You run your company from London, New York, Dubai or Singapore, and France is your next market. Then your first French customer asks for your French VAT number, your logistics provider warns that your goods are stuck because no one is identified for VAT on import, or the tax office replies that your registration file is incomplete. Every week, foreign founders discover that French VAT, the TVA (taxe sur la valeur ajoutée), is not a formality you handle after signing contracts. It decides whether you can invoice, clear customs, recover the tax you pay to French suppliers, and get paid without a withholding-style dispute. This guide explains, entirely from official texts, when your foreign company owes French VAT, how to obtain a French VAT number from abroad, when you must appoint an accredited fiscal representative, how to file and recover the tax, and how to react when registration stalls or a reassessment arrives. The backbone is the French General Tax Code (code général des impôts, CGI), the case law of the Cour de cassation, and the guidance of the French customs and tax administration. The standard French VAT rate is 20 percent, with reduced rates reserved for defined categories of goods and services. If you are also creating the French vehicle itself, read our companion pillar guide on setting up a company in France as a foreign founder, from bank account to Kbis, VAT and first hire, which covers the company-formation side that this article assumes you already understand.

I. Do you need a French VAT number? Territoriality, reverse charge and the fiscal representative

A. When your foreign company owes French VAT: place of supply, distance sales and imports

French VAT catches supplies of goods and services made for consideration by a taxable person acting as such. Article 256 of the General Tax Code states: “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 value added tax. The full text is published on article 256 of the General Tax Code on Légifrance. A taxable person is defined broadly. Article 256 A provides: “Sont assujetties à la taxe sur la valeur ajoutée les personnes qui effectuent de manière indépendante une des activités économiques mentionnées au cinquième alinéa, quels que soient le statut juridique de ces personnes, leur situation au regard des autres impôts et la forme ou la nature de leur intervention.” In English: persons who independently carry out one of the economic activities referred to, whatever their legal status, their position with regard to other taxes, or the form or nature of their involvement, are liable for VAT. See article 256 A of the General Tax Code on Légifrance. Your Delaware LLC, your English limited company, your Dubai free-zone entity or your Singapore private limited can therefore be a French taxable person even though it is incorporated abroad and pays no French corporate tax yet.

Being a taxable person is not enough. The transaction must be located in France under the place-of-supply rules. For goods, article 258 of the Code states: “Le lieu de livraison de biens meubles corporels est réputé se situer en France lorsque le bien se trouve en France”. In English: the place of supply of movable tangible goods is deemed to be in France where the goods are in France, in particular at the time of dispatch or transport to the buyer, at installation, or when placed at the buyer’s disposal. See article 258 of the General Tax Code on Légifrance. If your stock sits in a French warehouse, if equipment is installed in Lyon, or if goods are handed over in Marseille without transport, French VAT presumptively applies. For services, article 259 draws the decisive distinction between business customers and private consumers: “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 English: the place of services is in France where the customer is a taxable person acting as such and has in France its business seat, a fixed establishment receiving the services, or failing that its domicile or habitual residence. See article 259 of the General Tax Code on Légifrance. Concretely, consulting, SaaS support, marketing or engineering services supplied to a French VAT-registered business are normally located in France, while the mirror rule often locates services to a French private consumer where the supplier is established, with important exceptions for digital services, admission to events, and transport.

Location in France does not always mean you invoice French VAT yourself, because the reverse charge (autoliquidation) frequently shifts the liability to your French business customer. Article 283 of the Code provides: “Toutefois, 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.” In English: where a supply covered by article 259 A is made by a taxable person not established in France, the tax is paid by the buyer or customer acting as a taxable person holding a French VAT identification number. See article 283 of the General Tax Code on Légifrance. This is why your French customer’s first question is always your VAT number and theirs: with two valid numbers, the invoice can go out without French VAT under reverse charge, and your customer accounts for the tax. With an invalid or missing number on either side, the mechanism collapses and someone must charge and remit the tax. Always validate numbers on VIES, the European Commission’s VAT Information Exchange System, before invoicing, and re-check them when a customer changes legal entity.

