You run your company from London, New York, Dubai or Singapore, and France is becoming a serious market: a first French client, stock stored near Paris, a salesperson on the ground, an online store shipping to French consumers. Sooner or later the same question lands on your desk: do I need to deal with French VAT, and if so, how do I do it from abroad without a French office? French VAT is called TVA (taxe sur la valeur ajoutée). It works like VAT everywhere in the European Union, but France applies its own registration channels, its own turnover thresholds and its own penalties, and the administration expects you to follow them even if you never set foot in the country.

The official starting point is simple. As the French business information service puts it, any business or self-employed professional habitually carrying out paid economic transactions inside the European Union is liable for VAT, and professionals must collect it on taxable transactions and declare it. The French tax administration adds the decisive test for foreign businesses: a company with no stable establishment (établissement stable) in France must still register for French VAT as soon as it carries out at least one of the listed operations, whether that means customs-only registration or operations requiring full VAT returns. This article walks you through both halves of the problem: first, whether your cross-border sales trigger French VAT, and second, how registration, returns, refunds and penalties actually work when the director lives abroad.

I. Do I need to register my foreign company for French VAT?

A. When do cross-border sales trigger French VAT?

The first question is territorial: where does the law consider your sale to take place? For goods, the answer is in Article 256 of the French General Tax Code (Code général des impôts, CGI), which makes deliveries of goods in France and several cross-border movements subject to French VAT. The tax administration gives the practical list. A foreign company without a French establishment must file French VAT returns (form CA3) when it carries out, from France, operations such as invoicing French VAT to private individuals or to entities not identified for VAT in France, intra-EU deliveries of goods leaving France, exports leaving France, distance sales of goods from another Member State to individuals in France, or imports under the reverse-charge procedure. Even operations that only require a French VAT number for customs purposes, such as intra-EU acquisitions made in France, force you to register, although they do not by themselves trigger CA3 returns.

Three situations cover most foreign founders. The first is selling to French consumers. If you sell goods or services to French private individuals and the place of the transaction is France, you collect French VAT, show it on the invoice and pay it to the French Treasury. Distance sales of goods from another EU country to French consumers follow the same logic, with one narrow exception for very small operators: businesses established in a single Member State whose combined intra-EU distance sales and certain electronic services stay below 10,000 euros excluding tax can keep applying their home-country VAT. Once that 10,000 euro ceiling is crossed, French VAT applies to the French sales and registration follows. The second situation is holding stock in France: storing goods in a French warehouse and delivering them to customers, or transferring your own stock from France to another Member State, are treated as taxable operations starting in France and require a French VAT number with full returns. The third is importing goods through France: since 1 January 2022, registration is compulsory for import VAT reverse charge, and the EE0 registration form has dedicated boxes for it.

Services between businesses follow a different and generally friendlier rule. The place of a business-to-business service is where the client is established, and the client accounts for the tax. The Conseil d’État (France’s highest administrative court) quotes the rule this way: “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”, under Article 259 of the CGI for services and the surrounding provisions for goods. Where the service is supplied by a business that is not established in France, Article 283 of the CGI provides that services covered by Article 259(1°) “sont fournies par un assujetti qui n’est pas établi en France, la taxe doit être acquittée par le preneur”, so the French business client self-assesses (autoliquidation) the VAT on its own return instead of you charging it. The administration confirms the mirror rule for goods and services alike: A foreign company with no French establishment is not liable for French VAT where its client, French or foreign, holds a French VAT number: that client must self-assess the tax on its own return under Article 283(1°) of the CGI. If your only French sales are business-to-business invoices to clients that hold a French VAT number, you generally have no French VAT to charge and no registration duty for those sales, as long as no other listed operation pulls you into the net.

