You live in London, New York, Dubai or Singapore, and your French company — usually a SAS (société par actions simplifiée, the flexible joint-stock company most foreign founders choose) or a SARL (société à responsabilité limitée, the limited liability company with stricter statutory rules) — has already obtained its Kbis (the official identity certificate issued by the greffe, the registry of the commercial court, which proves that the company exists). During the first months you paid a large amount of French value added tax: 20% on the fit-out of the office, on computers, on stock, on legal and accounting fees, on rent deposits charged with VAT. Yet the company has made few or no sales in France so far, so it has collected almost no VAT from customers. The result sits in the accounts under an unfamiliar label — crédit de TVA, a VAT credit — and your accountant tells you that real money is sleeping at the tax office. This guide explains, in English and for a business reader who manages from abroad, when that credit can be turned back into cash, how to file the refund claim without living in France, which deadlines and minimum amounts apply, and how to react when the French tax administration (direction générale des finances publiques, DGFIP) delays the payment or rejects the claim. Every French acronym is explained as it goes: TVA (taxe sur la valeur ajoutée, value added tax), CGI (Code général des impôts, the French Tax Code), SIE (service des impôts des entreprises, the corporate tax office that handles your company), CA3 (the standard VAT return form), and LPF (Livre des procédures fiscales, the Tax Procedures Book). Each decisive statement is anchored to an official source: the CGI on Légifrance, the impots.gouv.fr professional pages, and the Service-Public business portal.

The logic of the French system can be stated simply before the detail. A company established in France that is liable for VAT deducts the VAT it paid on its purchases from the VAT it collected on its sales, and pays only the difference to the Treasury. When the deductible VAT is higher than the collected VAT, the excess is a credit: the company may either carry it forward against the next returns or ask for it to be refunded in cash, including when the young company has not yet made any taxable sales. The refund is never automatic; it must be claimed on a specific form, above a minimum amount, within strict deadlines, and the tax office checks the supporting invoices before paying. If the claim is incomplete or late, the money stays with the Treasury and penalties can be added; if the administration refuses to pay, the company must first file a formal complaint (réclamation) before it can go to court. The sections below follow that order: first, how the credit arises and how to claim it from abroad, then why claims fail and how to challenge a refusal. Readers who are still choosing the legal vehicle for their French project should start with our guide to choosing between a SAS, a SARL, a branch and a subsidiary in France, and readers who are setting up the company from scratch will find the registration steps in our foreign founder setup guide covering the bank account, the Kbis, VAT and the first hire. VAT registration itself, the thresholds and the regular returns are covered in our companion piece on VAT registration, thresholds, returns and reassessment; this article deals only with the next step, getting the credit back in cash.

I. How do I claim a VAT refund for my French company while living abroad?

A. When does a VAT credit arise, and should you carry it forward or claim it in cash?

A VAT credit arises from a subtraction that every founder should understand. French VAT applies, in the words of the statute, because “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.” (Article 256 of the CGI). In plain English: supplies of goods and services made for consideration by a taxable person acting as such are subject to VAT. Your French company, once registered, charges VAT on its invoices — usually at the standard 20% rate — and that is the collected VAT (TVA collectée). Symmetrically, the VAT shown on the invoices of its suppliers — rent, equipment, stock, professional fees, imports — is the deductible VAT (TVA déductible), provided the company holds proper invoices. Each return period, the company sets one against the other and pays the balance. When the deductible amount is larger than the collected amount, the difference is neither lost nor automatically repaid: it becomes a VAT credit (crédit de TVA) recorded on the return.

For a foreign-owned company in its first year, a credit is the normal situation rather than an anomaly. Setup costs carry 20% VAT while sales are still at zero; a trading company builds stock taxed at 20% before the first customer pays; a service company pays VAT on lawyers, accountants and software while its order book fills slowly. The impots.gouv.fr professional pages confirm expressly that a company may claim a refund even when it is just starting: a request can be made for a business that is beginning its activity and has not yet made any sales or services subject to VAT, in which case the claim may cover all the deductible VAT on the launch expenses. That single sentence matters enormously for foreign founders, because it means the cash buried in the launch phase is recoverable from year one instead of waiting for future profits. The statute states the principle in general terms: “La taxe 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.” (Article 271 of the CGI). Deductible VAT that could not be set off may be refunded, under conditions fixed by decree — and the decrees and administrative practice have built the procedure described below.

