You formed a company in France, but you live in London, New York, Dubai or Singapore. The company is registered, the Kbis (the official company identity certificate issued by the greffe, the commercial court registry) has arrived, and the first customers are asking for invoices. Then comes the question that blocks everything: does this company need its own French VAT number, and if so, how do you get one, charge VAT correctly, and file returns when you never set foot in a French tax office? This guide answers that question from start to finish for foreign founders and foreign groups selling goods or services connected with France.

VAT here means TVA, taxe sur la valeur ajoutée, the French value-added tax. The core rule is simple and it is written in the very first article of the VAT chapter of the French Tax Code (the CGI, Code général des impôts): 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. That sentence, from Article 256 of the CGI, means that any supply of goods or services for payment by a taxable person acting as such falls within VAT. Your French company is a taxable person from the day it starts trading, even if its shareholder and its director live abroad. The practical difficulty is never whether VAT exists. It is where the transaction is taxed, whether you must register in France or can use a simplification, and how to repair the situation when registration or filing has been missed.

What follows is written for the business reader who manages a French SAS (société par actions simplifiée, the flexible joint-stock company most foreign founders choose), a SARL (société à responsabilité limitée, the limited liability company with stricter statutory rules), a branch (succursale) or a subsidiary of a foreign group. Every French acronym is explained the first time it appears. Every decisive legal statement is anchored to a verifiable official text, and the general formation steps for a foreign-owned company are covered in our companion guide on setting up a company in France as a foreign founder, which this article completes on the tax side.

I. Does your foreign-owned French business really need a French VAT number?

A. When French VAT applies to your sales: place of supply of goods and services

VAT is a territorial tax. Before asking how to register, you must determine whether your transactions are treated as taking place in France at all, because the answer decides who charges the tax and whether a French VAT number is needed. French law answers this through place-of-supply rules that mirror the EU VAT Directive, and the two families of transactions, goods and services, obey different logic.

For goods, the starting point is physical location. Article 258 of the CGI provides that Le lieu de livraison de biens meubles corporels est réputé se situer en France lorsque le bien se trouve en France, and it lists the decisive moments, including Au moment de l’expédition ou du transport par le vendeur, par l’acquéreur, ou pour leur compte, à destination de l’acquéreur. In plain terms, goods stored in France and shipped to a French customer are a French domestic supply: your company charges French VAT, currently 20 percent as the standard rate, and needs a French VAT identification to do so. Goods assembled or installed in France by or on behalf of the seller follow the same logic. If you hold stock in a French warehouse, use a French fulfilment centre, or sell through a marketplace with French warehousing, the place of supply is France and registration is unavoidable.

Distance selling within the European Union obeys a distinct regime that every e-commerce founder must understand. Since July 2021, all intra-EU distance sales of goods to private individuals are counted against a single Union-wide threshold of 10,000 euros excluding VAT per calendar year. Below that threshold, a company established in only one Member State may charge the VAT of its home State. Above it, VAT is due in the Member State of arrival, which for your French customers means French VAT. The alternative chosen by most cross-border sellers is the One-Stop Shop (the OSS, guichet unique TVA in French), a single EU portal registration that lets a business declare and pay the VAT due in every Member State of destination through one quarterly return filed in its State of identification, instead of registering separately in each country. The OSS covers intra-EU distance sales of goods and most cross-border services to consumers. It does not cover domestic French sales by a French-established company, and it does not cover goods imported from outside the EU above low values, which fall under the Import One-Stop Shop (the IOSS, capped at consignments of 150 euros intrinsic value) or under standard import VAT. Choosing between a French domestic registration and the OSS is therefore a mapping exercise: list every flow, locate each customer, and assign each flow to the right declaration channel.