Two traps deserve attention before you conclude that nothing is due. The first is the stable establishment. A foreign company that acts in France through local human and technical resources can be treated as established, and then it owes the VAT itself instead of its clients. In a 2023 ruling against a foreign protection-services company, the Conseil d’État held that “le redevable de la taxe sur la valeur ajoutée afférente est le prestataire qui les fournit s’il est lui-même établi en France. Doit être regardé comme tel le prestataire qui a en France un établissement stable depuis lequel les prestations sont fournies et qui présente un degré suffisant de permanence et une structure apte, du point de vue de l’équipement humain et technique, à rendre possibles, de manière autonome, les prestations de services considérées” (CE, 15 June 2023, n° 465719). A local team, an office that actually delivers the service, or a dependent intermediary can therefore turn a supposedly foreign supply into a French VAT liability, with penalties on top when the activity was concealed. The second trap is intra-EU movements of your own goods. Article 256 bis of the CGI taxes intra-EU acquisitions of goods, and only small non-taxable buyers stay outside the tax below 10,000 euros of acquisitions per calendar year: “le montant des acquisitions réalisées par les personnes mentionnées ci-dessus n’a pas excédé, au cours de l’année civile précédente, ou n’excède pas, pendant l’année civile en cours au moment de l’acquisition, le seuil de 10 000 €.” A foreign company moving stock into France will normally exceed that logic entirely and need full registration.

B. How do I register for French VAT from abroad?

Once a listed operation exists, registration runs through a single dedicated office: the SIEE (Service des impôts des entreprises étrangères, the tax office for foreign companies), part of the DINR (Direction des impôts des non-résidents, the non-residents tax directorate) at 10 rue du Centre, 93465 Noisy-le-Grand, in the Paris region. Companies established in another EU Member State, or in a listed group of third countries that have a mutual-assistance agreement with France (including the United Kingdom, the United States, Japan, Switzerland, Norway, Australia and South Africa, among others), do not need to appoint a fiscal representative; they register directly and may simply use an agent (mandataire) to handle the paperwork under an exclusive written mandate. Companies established in other third countries must appoint a fiscal representative (représentant fiscal) established in France and liable for French VAT, who answers for the tax in their place: the administration states that registration requires appoint a fiscal representative in France that is itself established in France and liable for French VAT (Article 289 A, I of the CGI), under Article 289 A of the CGI. Choosing the wrong route is the most common filing rejection, so check the country list on the impots.gouv.fr registration page before submitting anything.

The filing itself is made online on the French business formalities portal (formalites.entreprises.gouv.fr) using form EE0, the declaration for a foreign company without an establishment in France. The file must include a copy of the company’s registration certificate (or equivalent) in its home country, a copy of the articles of association with a free translation of the key points into French (legal form, shareholders, manager, share capital), and, where an agent is used, the signed exclusive mandate in French showing both parties’ names, addresses and SIRET numbers (SIRET is the 14-digit French establishment identifier; SIREN is the 9-digit company identifier), the mandate period and the bank details. Two practical points decide how fast the file moves: give a working email address so the office can send the electronic welcome letter once registration is done, and attach a bank identity statement (relevé d’identité bancaire, RIB) for a French account or an original bank certificate for a foreign account from day one, because only a SEPA-format account (the euro payments area) can receive VAT credit refunds. If French banks refuse to open the company account, which happens often to non-resident directors, read our guide on what to do when a French bank refuses to open your company account before the VAT file stalls for lack of a RIB.

Registration produces your French intra-EU VAT number. As the business information service explains, in France the number consists of the code FR, a two-digit computer key and the company’s nine-digit SIREN, so a French VAT number reads FR + two check digits + the nine-digit SIREN. You must print it on invoices, quotes and VAT returns, and your clients will check it on the EU’s VIES validator before applying reverse charge, so a wrong or inactive number blocks business immediately. Registration also triggers the identification duties of Article 286 of the CGI: “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.” In practice the EE0 filing is that declaration, but the fifteen-day logic shows the administration’s expectation: register before or as the taxable activity starts, not months later when the first reminder arrives. And because the VAT number alone does not create a company, founders who have not yet chosen their vehicle should read how to choose between an SAS, a SARL, a branch and a subsidiary first: the registration path and the representative requirement differ depending on whether you operate through a French company or from abroad without an establishment.