Before claiming, the founder must check that the VAT is genuinely deductible, because the tax office will do exactly that. The statute allows the deduction for supplies of goods and services on one strict condition: “Pour les livraisons de biens et les prestations de services, si les redevables sont en possession des factures” (Article 271 of the CGI). No invoice, no deduction: a bank statement, a foreign-language pro forma, or a receipt without the mandatory particulars does not prove the right to deduct. That is why the same code imposes invoicing duties in the first place: “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” (Article 289 of the CGI). Every taxable person must ensure that an invoice is issued. From abroad, the practical consequence is organisational: the company needs a disciplined circuit where every supplier invoice reaches the accountant, in compliant form, before the return is filed. Certain categories of expenditure are also wholly or partly excluded from deduction by statute and by settled administrative doctrine — company cars, most housing and hospitality spending, and entertainment are the classic traps — so the founder should ask the accountant to review deductibility line by line rather than assuming that 20% shown on every bill is recoverable. A credit built on non-deductible VAT is not a credit at all, and claiming it invites the rejection described in Part II.

Once a genuine credit exists, the company faces a choice that the tax administration leaves entirely to it: carry the credit forward (imputation) against the VAT due on the following returns, or ask for it in cash (remboursement). The impots.gouv.fr pages state this plainly: the refund is not compulsory, and using the credit is left to the company’s judgment — it may either carry it forward or request the refund. For a profitable company with regular French sales, carrying forward is often simplest, because next month’s collected VAT absorbs the credit automatically. For a foreign-held startup with no sales yet, carrying forward means leaving cash idle for months or years, and the refund is usually the better commercial decision. For a company with irregular sales, the founder can mix both: carry part of the credit forward and claim the rest. There is no single right answer; the test is cash flow. A founder managing from abroad should run the numbers with the accountant each quarter: how much credit is sleeping, when will future collected VAT realistically absorb it, and what does the company lose by waiting. One further distinction must be kept in mind. If the foreign parent company itself — not the French subsidiary — paid French VAT on expenses such as trade fairs, hotels or meetings, that VAT cannot be recovered through the French company’s returns; non-established businesses use a separate European procedure (the so-called 8th and 13th Directives, with strict mid-year deadlines of the following year). Specialist commentary confirms the boundary: if you make sales in France, you cannot use these directives and must register for VAT and file regular returns. Since this article assumes a French company with a Kbis filing its own returns, the domestic credit and its refund are the only path examined here.

B. How do you file the refund claim from abroad without missing the deadline?

The refund claim is a formal administrative step, not a phone call, and it starts from the company’s VAT identification. Every taxable person must declare the start of its activity — “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.” (Article 286 of the CGI). In practice, foreign founders complete this through the single business registration portal (Guichet unique, operated via the INPI, the national industrial property institute that runs the company register), and the SIE then issues the intra-Community VAT number starting with FR that customers and suppliers ask for. Once identified, the company files returns: “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.” (Article 287 of the CGI). Every identified VAT payer must file the prescribed return with its tax office within the set deadline. Under the standard monthly regime (réel normal), the return — the CA3 — is filed each month and the VAT due is paid monthly; companies whose annual VAT bill is small may file quarterly, since the statute provides that “Lorsque la taxe exigible annuellement est inférieure à 4 000 €, ils sont admis à déposer leurs déclarations par trimestre civil.” (Article 287 of the CGI). A simplified annual regime (CA12) exists for the smallest businesses. The founder abroad does not file paper from London or Dubai: everything runs through the company’s professional account on impots.gouv.fr, usually operated by the French accountant under a mandate (mandat). The first practical check for any founder is therefore simple — does the accountant hold a valid mandate on the impots.gouv.fr professional space, and are the returns actually filed each month? Many refund failures begin with a return that was never filed.