For services, the logic turns on the status of the customer. Article 259 of the CGI states 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. The rule is the well-known business-to-business principle: a service supplied to a taxable business customer is taxed where that customer is established. If your French company invoices consulting, software development, design or marketing services to a German company that acts as a taxable person, the place of supply is Germany, not France, and the German customer accounts for the tax under its own reverse-charge mechanism. Conversely, services your French company buys from a provider established outside France, for example an American software supplier or a British agency, are located in France when your company is the taxable customer, and your company must account for French VAT on those purchases through reverse charge, as explained in Part II. The mirror rule applies to services supplied to private individuals, which are generally taxed where the supplier is established, with a long list of exceptions for property-related services, passenger transport, cultural and sporting events, restaurant services and electronically supplied services. The official enterprise portal confirms these distinctions for intra-Community exchanges on the page dedicated to TVA applicable aux échanges de biens dans l’Union européenne, which remains the most reliable starting point in French administration guidance.

B. How to get registered from abroad: tax office, identification, fiscal representative and the OSS choice

Once you have established that at least one flow is located in France, registration becomes a legal duty with a clock attached. Article 286 of the CGI is explicit about timing: 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. The same article adds that Une déclaration est également obligatoire en cas de cessation d’entreprise, which matters when you later close or sell the company and must deregister cleanly. Fifteen days from the start of operations is short, and foreign founders routinely miss it while they wait for the bank account or the first invoice. Late registration does not cancel the VAT due on the intervening sales, and it exposes the company to the late-filing penalties described in Part II, so the registration file should be prepared in parallel with incorporation, not after the first customer pays.

In practice, a French company receives its VAT identification almost automatically through the formation chain. When the company is registered with the Registre national des entreprises (the RNE, the single national business register operated through the INPI, the French intellectual property and companies institute) via the Guichet unique (the single online filing portal for business formalities), the tax administration (the DGFIP, Direction générale des finances publiques) assigns a SIREN number (the nine-digit company identifier), a SIRET number (SIREN plus five digits identifying each establishment), and, for a company that declares taxable activity, an intra-Community VAT number built as FR followed by two control digits and the nine-digit SIREN. The competent office is the SIE (Service des impôts des entreprises, the corporate tax office) of the place of the registered office, the siège social. For a company domiciled in Paris or elsewhere in the Île-de-France region, that means the SIE covering the arrondissement or département of the siège, several of which in Paris handle large numbers of foreign-owned companies and communicate through the professional online account (the espace professionnel on impots.gouv.fr) rather than over the counter. Keep the siège address stable during the first months, because moving it shifts the competent SIE and routinely delays the issuance of the number. The administration explains the delivery and the verification of this number on its enterprise page for the numéro de TVA intracommunautaire, which also describes how any business partner can check the validity of your number through the European VIES database before paying an invoice without VAT.

Two situations require more than the standard company track. The first is the foreign business with no French company at all that nevertheless carries out taxable transactions in France: a British, American or Swiss business storing goods in France, selling at a French trade fair with goods delivered on the spot, or performing installation work in France. Such a business must obtain a French VAT number directly from the French tax administration, and if it is established outside the European Union, it must in principle appoint a représentant fiscal (a fiscal representative), an accredited French-established person who files and pays in its place and is jointly liable for the VAT. Within the EU, the lighter mécanisme du mandat (a tax agent without joint liability) generally suffices, and many verification steps can be completed through the professional online account. The second situation is the French company whose only cross-border flows are intra-EU distance sales or services to consumers in other Member States. That company keeps its French VAT number for domestic operations and adds an OSS registration through the French portal, filing one OSS return per quarter for the destination States while continuing to file its French domestic return (the CA3, déclaration de TVA) for French VAT. The OSS is a declaration channel, not a substitute identification: it never replaces the French number for French domestic sales, French purchases subject to reverse charge, or import operations.