Three frequent foreign-founder patterns deserve special attention. First, distance sales of goods to French private consumers: once your annual intra-EU distance sales exceed 10,000 euros excluding tax, the sale is taxed in the customer’s country, so France-bound sales bear French VAT and you must either register in France or report through the EU One-Stop Shop in your country of establishment. The official service-public page confirms the mechanism and the registration trigger for businesses selling into France, see service-public.fr on VAT for intra-EU trade in goods. Second, imports from outside the EU followed by French delivery: a company with no French establishment that imports goods into France must be identified for VAT, except where a specific simplification such as the regime 42 onward intra-EU supply applies, and the customs administration summarizes these cases in its official guidance on VAT identification and fiscal representation. Third, movements of your own goods between France and another Member State, for instance transferring stock from a German warehouse to a French fulfilment centre, count as deemed intra-EU transactions that must be declared even without a sale, through the EMEBI statistical declaration that replaced the DEB (déclaration d’échanges de biens) for intra-EU movements, alongside your VAT return. Founders who confuse customs, statistics and VAT filings are the ones whose goods stall at the border.

A short glossary will help you read every French letter you receive. The SIREN is the nine-digit identifier of your legal entity; the SIRET adds five digits for each establishment. The RCS (Registre du commerce et des sociétés) is the trade and companies register kept by the greffe, the registry of the commercial court, and the Kbis is the official extract proving your company’s registration. Since 2023, companies register through the INPI single window (guichet unique), the online portal run by the Institut national de la propriété industrielle, which replaced the former centres de formalités. The DGFIP (Direction générale des finances publiques) is the tax administration; the DINR (Direction des impôts des non-résidents) and its SIEE (Service des impôts des entreprises étrangères) handle foreign businesses without a French establishment. The BODACC (Bulletin officiel des annonces civiles et commerciales) publishes company life events. None of these bodies will chase you to register: the obligation sits on you from the first taxable transaction.

B. How to obtain your French VAT number from abroad: the SIEE file, deadlines and the accredited fiscal representative

There are two roads to a French VAT number, and choosing the wrong one is the most common cause of delay. If you operate through a French company or a registered French branch, the VAT number follows the company: registration on the INPI single window produces SIREN registration with INSEE, entry on the RCS, and issuance of the Kbis, after which the DGFIP activates the SIRET-linked French VAT identification number built as FR plus a two-digit key plus your nine-digit SIREN. Our guides on unblocking a frozen Kbis application and on branch versus subsidiary registration and tax walk through that company track. If instead your foreign company trades in France without any French establishment, you do not register a company at all: you apply for VAT identification only. The customs administration directs every company required to register for VAT in France to a single counterparty: the foreign-companies tax office (SIEE) within the non-residents tax directorate (DINR), based in Noisy-le-Grand. See the official customs guidance on VAT identification. That office is your single counterparty for the number, the returns and the audits, so every letter from an unfamiliar French tax unit should be checked against correspondence from the SIEE before you pay anything.

The law imposes speed from the first transaction. Article 286 of the Code states: “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 English: every person liable for VAT must, within fifteen days of starting operations, file with the designated office a declaration conforming to the administration’s template. See article 286 of the General Tax Code on Légifrance. In practice you should start before the first invoice, because customers and marketplaces will refuse to on-board a supplier whose number does not validate on VIES. Build a complete file: certified articles of association with sworn French translation, proof of the signatory’s identity and powers, proof of the foreign company’s registration in its home register with translation, description of the French operations with the first contracts or purchase orders, French correspondence address, bank details, and where required the mandate and accreditation file of your fiscal representative. Files fail most often for three fixable reasons: translations missing or uncertified, the declared activity code not matching the contracts attached, and a representative whose accreditation letter is absent or expired. A refusal letter always states the missing item: answer it point by point, in French, with numbered exhibits, and keep the proof of filing and every acknowledgment of receipt.