II. How do I file, pay and recover French VAT from abroad?

A. Which VAT regime applies: exemption, simplified or normal returns?

France runs three VAT regimes, and the smallest foreign operators can legally stay outside VAT altogether under the franchise en base (the small-business exemption). Article 293 B of the CGI states that “I. – Pour leurs livraisons de biens et leurs prestations de services, les assujettis établis en France bénéficient d’une franchise qui les dispense du paiement de la taxe sur la valeur ajoutée lorsqu’ils n’ont pas réalisé en France un chiffre d’affaires, évalué dans les conditions prévues à l’article 293 D, excédant les plafonds suivants”, with 85,000 euros for the previous calendar year for sales of goods (93,500 euros tolerance for the current year) and 37,500 euros for services other than catering and accommodation (41,250 euros tolerance). The administration confirms the 2026 figures are unchanged and adds that the proposal in the 2025 finance bill for a single 25,000 euro small-business threshold was abandoned, so the feared single 25,000 euro threshold never happened. Under the exemption you invoice without VAT and file no VAT return, but you cannot deduct input VAT either, and crossing the current-year tolerance kills the exemption immediately: “Lorsque l’un des plafonds de chiffre d’affaires prévus aux I ou I bis du présent article pour les opérations de l’année en cours est dépassé, la franchise cesse de s’appliquer pour les opérations intervenant à compter de la date du dépassement.” For a foreign company this regime is mostly relevant once it has a French-established vehicle, since a non-established operator with listed French operations generally registers regardless; still, check it before assuming every euro of French turnover produces VAT.

Above the exemption, mid-sized businesses fall under the simplified real regime (régime réel simplifié), which exists when prior-year turnover sits between 85,000 and 945,000 euros for trade, catering and accommodation, or between 37,500 and 286,000 euros for other services, with the VAT due for the prior year below 15,000 euros and current-year turnover under the raised ceilings of 1,040,000 and 323,000 euros. The payoff is one annual return (form CA12) filed online no later than the second working day after 1 May, plus two half-yearly advance payments (acomptes) in July and December equal to 55% and 40% of the prior year’s tax before deduction of VAT on fixed assets, with any balance paid with the annual return. Breaching a normal ceiling pushes the company into the normal regime from the next 1 January, while breaching a raised ceiling pushes it there retroactively from 1 January of the breach year, with a catch-up return due the month after the breach. Large or fast-growing foreign operations land directly in the normal real regime (régime réel normal): Article 287 of the CGI requires that “Les redevables soumis au régime réel normal d’imposition déposent mensuellement la déclaration visée au 1 indiquant, d’une part, le montant total des opérations réalisées, d’autre part, le détail des opérations taxables. La taxe exigible est acquittée tous les mois”, with quarterly filing allowed only when “la taxe exigible annuellement est inférieure à 4 000 €”. Every return is filed and paid online from the company’s professional tax account (espace professionnel on impots.gouv.fr), and the exact monthly deadline is shown inside that account, so diary management from abroad means watching that inbox, not a paper calendar. VAT is only one block of the French compliance diary alongside company accounts, payroll filings and local business tax; our guide to the annual legal calendar of a French company puts the VAT deadlines back into the full picture.