Imports deserve a separate paragraph because foreign founders confuse customs duties with import VAT. Since 2022, import VAT in France is no longer paid at the border to customs but declared and deducted on the VAT return itself through the reverse-charge mechanism known as autoliquidation, which Article 1695 of the CGI frames by stating that La taxe sur la valeur ajoutée est déclarée et perçue lorsqu’elle devient exigible, pour les opérations suivantes : 1° Les importations pour lesquelles le redevable est une personne non assujettie et non identifiée conformément aux dispositions combinées des articles 286 ter et 286 ter A. A company that holds a French VAT number reports the import VAT on its CA3 and deducts it on the same return when the goods are used for taxable activity, which makes the operation cash-neutral if the deduction is fully available. A company without a French VAT number, or a non-EU business importing without a fiscal representative, cannot use this mechanism and pays the VAT at the border. The EORI number (Economic Operators Registration and Identification, the EU customs identifier) is the companion tool: it identifies the importer to customs, while the VAT number identifies the taxpayer to the tax administration. You need both when goods physically cross the border into France, and only the VAT number when the transaction is a domestic or intra-EU supply with no customs step.

II. Once registered, how do you charge, report and fix French VAT from abroad?

A. How to charge VAT, issue compliant invoices and use reverse charge correctly

Registration gives you a number. It does not tell you what to write on the invoice, and invoice errors are the single most expensive mistake foreign-managed companies make, because the customer cannot deduct VAT that is wrongly charged and the administration can refuse your own deductions when the paperwork is defective. Article 289 of the CGI imposes the discipline in one sentence: 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. Every invoice between taxable persons must show the supplier’s and the customer’s VAT numbers, the date, a sequential number, the quantity and nature of the goods or services, the taxable base per rate, the VAT rate applied, and the resulting amount. Since the gradual entry into force of electronic invoicing (facturation électronique) for domestic business-to-business transactions, invoices must also transit in a structured format through a compliant platform, with e-reporting (transmission of transaction data to the administration) for transactions with consumers and foreign counterparts. A foreign director who keeps invoicing from a foreign spreadsheet template with no VAT number, no sequential numbering and a rate copied from the home country builds a file in which every invoice will have to be reissued.

The general rule for who pays the VAT is that the supplier collects it. Article 283 of the CGI states that La taxe sur la valeur ajoutée doit être acquittée par les personnes qui réalisent les opérations imposables, then creates the exception that governs most cross-border purchases: 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. This is the reverse charge (autoliquidation): the French customer declares the VAT on its own return and deducts it on the same return, so no money changes hands for the tax. For your company, the mechanism works in both directions. When your French company buys services from a foreign supplier, your company self-assesses French VAT and shows the corresponding amount on the return identified by the rule, since Le montant dû est identifié sur la déclaration mentionnée à l’article 287. When your French company supplies services to a taxable customer established in another Member State, your company issues the invoice without French VAT, mentions the customer’s valid VAT number with the reference to reverse charge, and reports the sale on the European sales list (the état récapitulatif, known as EC Sales List). The three most frequent errors are issuing a French-VAT invoice to a customer who should have been reverse-charged, omitting the VAT number verification on VIES so that an invalid customer number poisons the whole chain, and forgetting the EC Sales List, which the administration reads as a signal of incomplete reporting.

Domestic reverse-charge cases inside France add a layer that surprises foreign builders and traders. Subcontracted construction work (travaux de construction effectués par un sous-traitant) is subject to domestic reverse charge: the subcontractor invoices without VAT and the principal contractor self-assesses it. Transfers of emission allowances, supplies of gold above defined purity, and certain supplies of electronic components follow similar self-assessment logic. If your French company operates in construction, renovation or industrial supply, the contract must state clearly which party accounts for the VAT, because the default reflex of adding 20 percent on every invoice produces exactly the error the law wanted to prevent. Keep for every cross-border and domestic reverse-charge invoice the proof that justified the treatment on the day it was issued: the VIES verification result, the customer’s VAT number, evidence of transport for goods leaving France, and the contract showing where the service was actually used. When the file is inspected two or three years later, which is the normal audit horizon, only these contemporaneous documents protect the deduction.

