You formed your SAS from London, New York or Dubai, the greffe (the registry office of the commercial court) issued your Kbis (the official identity card of a French company), and the SIREN number (the unique identification number given to every French business) finally arrived. Then comes the question that blocks your first invoice: do you charge French VAT, at what rate, with which number on the invoice, and what happens if you get it wrong while living abroad? This guide answers the full sequence in plain English: when your French company becomes liable for VAT, how it obtains its French intra-Community VAT number, when it may stay under the small-business exemption, when the reverse charge shifts the tax to your customer, and how to file, pay, deduct and recover VAT from another country without triggering penalties.
French VAT is administered by the SIE (service des impots des entreprises, the local corporate tax office) and reported almost entirely online through your professional account on impots.gouv.fr. The rules below follow the General Tax Code (the CGI, code general des impots) as in force on 25 September 2026, the official guidance published on service-public.fr and the BOFIP (the bulletin officiel des finances publiques, the binding tax administration commentary), plus two recent decisions of the Conseil d’Etat (the supreme court for tax disputes) that every foreign founder should know. Terms such as URSSAF (the social security collection agency), BODACC (the official bulletin where company registrations are published) and CA3 (the standard French VAT return) are explained where they appear.
I. When your French company becomes a VAT payer and how it gets its number
A. What is taxed in France, where your services are taxed, and the French VAT identification number
The starting point is broad. The Code states that “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 English: supplies of goods and services made for consideration by a taxable person acting as such are subject to VAT (Article 256 of the General Tax Code). The moment your SAS or SARL sells goods or provides services for payment, it is in principle inside the VAT system, even if no VAT is ultimately due because of an exemption or the franchise described below.
For services, the decisive question is where the service is deemed to be supplied, because that decides whether French VAT applies at all. The rule for business-to-business services is that “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” and the same logic applies to a French permanent establishment or, failing that, domicile or habitual residence (Article 259 of the General Tax Code). In practice, a French company that advises, codes, designs or consults for a German or American business client generally invoices without French VAT and the foreign client self-assesses the tax in its own country, while the same service sold to a French client carries French VAT. Services to private consumers follow the mirror rule: the supplier’s location decides, so a French company billing French or foreign individuals normally charges French VAT. The official enterprise portal confirms this architecture for cross-border services and explains when the supplier invoices excluding tax with the reverse-charge wording and when it must collect French VAT (service-public.fr, VAT on exchanges of services within the European Union).
Registration itself is not a separate application you file for fun: it flows from the declaration of existence of your company. The Code provides that every taxable person must, “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.” In English: within fifteen days of starting operations, file the model declaration with the designated office (Article 286 of the General Tax Code). Today that declaration passes through the guichet unique (the single online company registration portal run with the INPI, the French intellectual property and business-registration institute), which forwards your data to the tax office. The SIE then issues the French intra-Community VAT number, built as FR plus two digits plus your nine-digit SIREN. You can check any European VAT number on the VIES system before you zero-rate an intra-Community supply, and you should print that confirmation: if the customer’s number turns out to be invalid, the French administration can reassess the sale with French VAT plus penalties.
Foreign founders trip on three practical points at this stage. First, the VAT number is not the SIREN and not the Kbis: the Kbis proves the company exists, the SIREN identifies it, and only the intra-Community number authorises transactions invoiced without VAT between Member States. Second, a company that only carries out exempt or out-of-scope transactions may still need identification to file European statements. Third, non-European founders sometimes confuse the VAT number with the EORI number used at customs: goods you import need both, because the import VAT is now generally self-assessed on the CA3 return instead of being paid at the border. If your bank, your accountant or a client asks for your “TVA intracommunautaire” before you have received it, chase the SIE that covers your registered office, not the greffe: the registry created the company, but only the tax office activates the VAT number.
For the full incorporation sequence that leads to this step, from capital deposit to Kbis, read our pillar guide on setting up a company in France as a foreign founder, which maps the bank account, the Kbis and the first tax filings in one place.
