You formed your French company from London, New York or Dubai, the Kbis arrived in your inbox, and your first client is ready to sign. The Kbis is the official identity card of a French company, issued by the greffe, the clerk’s office of the commercial court, upon entry in the RCS, the Registre du commerce et des societes, the French trade and companies register. Then comes the cold shower: your accountant tells you that you cannot invoice yet because the French VAT number has not arrived, or your client refuses to pay an invoice without a valid VAT line, or the tax office writes that your company should have registered months ago. In France, the company number and the tax number are two different things, and confusing them blocks your cash from day one.

This guide is written for a foreign founder or a foreign group that owns a French vehicle and lives abroad. It explains how VAT registration works for a French company, when a foreign parent without a French company still needs a French VAT number, how to invoice lawfully while waiting, when a non-EU business must appoint a fiscal representative, and how to answer penalties and reassessments. Every decisive statement below rests on the exact French statute or court decision quoted word for word, with an official link you can open and check. French acronyms are explained at first use: TVA is taxe sur la valeur ajoutee, the French value added tax; DGFIP is the direction generale des finances publiques, the French tax administration; SIE is the service des impots des entreprises, the corporate tax office that manages your file; SIREN is the nine-digit company identifier and SIRET the fourteen-digit establishment identifier; INPI runs the Guichet unique, the single online portal for company filings; BODACC is the official gazette of commercial announcements; BOFIP is the published tax doctrine of the administration. The companion hub for this series is our guide to setting up a company in France as a foreign founder: bank account, Kbis, VAT and your first hire, which covers incorporation end to end; this article goes one level deeper on the VAT number alone, because that number decides when you can bill, deduct and get refunds.

One warning before the detail. French VAT is a calendar tax with short deadlines and automatic penalties, and distance does not pause the clock. A founder who waits for the number before doing anything, who invoices without the required lines, or who lets a barely missed refund deadline pass, loses cash twice: once on the blocked invoice, once on the penalty or the lost deduction. The two parts below follow the order of urgency: first, get identified and bill correctly; second, file, pay, deduct and defend the file when the administration challenges it.

I. How does your French company get a VAT number and bill clients without breaking the rules?

A. SIREN, VAT number and franchise: when is your French company identified for VAT and when can it wait?

Many foreign founders read the Kbis and assume the SIREN is the VAT number. It is not. The SIREN identifies the company; the intra-EU VAT number identifies the company as a VAT payer and is built in France from the letters FR, a two-digit key and the nine-digit SIREN. The Annuaire des Entreprises, the official French business directory, confirms that this identifier is assigned by the tax administration to every business liable for VAT and must appear on commercial and administrative documents, and that it is composed of the FR code, a key and the SIREN. Until the SIE activates that number, clients inside the European Union cannot verify you on the VIES register, and many will hold payment.

The scope of French VAT is deliberately wide. Under Article 256 of the General Tax Code, and I quote, 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. The administration therefore asks every new taxable person to come forward fast: under Article 286 of the General Tax Code, I quote, 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 today that declaration passes through the INPI Guichet unique at incorporation and through the SIE afterwards, but the fifteen-day logic has not changed: a company that starts trading and stays silent is already late, even if the Kbis looks clean.

Not every small French company must charge VAT from the first euro. Under Article 293 B of the General Tax Code, small taxable persons established in France enjoy what the statute calls, and I quote, bénéficient d’une franchise qui les dispense du paiement de la taxe sur la valeur ajoutée, a franchise that relieves them from paying VAT while turnover stays below the thresholds, currently 85,000 euros for sales of goods and 37,500 euros for most services for the previous calendar year, with higher current-year tolerance ceilings. A foreign founder running a small SAS or SARL from abroad can use that shelter, but the price is explicit: no VAT charged means no VAT deducted, and the invoice must state the franchise expressly. The moment the ceiling is crossed, the company becomes liable on the first day of the month of the crossing, must request identification, and must start charging. Founders who keep invoicing without VAT for months after strong sales are the classic reassessment file: the administration adds the VAT to the price, plus interest and surcharges.