B. How to file returns, pay on time and fix penalties after a mistake

Filing is monthly by default and entirely online, which is good news for a director living abroad and bad news for one who assumed paper or the home-country accountant would handle it. Article 287 of the CGI provides that 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-normal regime (régime réel normal), the company files the CA3 return each month, reporting total transactions, taxable transactions per rate, deductible VAT on purchases and expenses, and the resulting balance, and it pays the VAT due at the same time. Companies whose annual VAT payable stays below defined thresholds may use the simplified regime (régime réel simplifié) with quarterly instalments and one annual return, but a fast-growing foreign-owned company usually outgrows that option within its first full year. The return is filed and the payment is made through the espace professionnel on impots.gouv.fr, accessible from abroad with the company’s credentials, and the SIE of the siège social remains the competent office until any transfer of the siège takes effect. Calendar discipline matters more than anywhere else in French compliance: VAT operates on strict monthly deadlines, and a return filed a few days late counts as late.

Late or wrong returns trigger a penalty scale that the law states with unusual precision. Article 1728 of the CGI provides that 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 ; b. 40 % lorsque la déclaration ou l’acte n’a pas été déposé dans les trente jours suivant la réception d’une mise en demeure d’avoir à le produire dans ce délai, rising to 80 percent where an undisclosed business activity is discovered. Inaccuracies inside a filed return fall under Article 1729 of the CGI, which states that 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 lead to a surcharge, and that this surcharge reaches 40 % en cas de manquement délibéré, with 80 percent for abuse of law. Late-payment interest accrues on top of these surcharges. For a company that missed several months of CA3 returns while the director was abroad, the arithmetic of 10 percent per return plus interest quickly exceeds the VAT itself, which is why the first corrective reflex must be to file the missing returns before the SIE sends a formal demand (mise en demeure): filing within thirty days of the demand keeps the surcharge at 10 percent instead of 40 percent.

Repair follows a clear order that can be executed entirely from abroad. First, reconstruct the period: list every sale and purchase with its place-of-supply analysis, reissue or correct the non-compliant invoices, and verify every customer VAT number on VIES with dated screenshots. Second, file the missing or corrective returns through the espace professionnel and pay the principal and the surcharges shown, because spontaneous filing before any audit notice usually preserves the lower penalty rates and demonstrates good faith. Third, where the amounts threaten cash flow, request a payment plan (délai de paiement) from the SIE with the returns attached; the SIE grants schedules more readily to a company that has just regularised than to one that waits for enforcement. Fourth, if the SIE has already issued a reassessment (proposition de rectification) that the company disputes, reply within the stated deadline with the transport proofs, contracts and VIES records, and escalate through the hierarchical appeal (recours hiérarchique) and then to the administrative court if the disagreement persists. Fifth, where the company was never registered and should have been, register immediately and file retroactive returns for the unregistered period rather than hoping the gap stays unnoticed, since the discovery of an undisclosed activity carries the 80 percent rate. Keep every exchange with the SIE in writing through the online messaging system so the file shows dates, and never ignore a mise en demeure: the thirty-day window it opens is the last cheap exit before the rate jumps.

Conclusion

A French VAT number is not a trophy to collect at incorporation. It is the working instrument of every sale, purchase and import your French company makes, and for a founder living abroad it is also the earliest test of whether the company can run French compliance at a distance. Map each flow to its place of supply under Articles 258 and 259, register within fifteen days of starting operations under Article 286 with the SIE of the siège social, appoint a fiscal representative when the structure requires one, and choose the OSS only for the flows it truly covers. Then invoice exactly under Article 289, apply reverse charge where Article 283 commands it, file the CA3 every month under Article 287, and correct any gap before the penalty scale of Articles 1728 and 1729 makes the correction expensive. Companies that follow this order collect VAT they can keep, deduct VAT they have paid, and face audits with a file that speaks for itself. Companies that improvise discover the same rules later, in the form of reassessments, and pay to learn them twice.