The refund request itself uses a dedicated form, number 3519, transmitted electronically together with the return that shows the credit. The impots.gouv.fr tables give the minimum amount and the calendar precisely. The minimum credit that can be claimed is 150 euros. Below that figure, the credit can only be carried forward; at or above it, the company may choose the refund. The filing moment depends on the return rhythm. For monthly filers, the request is made in January, at the same time as the electronic transmission of the December return of the previous year. For quarterly filers, it is made before 5 February, together with the fourth-quarter return of the previous year. Companies under the simplified annual regime claim with their annual CA12 return, by the second working day following 1 May for a calendar year. These dates are strict in practice: a claim filed outside the window or on the wrong form is the most common reason a refund file stalls. The founder should therefore diarise two things at the start of every year — the return that crystallises the credit, and the claim that converts it into cash — and confirm with the accountant that both were transmitted. The request must also state where the money goes: the company’s French bank details (RIB, relevé d’identité bancaire). A foreign IBAN can complicate or slow the payment, which is one more reason the French company account matters from day one; founders who struggled to open one will recognise the companion problem treated in our setup guide.

Two frequent complications deserve attention before filing. First, companies that buy goods from other EU countries or import from outside the EU must show that VAT correctly on their returns. For intra-Community acquisitions and imports, the deduction is allowed only if the company entered all the data needed to establish the tax due on the return provided for in Article 287 and holds the proper documents — the EU-compliant invoice for intra-Community purchases, the import declaration for imports. A founder whose French company stocks up from a German or Italian supplier, or imports from the United States or Asia, should verify that each acquisition appears on the CA3 with the matching self-assessed VAT; otherwise the credit is overstated and the refund request collapses under verification. The reverse-charge mechanism (autoliquidation) adds a mirror rule worth knowing: where a supply covered by Article 259 A is made by a business established outside France, “la taxe est acquittée par l’acquéreur, le destinataire ou le preneur qui agit en tant qu’assujetti et qui dispose d’un numéro d’identification à la taxe sur la valeur ajoutée en France” (Article 283 of the CGI). The French customer that is itself identified for VAT pays the tax instead of the foreign supplier. For the French subsidiary buying services from its foreign parent, this means the subsidiary self-assesses French VAT on the purchase, deducts it on the same return if the conditions are met, and the operation is neutral — but only if both lines are correctly entered. Second, the company must keep every supporting document. Purchase invoices, import declarations, intra-Community invoices and the returns themselves must be stored and producible, because the SIE routinely asks for them before releasing a first refund, especially for young companies and for large amounts. A founder abroad should insist on a simple rule: no invoice copy in the shared drive, no deduction on the return.

II. My French VAT refund was delayed or rejected while I live abroad — how do I challenge it?

A. Why does the tax office delay or reject VAT refund claims?

A refund that does not arrive has one of a small number of causes, and identifying the right one determines the remedy. The most frequent is documentary: the SIE asks for invoices, import declarations or contracts, and the file is incomplete. Because the deduction requires possession of the invoices, any gap — a missing invoice, an invoice without the VAT number, a credit note not matched to the original bill — justifies the office in suspending payment until the company completes the file. The second cause is inconsistency on the returns themselves: the credit claimed does not match the returns, an intra-Community acquisition was omitted, a reverse-charge line is missing, or the figures differ from the supplier listings the administration holds. The third cause is timing: the return bearing the credit was filed late, or the refund form was sent outside the annual window described above. Late filing also triggers its own penalties, which increase the bill instead of reducing it: “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” (Article 1728 of the CGI) — 10% with no formal notice or if filed within thirty days of one, 40% beyond that, 80% where an undeclared activity is discovered. Unpaid amounts also bear late interest, since “Toute créance de nature fiscale, dont l’établissement ou le recouvrement incombe aux administrations fiscales, qui n’a pas été acquittée dans le délai légal donne lieu au versement d’un intérêt de retard.” (Article 1727 of the CGI). A founder who discovers that returns were filed late should therefore expect the refund discussion to come with a parallel penalty discussion, and should instruct the accountant to regularise the filing position before arguing about the cash.

