté une déclaration conforme au modèle fourni par l’administration.” Within fifteen days of starting your operations you must file the model declaration with the designated tax office. For a company with no establishment in France this office is the DGFIP (Direction générale des Finances publiques, the French tax authority) service for foreign companies, reached through the procedure described on the official page Immatriculation à la TVA on impots.gouv.fr. The declaration asks for your company identity, legal form, directors, activity, bank details, the nature of your French operations and the date they started, with supporting documents: certificate of incorporation with sworn translation, proof of the powers of the signatory, and where relevant the contract or first invoice showing French operations. The administration then issues a French VAT identification number built on your SIREN (Système d’identification du répertoire des entreprises, the nine-digit business identifier issued by INSEE, the national statistics institute) or on a SIRET (the fourteen-digit identifier of an establishment, SIREN plus five digits for the premises). A company with no premises receives a number without a SIRET establishment in the trade register, which is normal: the VAT number identifies you as a taxpayer, while the Kbis extract (the official company identity certificate issued by the greffe, the registry of the commercial court) and the RCS (Registre du commerce et des sociétés, the trade and companies register) only concern you if you open a branch or subsidiary, which VAT registration alone does not require. Do not confuse the two tracks: many founders lose months because they apply for a full company registration with the INPI single window (guichet unique) when they only needed a VAT number from the tax office, or the reverse.
The decisive fork is whether your company sits inside or outside the European Union. A company established in another Member State generally registers directly with the French tax office, files its own returns and corresponds with the administration itself. A company established outside the Union that owes French VAT or must complete French declaration formalities cannot walk this path alone: it must appoint an accredited fiscal representative. The Marseille court sets out the rule of Article 289 A of the CGI in these terms (CAA Marseille, 2nd chamber, 12 May 2022, no. 20MA04739): “Lorsqu’une personne non établie dans l’Union européenne est redevable de la taxe sur la valeur ajoutée ou doit accomplir des obligations déclaratives, elle est tenue de faire accréditer auprès du service des impôts un représentant assujetti établi en France qui s’engage à remplir les formalités incombant à cette personne et, en cas d’opérations imposables, à acquitter la taxe à sa place. A défaut, la taxe sur la valeur ajoutée et, le cas échéant, les pénalités qui s’y rapportent, sont dues par le destinataire de l’opération imposable”. Your representative must therefore be a taxable person established in France, accredited by the tax office, who undertakes to complete your formalities and to pay the tax in your place on taxable transactions. In exchange the representative is jointly bound, which is why professional representatives charge fees, demand guarantees and control your invoices before filing. American, British since Brexit, Swiss, Emirati, Singaporean and other non-EU sellers all fall under this duty, and the sanction for ignoring it is double: your French customer becomes liable for the VAT and penalties in your place, and no serious customer accepts that risk, so the absence of a representative costs you contracts before it costs you fines. The administration publishes the full doctrine in the BOI (Bulletin officiel des Finances publiques-Impôts, the binding official tax commentary), in particular BOI-TVA-DECLA-20-30-40-10 on the fiscal representation of persons established outside the European Union, which your representative applies daily. The Paris administrative court of appeal regularly sanctions failures on this ground, for instance in case 20PA02107 of 2022 on non-resident representation, published at CETATEXT000045080066, and the Versailles court in case 19VE03276 of 2021 on VAT identification, at CETATEXT000044376160. Choose your representative before your first invoice, not after the first audit: accreditation takes time, and the fifteen-day declaration period does not wait for your internal approvals.
B. Filing, paying, deducting and recovering: French returns, European simplifications, surcharges for delay and how you contest a reassessment
Once identified, you enter the ordinary life of a French VAT taxpayer: periodical returns, payment, deduction of the VAT you bore, and refunds when you paid more than you collected. Article 287 of the CGI sets the return duty: “Tout redevable de la taxe sur la valeur ajoutée identifié conformément aux dispositions combinées des articles 286 ter et 286 ter A est tenu de remettre au service des impôts dont il dépend et dans le délai fixé par arrêté une déclaration conforme au modèle prescrit par l’administration.” Every person liable for VAT and identified in France must file the prescribed return with its tax office within the period fixed by order. In practice a newly registered foreign company files monthly under the normal actual regime (régime réel normal), declaring total transactions, VAT collected on sales, VAT deductible on purchases and expenses, and paying the balance. Electronic filing and payment are compulsory, and your fiscal representative files and pays in your name when you are non-EU. Keep a disciplined calendar from day one: the return, the payment and the supporting invoices must match every month, because the administration cross-checks your figures against those of your French customers and suppliers, and a gap triggers an automatic request for explanations before any formal audit.