B. The small-business franchise, the reverse charge on foreign suppliers, and imports
Not every young company charges VAT. Resident taxable persons benefit from a franchise (an exemption for small turnovers) which “les dispense du paiement de la taxe sur la valeur ajoutée lorsqu’ils n’ont pas réalisé en France un chiffre d’affaires” above statutory ceilings (Article 293 B of the General Tax Code). For 2026 the headline ceilings are 85,000 euros of total national turnover for sales of goods and 37,500 euros for services other than on-site consumption and accommodation, with higher current-year tolerance thresholds of 93,500 and 41,250 euros. Below the ceiling you invoice excluding tax with the compulsory wording TVA non applicable, article 293 B du CGI, you do not file CA3 returns, and you cannot deduct input VAT. The day you cross the threshold, the franchise ends on the first day of the month of the crossing for the tolerance band, or immediately if you exceed the upper ceiling, and every later invoice must carry VAT. Founders who expect rapid growth often opt out of the franchise from day one: deducting VAT on computers, fit-out works, legal fees and the first months of rent usually outweighs the simplicity of exemption.
The second mechanism that changes everything is the reverse charge (autoliquidation), where the customer, not the supplier, accounts for the tax. The Code lays down the principle that “La taxe sur la valeur ajoutée doit être acquittée par les personnes qui réalisent les opérations imposables”, then reverses it: “lorsqu’une livraison de biens ou une prestation de services mentionnée à l’ article 259 A est effectuée par un assujetti établi hors de France, la taxe est acquittée par l’acquéreur, le destinataire ou le preneur qui agit en tant qu’assujetti et qui dispose d’un numéro d’identification à la taxe sur la valeur ajoutée en France” (Article 283 of the General Tax Code). The same article adds the service rule in short form: “Lorsque les prestations mentionnées au 1° de l’ article 259 sont fournies par un assujetti qui n’est pas établi en France, la taxe doit être acquittée par le preneur.” In plain terms, when your French company buys consulting, software development, marketing or intra-group management fees from a provider established outside France, you self-assess French VAT on your CA3 and, if you have a full right of deduction, you deduct the same amount on the same return, so the operation is cash-neutral but must still be declared. Symmetrically, when your French company invoices a foreign business client for services taxed at the client’s location, you invoice excluding tax with the wording “Autoliquidation” and report the sale in your European service statement. Forgetting either side is the single most frequent reassessment item for foreign-owned companies: the administration denies nothing, it simply prices the missing self-assessment plus late-payment interest.
Imports follow a parallel logic that foreign e-commerce founders must master. Since the 2022 reform, import VAT is as a rule self-assessed on the CA3 through the reverse-charge mechanism rather than paid to customs at the border, provided the importer holds a French VAT number and files electronically; businesses without a French establishment appoint a fiscal representative (representant fiscal) who performs the formalities in their name. Distance sales of imported goods to French consumers below 150 euros run through the IOSS (the Import One-Stop Shop, the European portal that lets non-European sellers declare VAT of all member states in one return), while stock held in a French warehouse almost always forces full French registration. If you sell goods from abroad to French customers from a warehouse in Lyon or Lille, budget for French registration, French invoicing and French returns from the first parcel, not from the first audit.
II. How to run French VAT from abroad without penalties
A. Invoices that survive an audit, CA3 returns, and the European statements
French invoices must show the price excluding tax, the applicable VAT rate, the VAT amount, and both parties’ VAT numbers for intra-Community transactions. The administration’s binding commentary details every compulsory mention and the electronic-invoicing timetable that now phases in mandatory e-invoicing (facturation electronique) between French taxable persons, starting with large companies and extending progressively to small businesses (BOFIP, VAT declaration obligations and formalities). From abroad, the discipline is the same but the tools differ: sign mandates for remote filing with your accountant (expert-comptable), keep qualified electronic signatures for corrective invoices, and store invoices for ten years in a format the SIE can read during a remote audit (controle sur pieces). A PDF lost in a founder’s inbox is not archiving.