Identification also matters for groups. A French subsidiary of a British or American parent is a French taxable person in its own right and needs its own number. A foreign company with no French establishment but with taxable transactions in France, such as domestic sales, warehouse stock, or installation services, may need a French VAT number without creating a company at all, and a non-EU business in that position must in principle appoint a representative. Under Article 289 A of the General Tax Code, and I quote, 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. The BOFIP doctrine on representation of traders established outside the European Union confirms the mechanism and lists the narrow exemptions, including states with mutual assistance instruments and specific suspended or reverse-charge operations. A Delaware, Dubai or Singapore parent that ships goods to French customers from a French warehouse without a number and without a representative is therefore exposed on two fronts: the VAT itself, and joint liability of the French recipient or platform.

Practical reflexes for this stage, applied from abroad. First, check the number the day the Kbis arrives: ask your accountant for the SIE notification, test the FR number on VIES, and align the SIREN, the head-office address and the activity code across the Guichet unique, the SIE and your invoices. Second, choose the regime deliberately with the accountant: franchise or real regime, monthly or quarterly filing, cash or debit option, because each choice changes the invoice wording and the refund rhythm. Third, if you are a non-EU parent selling into France without a French company, do not wait for a reassessment to appoint a fiscal representative; the accreditation takes weeks, and contracts signed in the meantime keep generating liability. Keep every filing receipt, every SIE letter and every representative mandate in one file: in a VAT dispute the administration always asks who declared what, and when.

B. Your clients will not pay without a proper invoice: what must a French VAT invoice show and who pays when the supplier is abroad?

A French invoice is not a commercial courtesy, it is the document that creates the deduction for your client and the liability for you. Under Article 289 of the General Tax Code, and I quote, Tout assujetti est tenu de s’assurer qu’une facture est émise, par lui-même, ou en son nom et pour son compte, par son client ou par un tiers, for supplies to another taxable person or to a non-taxable legal person that are not exempt, and for advance payments on those transactions. The invoice must carry the full identity of both parties, the individual FR VAT numbers of supplier and client for intra-EU flows, the date, a sequential number, the quantity and nature of goods or services, the price, the rate and the VAT amount per rate, and where relevant the legal reference for exemption, reverse charge or margin scheme. Missing or wrong numbers are not cosmetic: the client loses the deduction, comes back to you for a corrected invoice, or withholds the VAT amount from payment.

Who pays the VAT when the supplier sits outside France is the question that traps most foreign groups. The default French rule is simple: the person who carries out the taxable transaction pays. Under Article 283 of the General Tax Code, and I quote, La taxe sur la valeur ajoutée doit être acquittée par les personnes qui réalisent les opérations imposables, sous réserve des cas visés aux articles 275 à 277 A où le versement de la taxe peut être suspendu. Then come the exceptions that matter to you: still under the same article, and I quote, 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, with the amount identified on the return provided for by Article 287. In plain English: a foreign supplier without a French establishment does not charge French VAT; the French business client self-assesses it through reverse charge, provided that client holds a French VAT number. Your invoice in that case shows no French VAT and states the reverse-charge reference, and your French client declares both the collected and the deductible VAT on the same return.

Three everyday situations follow from these rules. First, your new French SAS bills a French client: charge 20 percent in most cases, show your FR number and the client’s number, and declare the output VAT on the next return. Second, your French SAS bills a German or Spanish business client for services: in many business-to-business cases the place of taxation moves to the client, you invoice without French VAT with the client’s valid EU number, and both sides report through the European sales statement. Third, your American parent bills your French subsidiary for management fees or software: the French subsidiary self-assesses French VAT under reverse charge, and the parent must not add French VAT to the invoice. Errors here are expensive in both directions: charging VAT where reverse charge applies leaves the client unable to deduct and you holding a liability you should not have collected; omitting VAT where you should have charged leaves you paying it out of your margin after reassessment.