B. How do I recover VAT, invoice correctly and avoid penalties?

VAT you pay on French business purchases is normally deductible from the VAT you collect, and a persistent excess becomes a VAT credit (crédit de TVA) that can be carried forward or refunded onto a SEPA account, which is why the RIB attached at registration matters so much in practice. Deduction requires real supporting documents: proper purchase invoices kept under the standard record-keeping duties, with the company’s books and invoices retained according to the tax procedure rules. Invoicing mistakes are punished directly. Article 283 of the CGI warns that “Toute personne qui mentionne la taxe sur la valeur ajoutée sur une facture est redevable de la taxe du seul fait de sa facturation”, so showing French VAT on an invoice makes you liable for it even if the sale was actually exempt or reverse-charged. Conversely, when your French business client must self-assess, your invoice must carry the word autoliquidation, and sales to non-EU taxable clients state that French VAT does not apply under Article 259(1°) of the CGI. Construction and renovation work through subcontractors has its own reverse charge: “Pour les travaux de construction, y compris ceux de réparation, de nettoyage, d’entretien, de transformation et de démolition effectués en relation avec un bien immobilier par une entreprise sous-traitante”, within the meaning of the 31 December 1975 Subcontracting Act and for the account of a taxable customer, “la taxe est acquittée par le preneur.” Founders moving goods between EU countries must also file the recapitulative statements for intra-EU supplies with the customs administration (les états prévus à l’article 289 B). Article 1788 A of the CGI, in force since 1 January 2022, 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. L’amende est portée à 1 500 € à défaut de production de la déclaration dans les trente jours d’une mise en demeure”, and that “Entraîne l’application d’une amende de 15 € : a. Chaque omission ou inexactitude relevée dans les états prévus à l’article 289 B ; cette amende est plafonnée à 1 500 €”. The same article punishes an incomplete CA3 return: “Lorsqu’au titre d’une opération donnée le redevable de la taxe sur la valeur ajoutée est autorisé à la déduire, le défaut de mention de la taxe exigible sur la déclaration prévue au 1 de l’article 287” — any deductible VAT left off the return for the period draws a fine of 5% of the deductible amount. Late filing and late payment of VAT itself draw late interest and surcharges on top, so a missed CA3 is never just an administrative delay.

The endgame for non-compliance is the concealed-establishment reassessment illustrated by the 2023 Conseil d’État ruling: the foreign company was held liable for French VAT on services performed through its French stable establishment and penalised for hiding the activity, with the court approving the finding that it “devait être regardée comme ayant entendu dissimuler l’activité qu’elle exerçait en France” and had not shown an error justifying the missing returns (CE, 15 June 2023, n° 465719). The same logic extends to services bought from outside France: the Conseil d’État recalls that for certain intangible services supplied by a provider established outside France to a French VAT taxpayer, the place of supply is deemed to be France and “la taxe doit être acquittée par le preneur. Toutefois, le prestataire est solidairement tenu avec ce dernier au paiement de la taxe” (CE, 9 October 2019, n° 416107), so even the foreign supplier can be pursued jointly. Two forward-looking duties complete the picture for 2026: France’s mandatory e-invoicing is rolling out and changes how VAT data reaches the administration, detailed in our guide to France’s mandatory e-invoicing timetable, platforms, e-reporting and penalties, and every invoice, return and customs declaration should be archived in a form the auditors can actually exploit. Practically, companies run from abroad survive French VAT by doing four things: registering through the SIEE in Noisy-le-Grand before the first taxable operation, keeping a SEPA account capable of receiving refunds, filing from the professional online account on time every month or paying the July and December advances under the simplified regime, and never letting an invoice show VAT that is not due.

Conclusion

French VAT catches foreign companies earlier than most founders expect: selling to French consumers, storing goods in France, or importing through a French port triggers registration through the SIEE even with no office and no employee in the country, while pure business-to-business sales to French VAT-registered clients generally let the client self-assess under Article 283. Once registered, the system is mechanical but unforgiving: exemption below 85,000 or 37,500 euros of turnover, one annual CA12 return with 55% and 40% advances under the simplified regime, monthly CA3 returns under the normal regime, deduction only with proper invoices, and fines from 750 euros for missing customs declarations up to full reassessment where a hidden French establishment is found. The Conseil d’État’s message in 2023 is the one to keep: a real local footprint makes the foreign provider itself the French VAT debtor, concealment adds penalties, and only timely registration, clean invoicing and refunds onto a working SEPA account keep a cross-border business safe.