The CA3 is the monthly or quarterly return on which you declare output VAT, input VAT, the self-assessed reverse-charge amounts, intra-Community acquisitions and imports. The Code provides that the relevant taxable persons “déposent mensuellement la déclaration mentionnée au 1 du présent article” once their payable tax exceeds defined thresholds, with quarterly filing allowed below them, and it adds that “En cas de cession ou de cessation d’une activité professionnelle, les redevables sont tenus de souscrire dans les trente jours la déclaration prévue au 1” (Article 287 of the General Tax Code). Deadlines fall between the 15th and the 24th of the following month depending on your department and are paid by direct debit (telepaiement) from a SEPA account, which is one more reason to secure a French or European business bank account early. Late filing triggers a 10 percent surcharge plus monthly late interest, before any reassessment of the underlying tax. Companies under the simplified regime file an annual CA12 with two instalments instead, but foreign-owned operating companies are in practice on the normal monthly CA3 regime from the start.
Two European statements complete the picture and generate the costliest fines for newcomers. Every taxable person identified for VAT must file “un état récapitulatif des clients, avec leur numéro d’identification à la taxe sur la valeur ajoutée, auxquels il a livré des biens” in other member states, plus the equivalent statement for cross-border services taxed at the customer (Article 289 B of the General Tax Code). In daily language these are the EC sales list for goods and the European declaration of services (DES): the first is filed to customs, the second to the tax office, both inside strict monthly deadlines. Missing them costs money even when no VAT is due: the Code provides that “Entraîne l’application d’une amende de 750 € : a. Le défaut de production dans les délais des états prévus à l’article 289 B”, raised to 1,500 euros after a formal notice goes unanswered (Article 1788 A of the General Tax Code). Founders who invoice a Spanish or Italian client without VAT and forget the statement pay the fine on a transaction that owed zero tax, and repeat offenders pay it per return. Calendar these two statements next to the CA3 in your compliance sheet before your first cross-border invoice, not after the first penalty notice.
B. Deducting input VAT, recovering refunds, fixing wrong invoices, and surviving an audit
Deduction is the economic heart of VAT: the tax that burdened the price components of a taxable transaction is deducted from the tax due on that transaction. The Code opens with the principle that “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”, with the right arising when the deductible tax becomes chargeable, and it conditions the deduction on holding a compliant invoice: only “Celle qui figure sur les factures établies conformément aux dispositions de l’article 289 et si la taxe pouvait légalement figurer sur lesdites factures” can be deducted (Article 271 of the General Tax Code). Three consequences matter for a company run from abroad. First, no compliant invoice means no deduction, however real the expense: hotel bills in an employee’s name, supplier invoices addressed to the foreign parent instead of the French subsidiary, and pro-forma invoices do not open the right to deduct. Second, expenses for exempt or out-of-scope activities, most passenger-vehicle costs, and excessive entertainment open no deduction or a partial one. Third, the deductible tax is set against the tax due for the month the right arises, and any excess becomes a VAT credit (credit de TVA) carried forward or refunded under conditions fixed by decree.
Refunds deserve special attention because young foreign-owned companies are structurally in credit: heavy French start-up spending with little French output VAT in year one. The credit is carried to the next CA3 by default and can be claimed back monthly by companies whose returns show a persistent credit, quarterly for others, through the online refund request attached to the CA3. The SIE routinely audits first refund claims from newly registered companies, asking for the largest purchase invoices, the corresponding bank debits, and proof the suppliers exist. Answer within the deadline with complete PDFs and bank statements: silence or partial answers convert a two-month refund into a six-month file, and interest on late refunds only runs once the file is complete. Groups should also consider the VAT group (groupe TVA) regime, which lets a French parent and its French subsidiaries form a single taxable person so that intra-group flows bear no VAT and only the group files: the option simplifies cash and compliance but requires all members to be established in France and to meet holding conditions, so a foreign parent itself stays outside.