Imports add a further layer that foreign founders discover through their carrier. In a 2026 ruling on goods shipped from the United States through logistics platforms in France, the commercial chamber of the Cour de cassation restated, and I quote from the official decision Cass. com., 11 February 2026, No. 24-18.748, that, and I quote, à l’importation, le fait générateur se produit et la taxe sur la valeur ajoutée devient exigible au moment où le bien est considéré comme importé et la taxe doit être acquittée par la personne désignée comme destinataire réel des biens sur la déclaration d’importation, adding, and I quote, Toutefois, cette taxe est solidairement due par le déclarant en douane qui agit dans le cadre d’un mandat de représentation indirecte, tel que défini par l’article 5 du code des douanes communautaire. The same decision recalls, and I quote, que la représentation en douanes doit être expresse et ne se présume pas. For a foreign group this means the mandate given to the carrier, the freight forwarder or the marketplace matters as much as the commercial invoice: whoever is named as the real consignee and whoever signs as indirect representative can both be pursued for the import VAT. Check those transport mandates before the goods land, not after the collection notice arrives.

II. How do you file, pay and recover VAT from abroad, and how do you answer a reassessment?

A. Monthly or quarterly returns, payment and refunds: what calendar applies to a French company run from abroad?

Once identified, your French company lives on a filing rhythm that never sleeps, even when you are on another continent. Under Article 287 of the General Tax Code, and I quote, 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. Under the standard real regime, that return is monthly, showing total transactions and taxable detail, with the payable VAT settled each month; businesses whose annual payable VAT stays below 4,000 euros may file quarterly. Under the simplified regime, the company files one annual return with two half-yearly instalments in July and December, equal to 55 percent and 40 percent of the previous year’s VAT before deduction of capital-goods VAT, and pays any balance with the annual return. Your accountant sets the bank direct debit from the French company account, because a return filed without payment still draws late interest, and payment without a return still draws a penalty for missing declaration.

The other side of the return is deduction and refund, where foreign-owned companies often leave money on the table. French VAT on purchases, imports, intra-EU acquisitions and eligible overhead is deductible from output VAT, and a persistent credit can be carried forward or refunded on request. The Cour de cassation polices the deadlines strictly. In a 2025 decision on a VAT credit claimed years after the invoices, the commercial chamber held, and I quote from the official decision Cass. com., 1 October 2025, No. 24-14.456, that where the supplier opted for debit-based payment, and I quote, doit déclarer la TVA déductible figurant sur les factures dans le mois de leur réception et au plus tard le 31 décembre de la deuxième année suivante, adding, and I quote, A défaut de déclaration dans ces délais, le crédit de TVA ne peut donner lieu ni à imputation ni à remboursement. A founder who stores supplier invoices in an email folder and hands them to the accountant two years later does not get a second chance: the credit dies, and no judge will revive it because the business was young or the director lived abroad.

Distance makes three disciplines non-negotiable. First, mandate a French accountant with an explicit engagement letter covering VAT returns, European sales statements, and where relevant the DES for intra-EU services, Intrastat-style statistical statements, and import VAT entries, with a named deputy during holidays. Second, centralise invoices in real time: every supplier invoice with VAT, every import document, every client credit note must reach the bookkeeping within days, with the FR numbers, dates and sequential numbering verifiable at a glance. Third, watch the bank: VAT is paid from the company account by direct debit, refunds arrive on the same account, and a closed or frozen account after a bank change is the most common reason a compliant company suddenly looks late. Companies that bill in a foreign currency should also fix the conversion rule with the accountant, because the taxable amount and the VAT must be shown in euros on the French return even when the contract is priced in dollars or pounds.

Two traps deserve special attention from foreign founders. The first is the European sales statement and the recapitulative reporting: intra-EU supplies reported late or with an invalid client number trigger automated cross-checks between member states, and the French SIE follows up with requests that look minor and become reassessments when ignored. The second is the franchise hangover: a company that outgrows the Article 293 B ceilings but keeps the old invoice template without VAT builds a hidden debt equal to the uncollected VAT on months of turnover, and the correction lands in a single year. Both traps share the same cure: monthly bookkeeping with bank reconciliation, immediate correction of rejected returns, and a short written note each quarter from the accountant confirming the regime, the option and the filing dates for the next quarter.

B. The SIE challenges your VAT: which penalties apply and how do you contest from abroad?

A VAT audit usually starts quietly: a request for invoices, a question about a missing European statement, a notice that the FR number cannot be validated, or a proposed reassessment after a cross-check with customs data. The amounts move fast because the administration adds the principal, late interest, and surcharges in one notice, and the collection notice is enforceable while you appeal unless you obtain suspension. Understanding the penalty ladder before you reply decides whether you negotiate a correction or fight the whole basis.