Companies established outside the European Union face an additional compulsory layer: the accredited fiscal representative (représentant fiscal). Article 289 A of the Code states: “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.” In English: where a person not established in the European Union is liable for VAT or must complete reporting obligations, it must have accredited with the tax office a representative established in France who undertakes to complete that person’s formalities and, for taxable transactions, to pay the tax in its place. See article 289 A of the General Tax Code on Légifrance. The sanction for skipping this step is brutal, because the same article continues: “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.” In English: failing that, the VAT and any related penalties are owed by the recipient of the taxable transaction. Your French customer becomes liable for your VAT, which is why serious buyers demand your representative’s accreditation before signing. Narrow statutory exceptions exist, notably where France has a mutual-assistance instrument with the third country comparable to the EU recovery directive, and the detailed scope is set out in the administration’s official commentary, see the BOFIP doctrine on fiscal representation of persons established outside the EU. Do not assume your country qualifies: have the representative confirm the current list in writing. Companies established in another EU Member State are in a softer position: they register directly with the SIEE and may, but need not, appoint a tax agent (mandataire fiscal) to handle filings in French. The customs guidance confirms both tracks: non-EU operators must designate an accredited representative who pays in their place, while EU operators may use an agent, see the official customs guidance on VAT identification and fiscal representation.

Choose the representative as carefully as a bank. The representative is jointly exposed on the VAT it undertakes to pay, so reputable firms audit your flows before accepting, require a financial guarantee or cash deposit proportionate to the expected VAT, and insist on receiving every invoice and customs document in real time. Agree in the mandate who prepares the CA3 return, who holds the payment credentials for the professional tax account, the deadline for transmitting documents each month, typically within the first ten days, the fee base, and the termination and handover procedure, because changing representative mid-year without transferring the full history is a classic source of duplicate or missing returns. Allow four to eight weeks from a complete file to an active, VIES-validated number, longer in summer and December, and do not promise customers a reverse-charge invoice before the number validates: issue compliant standard invoices in the meantime and credit or correct them once identified, with the correction trail your accountant can defend.

II. Charge, report and defend your French VAT: returns, refunds, audits and challenges

A. File, charge and recover French VAT: CA3 returns, deadlines, deduction and refunds from abroad

Once identified, you enter the monthly discipline of French VAT. Article 287 of the Code states: “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.” In English: every VAT debtor identified under the combined provisions of articles 286 ter and 286 ter A must file with its tax office, within the period set by order, a return conforming to the administration’s template. See article 287 of the General Tax Code on Légifrance. The same article sets the rhythm: “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.” In English: debtors under the standard actual-tax regime file the return monthly, showing total transactions and taxable detail, and the tax due is paid every month. Businesses whose annual VAT due is below 4,000 euros may file quarterly: “Lorsque la taxe exigible annuellement est inférieure à 4 000 €, ils sont admis à déposer leurs déclarations par trimestre civil.” Returns are filed online as CA3 forms through the professional account on impots.gouv.fr, the portal of the French tax administration, and payment is electronic and simultaneous. A foreign company with no French establishment files to the SIEE, through its representative where one is compulsory. Calendar discipline matters more than anywhere else in French compliance: one missed CA3 triggers reminders, then penalties, then a deeper look at the whole file.