Deduction is where registration pays for itself. Article 271 of the CGI provides: “La taxe sur la valeur ajoutée qui a grevé les éléments du prix d’une opération imposable est déductible de la taxe sur la valeur ajoutée applicable à cette opération.” VAT that burdened the price components of a taxable transaction is deductible from the VAT on that transaction. And it fixes the timing: “Le droit à déduction prend naissance lorsque la taxe déductible devient exigible chez le redevable”, the right to deduct arises when the deductible tax becomes chargeable in the hands of the taxpayer. Concretely, the French VAT shown on your suppliers invoices, on your French subcontractors bills, on import VAT paid at customs and on goods and services bought for your French taxable activity reduces the VAT you remit, and when deductible VAT exceeds collected VAT the excess is carried forward or refunded under the statutory conditions. Three conditions are absolute: the expense must serve taxable transactions, the VAT must have become chargeable, and you must hold a valid invoice made out in your name with your French VAT number. The Marseille Aviva decision is the negative mirror of this rule: debit notes between group companies and invoices addressed to another person never open a right to deduct, however real the underlying expense. Foreign groups should therefore route French purchases through the entity that holds the French VAT number and appears on the invoice, keep the full chain of contracts, orders, delivery notes and invoices, and never deduct on pro forma documents, quotes or foreign-currency internal recharges.
European simplifications reduce the filing burden but never remove registration where France requires it. The OSS lets an EU-established supplier declare, in its home State, the VAT due on distance sales and certain services to private individuals across the Union, and the IOSS (Import One-Stop Shop) covers low-value imports sold to individuals, while non-EU suppliers use the non-Union OSS scheme of the Member State of their choice for services to EU individuals. These schemes spare you one registration per country for covered transactions, yet they do not cover domestic French supplies, goods stored in France, imports you deduct in France or purchases on which you must deduct French VAT: those stay on the French return or under your French number. Late or wrong filing is punished on two levels. Interest for late payment runs by law, and Article 1729 of the CGI adds surcharges on the tax recalled: “Les inexactitudes ou les omissions relevées dans une déclaration ou un acte comportant l’indication d’éléments à retenir pour l’assiette ou la liquidation de l’impôt ainsi que la restitution d’une créance de nature fiscale dont le versement a été indûment obtenu de l’Etat entraînent l’application d’une majoration de : a. 40 % en cas de manquement délibéré”. Inaccuracies or omissions in a return attract a 40 percent surcharge for deliberate failure, rising to 80 percent for abuse of law, plus interest, and failure to file or to appoint a representative when required moves the dispute from a correction to a penalty case. When the administration notifies a reassessment (redressement) or a demand, act within the stated deadlines: reply to the proposal with documents and legal grounds, request the opinion of the departmental commission where available, then file an administrative claim (réclamation) and, if rejected expressly or by silence, appeal to the administrative court within two months of the rejection. Never ignore a French tax letter because it arrived in French at an old address: appoint your representative with a valid contact address, open the professional tax account, calendar every deadline, and answer each request even briefly, because silence converts a manageable correction into enforced collection (recouvrement forcé) with bank attachment.
Conclusion
Your first French sale is good news that carries a French tax file with it. Map your flows against the place-of-supply rules before you invoice: goods delivered or stored in France and imports clearing French customs fall under Articles 256 and 291, while services to French taxable customers are French-taxable under Article 259 because your customer sits in France. Identify who pays: you under the ordinary rule of Article 283, or your French taxable customer under reverse charge where the statute allows it, and never invoice outside the reverse charge to a customer that cannot self-assess. Within fifteen days of starting operations, file the Article 286 declaration with the DGFIP foreign-companies service and obtain your French VAT number, and if your company sits outside the European Union have your accredited fiscal representative appointed first, since without one your customer answers for your tax and penalties. File the Article 287 return every period, deduct only on proper invoices in your name under Article 271, and treat every reassessment letter as a deadline, answering with documents before the 40 percent surcharge of Article 1729 hardens the bill. Done in this order, French VAT becomes a routine monthly exercise instead of a crisis, and your French customers keep buying because your invoices carry the number their own auditors demand.
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Foreign company selling in France and unsure about VAT registration, fiscal representative or filing. Get a telephone consultation within 48 hours with a lawyer of the firm by calling +33 6 46 60 58 22. You can also write through our contact page with your first invoice and any letter from the French tax office.