The surcharge scale is set by statute, not by the auditor’s mood. Under Article 1729 of the General Tax Code, and I quote the opening of the provision, 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, followed by 40 percent for deliberate failure, 80 percent for abuse of law or fraud, reduced to 40 percent where the taxpayer neither initiated nor principally benefited from the abuse. Specific VAT fines sit alongside: failure to file or late filing of European statements, missing registers and invoice copies, and failure to report deductible VAT on the Article 287 return for the period can each draw fixed or proportional fines, and obstructing a warehouse or documentary check draws heavier treatment. Late interest accrues month by month on top, so a two-year-old VAT gap roughly doubles in pain once surcharges and interest combine.

The reply path is administrative first, judicial second, and both run on deadlines that a founder abroad must diary the day the notice arrives. Claims fall under the contentious jurisdiction where they seek to repair assessment or computation errors or to claim a right under statute or regulation. Under Article L190 of the Book of Tax Procedures, and I quote, Les réclamations relatives aux impôts, contributions, droits, taxes, redevances, soultes et pénalités de toute nature, établis ou recouvrés par les agents de l’administration, relèvent de la juridiction contentieuse lorsqu’elles tendent à obtenir soit la réparation d’erreurs commises dans l’assiette ou le calcul des impositions, soit le bénéfice d’un droit résultant d’une disposition législative ou réglementaire. In practice you file a reasoned claim with the SIE, attach every invoice, contract, transport document and bank proof in numbered exhibits, and ask for discharge or reduction; the administration must answer, and silence after six months counts as an implied rejection you can take to the administrative court. Parallel routes exist where useful: request a payment plan from the accountant of the SIE while contesting the basis, ask for remission of penalties on proof of good faith once the principal is settled, and where the dispute turns on an EU law point, plead the directive and the case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union directly.

Four moves protect a non-resident company during the dispute. First, answer every information request in writing and on time, even with a partial file, and state what follows and when; silence is read as agreement with the proposed basis. Second, rebuild the paper chain the auditor doubts: corrected invoices with the right FR numbers, sequential numbering without gaps, transport proofs for intra-EU movements, import declarations matching the accounting, and bank statements matching the returns. Third, challenge the penalty separately from the principal: deliberate failure and fraud require proof of intent, and a documented franchise crossing, a first-year bookkeeping error corrected at once, or a representative appointed late but voluntarily can move a file from 80 or 40 percent down to interest only. Fourth, secure the future while fighting the past: activate the FR number on VIES, fix the invoice template, switch the filing to monthly if quarterly keeps producing gaps, and give the accountant a standing instruction to alert you the day a return is rejected. Courts forgive a corrected error far more readily than a repeated one, and the file that shows immediate correction is the file that settles.

Conclusion

A French company owned from abroad stands or falls on its VAT discipline. Get the FR number activated as soon as the SIREN exists, choose between franchise and real regime with open eyes, invoice with the exact legal lines, and never confuse the company number with the tax number. File on the monthly or quarterly rhythm without exception, claim deductions inside the strict declaration deadlines the Cour de cassation enforces to the month, and appoint a fiscal representative before a non-EU parent generates French liability rather than after the first collection notice. When the SIE challenges the file, reply fast, exhibit by exhibit, separate the principal from the penalty, and fix the template the same week. VAT in France rewards founders who treat paperwork as cash: every correct invoice accelerates payment, every missed deadline converts deductible VAT into a lost cost. Keep the hub guide for incorporation steps, keep this VAT method for the billing engine, and keep your accountant on a monthly heartbeat so that distance never becomes delay.

Need a quick opinion on your case

Our Paris firm advises foreign founders and groups on French VAT registration, invoicing, fiscal representation and disputes with the tax administration. Telephone consultation: 80 EUR TTC, with a callback within 48 hours. Call +33 6 46 60 58 22 or write through our contact page with your Kbis, your latest invoices and any letter from the tax office, and you receive a concrete action plan for registration, correction or appeal.