The economic prize of compliance is deduction and refund of the VAT you bear in France. Article 271 of the Code states: “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.” In English: VAT that has burdened the price components of a taxable transaction is deductible from the VAT applicable to that transaction. The same article adds: “Le droit à déduction prend naissance lorsque la taxe déductible devient exigible chez le redevable.” In English: the right to deduct arises when the deductible tax becomes chargeable on the debtor. See article 271 of the General Tax Code on Légifrance. Where input VAT exceeds output VAT, the credit is carried forward and, under conditions set by decree, refunded, a lifeline for exporters, companies in a start-up investment phase, and foreign businesses whose French customers reverse-charge the output tax. The Cour de cassation has given this mechanism real teeth. In a 23 November 2022 decision on VAT credits arising during a company’s liquidation, the commercial chamber recalled: “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, et la taxe sur la valeur ajoutée déductible dont l’imputation n’a pu être opérée peut faire l’objet d’un remboursement dans les conditions, selon les modalités et dans les limites fixées par décret en Conseil d’Etat.” In English: VAT burdening taxable price components is deductible, and deductible VAT that could not be credited may be refunded under the conditions, procedures and limits set by decree in Conseil d’Etat. Relying on the Court of Justice’s Fini H ruling of 3 March 2005, case C-32/03, it held that “les coûts des opérations réalisées par une société assujettie pendant la période de liquidation de son activité doivent être considérés comme inhérents à l’activité économique, de sorte que le droit à déduction doit lui être reconnu si ces opérations présentent un lien direct et immédiat avec l’activité, pour autant que sa mise en oeuvre ne donne pas lieu à des situations frauduleuses ou abusives”. In English: costs of transactions carried out by a taxable company during the winding down of its business must be regarded as inherent to its economic activity, so the right to deduct must be recognized where those transactions show a direct and immediate link with the activity, provided implementation involves no fraud or abuse. See Cour de cassation, chambre commerciale, 23 novembre 2022, n° 21-13.613. For a foreign company, the lesson is practical: keep every French supplier invoice showing your valid VAT number, the supplier’s number, the date, the exact description of the goods or services, and the VAT charged; pay by traceable means; and be ready to show the direct link between each cost and your taxed activity, from warehouse rent to the liquidator-style wind-down costs the Court protected.

Deduction fails on formalities more often than on principle, so invoice discipline is part of VAT compliance. Every invoice you issue or receive must carry both VAT numbers where reverse charge applies, the correct legal mentions, sequential numbering without gaps, and the applicable regime wording. France is generalizing mandatory electronic invoicing, with structured e-invoices and e-reporting of transaction data to the administration on a phased calendar; foreign companies with French VAT identification are within scope for their French transactions, and our dedicated guide on mandatory e-invoicing for foreign companies in France details what to receive, what to issue, and the penalties for staying on paper. Late or missing returns are punished on a sliding scale. Article 1728 of the Code states: “Le défaut de production dans les délais prescrits d’une déclaration ou d’un acte comportant l’indication d’éléments à retenir pour l’assiette ou la liquidation de l’impôt entraîne l’application, sur le montant des droits mis à la charge du contribuable ou résultant de la déclaration ou de l’acte déposé tardivement, d’une majoration de : a. 10 % en l’absence de mise en demeure ou en cas de dépôt de la déclaration ou de l’acte dans les trente jours suivant la réception d’une mise en demeure d’avoir à le produire dans ce délai”. In English: failure to file a required return on time triggers a surcharge on the duties assessed, of 10 percent where there was no formal notice or where filing occurs within thirty days of one, rising to 40 percent beyond that. See article 1728 of the General Tax Code on Légifrance. Specific VAT reporting failures carry their own fines: article 1788 A states “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”. In English: failure to file the recapitulative statements on time draws a 750 euro fine, raised to 1,500 euros absent filing within thirty days of a formal notice. See article 1788 A of the General Tax Code on Légifrance. Late-payment interest runs on top, so a three-month filing drift can cost more than the representative’s annual fee.

B. VAT number delayed, refused or reassessed: reply, regularize and challenge the administration from abroad

A stalled registration and a reassessment share the same remedy: a fast, documented, procedurally exact response. If the SIEE asks for supplements, reply within the stated deadline, in French, addressing each numbered request with the exhibit it demands, and ask for confirmation of receipt; silence is read as abandonment and forces you to restart the queue. If the number is issued but does not validate on VIES, do not invoice under reverse charge until validation propagates: charge French VAT or postpone the invoice, then correct with a proper credit note once the number is live. If a French customer withholds payment because your number looks invalid, send the SIEE attribution letter, a fresh VIES screenshot, and your representative’s accreditation on the same day; most payment blocks dissolve within forty-eight hours of that pack. Where the file is truly blocked, a French lawyer’s formal letter identifying the exact missing legal basis often unblocks faster than repeated identical re-filings, because it forces the file onto the desk that can decide. The same discipline governs audits of companies already identified: our guide on tax audits and URSSAF controls for foreign-owned French companies describes the parallel control tracks you may face at the same time.