Wrong invoices are where the Conseil d’Etat has spoken most usefully for founders. The rule is severe: “Toute personne qui mentionne la taxe sur la valeur ajoutée sur une facture est redevable de la taxe du seul fait de sa facturation”, as recalled by the Conseil d’Etat in its decision of 22 July 2025, no. 472910 (Conseil d’Etat, 22 July 2025, no. 472910, Vectrance). In that case a company had invoiced VAT without paying it over, then issued corrective invoices years later and claimed discharge. The court confirmed that merely sending corrected invoices and informing the administration does not by itself eliminate the risk of lost tax revenue while the customers may still have deducted the wrongly shown tax. But the same decision opens the way out: “Lorsque le risque de perte de recettes fiscales est inexistant ou qu’il a été, en temps utile, complètement éliminé”, notably where the administration has definitively refused the customer any deduction of the wrongly stated tax, “l’émetteur de la facture est en principe en droit d’obtenir la régularisation de cette taxe, sans que cette régularisation puisse être subordonnée à la rectification préalable de la facture ni à la bonne foi de l’émetteur.” In practice, if your French company wrongly charged French VAT to a foreign client, act fast: issue the corrective invoice, prove the client never deducted the tax or has repaid it, and write to the SIE before the limitation period closes. Speed and paper trail decide these files, not good intentions.
The mirror situation, buying under the reverse charge and deducting the same tax, was settled in the foreign-founder-friendly sense by the Conseil d’Etat on 15 November 2019, no. 420251 (Conseil d’Etat, 15 November 2019, no. 420251, Eye Shelter). The court held that “lorsque le régime de l’auto-liquidation s’applique, l’acquéreur d’un bien, qui est redevable de la taxe sur la valeur ajoutée afférente à cette opération, est en droit de déduire cette même taxe, de telle sorte que, en principe, aucun montant n’est dû à l’administration fiscale.” A Luxembourg company buying goods imported into France through a Swiss supplier and resold to the Netherlands could therefore self-assess and simultaneously deduct. For your French company the lesson is direct: declare the reverse charge on every foreign purchase even when it looks cash-neutral, because the deduction depends on the self-assessment. The SIE cannot credibly challenge a deduction that mirrors a declared liability, while an undeclared purchase gives it both the tax and the penalty.
Audits from abroad close the loop. A desk audit starts with a questionnaire and a thirty-day reply period; an on-site accounting audit (verification de comptabilite) brings the inspector to your accountant’s office in France, and you attend by video call if needed. Never ignore a registered letter from the SIE because you were travelling: unanswered notices lead to estimated assessments (taxation d’office) that reverse the burden of proof onto you. Keep the invoice archive, the VIES confirmations, the DES and sales-list receipts, the bank statements matching each refund claim, and the mandates given to your accountant in one shared drive your counsel can open within a day. Companies that answer fast and completely usually settle on the tax with reduced penalties; companies that answer late argue about procedure from a weak position.
Conclusion
French VAT rewards foreign founders who treat it as a monthly production line rather than an annual formality. Identify the company within fifteen days of starting, secure the FR number before the first intra-Community invoice, choose consciously between the small-business franchise and full taxation, self-assess the reverse charge on every foreign purchase, file the CA3 with its European statements on time, and build the invoice archive that makes refunds and audits painless. The two Conseil d’Etat decisions above draw the boundary lines: wrongly invoiced tax is owed by the mere fact of invoicing until the revenue risk is fully eliminated, while correctly self-assessed reverse-charge tax opens a matching deduction so that nothing is due. Run the company from abroad by all means, but run its VAT from France, with an accountant connected to the SIE, a SEPA account that pays on time, and a lawyer who reads the assessment notices the week they arrive. That combination turns a tax that frightens most newcomers into a neutral cash flow and, in the start-up years, into regular refunds that fund growth.