When the administration corrects your VAT, it must do so through a reasoned, adversarial procedure, and that procedure is your first line of defence. Article L. 57 of the Tax Procedure Book (Livre des procédures fiscales, LPF) states: “L’administration adresse au contribuable une proposition de rectification qui doit être motivée de manière à lui permettre de formuler ses observations ou de faire connaître son acceptation.” In English: the administration sends the taxpayer a reassessment proposal which must be reasoned so as to allow the taxpayer to submit observations or acceptance. The same article adds: “ce délai est prorogé de trente jours.” In English: on the taxpayer’s request received by the administration before the period expires, that period is extended by thirty days. See article L. 57 of the Tax Procedure Book on Légifrance. Concretely, you reply to the proposal with evidence: contracts proving the place of supply, transport documents, VIES validations, the representative’s filings, and computations. Request the thirty-day extension systematically when documents must travel from abroad or be translated; it is a right, not a favour, when requested in time. Ask for the hierarchical interview (recours hiérarchique) with the superior of the auditor and, for technical points, the departmental advisory commission: both are free, suspensive in practice while examined, and frequently halve reassessments built on misunderstandings of cross-border flows.

The courts police this adversarial process strictly, including for groups where several companies answer for the same tax. On 30 August 2023 the commercial chamber of the Cour de cassation restated the rule: “si l’administration fiscale peut choisir d’adresser la proposition de rectification à l’un seulement des redevables solidaires de la dette fiscale, la procédure ensuite suivie doit être contradictoire et la loyauté des débats l’oblige à notifier les actes de celle-ci à tous les redevables”. In English: while the tax administration may send the reassessment proposal to only one of the debtors jointly liable for the tax debt, the procedure that follows must be adversarial, and fairness requires notifying each step to all debtors. See Cour de cassation, chambre commerciale, 30 août 2023, n° 21-12.307. If your French subsidiary, your branch and your foreign parent receive inconsistent pieces of the same reassessment, invoke this decision immediately: a proposal notified to one entity cannot silently ground collection against another that never received the subsequent acts. After the reply stage, the formal dispute runs through a prior administrative claim (réclamation contentieuse) filed with the tax office that issued the assessment, then, if rejected expressly or by silence, an appeal to the administrative court (tribunal administratif) of the place of taxation, which for SIEE-managed files is Montreuil. Deadlines are short and jurisdictional, so diary them on receipt of each act, never on your accountant’s translation date. Paying under protest while disputing stops penalties and interest from compounding and is recovered with default interest if you win; refusing to pay while disputing requires a formal guarantee. Never ignore a French tax letter because it is in French: limitation and enforcement run regardless of language, and the bailiff (commissaire de justice, formerly huissier) who serves the enforceable collection instrument does not need your understanding to seize a French bank balance.

Conclusion

French VAT for a foreign company is a chain with four links: locate each transaction under articles 256 to 259, identify with the SIEE within fifteen days of starting, appoint an accredited fiscal representative if you are established outside the EU, and file the CA3 every month or quarter while protecting your article 271 deduction with complete invoices. Break one link and the rest fails: no valid number means no reverse charge, no representative means your customer answers for your tax, no return means surcharges under article 1728, and no adversarial reply means a reasoned proposal hardens into an enforceable assessment. The two court decisions in this guide show the system working in both directions: the 2022 ruling preserves deduction where a direct and immediate link with taxed activity exists, and the 2023 ruling annuls procedure where the administration sidelines a jointly liable debtor. Prepare the file before the first invoice, validate every VAT number on VIES, transmit documents to your representative within the first ten days of each month, and answer every proposal of rectification in French, on time, with exhibits. Run that routine and France becomes what it should be for a foreign founder: a large market with demanding but predictable VAT plumbing, not a trap. When the file stalls, the number refuses to validate, or a reassessment lands from Noisy-le-Grand, escalate early with counsel rather than re-filing the same papers: weeks are cheaper than penalties.

Need a quick opinion on your case

Phone consultation within 48 hours with a lawyer of the firm. Direct line: +33 6 46 60 58 22 (Maître Reda Kohen). Contact page: https://kohenavocats.fr/formulaire-de-contact/.