The fourth cause is substantive: the administration considers that part of the VAT was never deductible — excluded expenditure, private use of goods, invoices that do not meet the legal requirements — and reduces the credit accordingly. The fifth is set-off (compensation): the company owes other French taxes or penalties, and the Treasury sets the refund against those debts before paying the balance. This surprises many foreign founders, who expect a payment and receive instead a notice showing the refund absorbed by corporate tax instalments, payroll charges or fines. The sixth cause is verification: for a first claim, a large claim, or a claim that breaks with the company’s history, the SIE opens checks, sometimes an on-site verification (vérification de comptabilité) or at least a documentary audit (contrôle sur pièces), and the payment waits for the outcome. None of these steps means the money is lost; each has a procedure, and the worst response is silence. From abroad, the founder’s first reflex should be to obtain the exact reason in writing — the request for documents, the reasoned proposal, or the rejection notice — with its date and reference, because every appeal deadline runs from a written act. The second reflex is to stop the clock from working against the company: complete the file, file any missing return, and pay any undisputed amount, since penalties and interest accrue while letters go back and forth. The third reflex is to keep everything: the returns, the form 3519 receipts, the invoices, the correspondence with the SIE, and proof of transmission dates. A challenge is won on paper, and paper kept in London or New York counts as much as paper kept in Paris, provided it is complete.

B. How do you challenge the rejection from abroad, step by step?

The challenge follows a mandatory order that the founder must respect: first complete or correct the file with the SIE, then file a formal complaint, then go to court if needed. The starting point is almost always the office that holds the file. If the SIE asked for documents, provide them with a dated cover letter referencing the claim; if it adjusted the credit, reply point by point, invoice by invoice, showing for each disputed item the invoice, its payment, and its business use. Many files are unblocked at this stage, because the dispute was a missing link rather than a legal disagreement. If the office maintains its position and issues a collection notice or a formal rejection, the company moves to the complaint stage. The procedural rule is strict about the order of battle: “Le contribuable qui désire contester tout ou partie d’un impôt qui le concerne doit d’abord adresser une réclamation au service territorial, selon le cas, de la direction générale des finances publiques ou de la direction générale des douanes et droits indirects dont dépend le lieu de l’imposition.” (Article R*190-1 of the LPF). A taxpayer who wishes to challenge a tax must first complain to the territorial office. The complaint (réclamation contentieuse) is filed with the SIE or the designated office, states the amount disputed, sets out the legal and factual grounds, and attaches the supporting documents. These complaints belong to the court-based jurisdiction in the broad sense: “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.” (Article L190 of the LPF). Complaints about taxes and penalties fall under the contentious jurisdiction when they seek to correct assessment or calculation errors or to obtain the benefit of a statutory right — which is exactly what a wrongly refused VAT refund is.

From abroad, three practical points make or break the complaint. First, the deadline: complaints are subject to strict statutory time limits that run from the disputed act, and the notice itself states the office and the time limit — read it immediately, diary it, and file early, because a late complaint fails regardless of its merits. Second, the form: the complaint must identify the tax, the period, the amount, and the grounds, and must be signed by a person entitled to bind the company — the président of the SAS, the gérant of the SARL, or a representative holding a written power of attorney (pouvoir). A founder who is the sole director can sign personally; a complaint signed by nobody, or by an accountant without a mandate, risks being declared inadmissible. Third, the language and the channel: the complaint is written in French, sent by a traceable means to the office shown on the notice, and filed through the impots.gouv.fr messaging system in parallel where possible, keeping every receipt. While the complaint is examined, the disputed collection can in defined cases be suspended by filing for a stay (sursis de paiement) with the guarantees the statute requires — a step the accountant or counsel should calibrate, because interest continues to run if the company ultimately loses. If the administration rejects the complaint expressly or by silence after the statutory examination period, the next stage is the administrative court (tribunal administratif) of the place of taxation, within the appeal period stated in the rejection; beyond that, the administrative court of appeal (cour administrative d’appel) and, on points of law, the Conseil d’État (the supreme administrative court) hear further appeals. Each level judges on the file, so the invoices and returns assembled at the start follow the case to the end. Throughout, the founder abroad should keep the company’s broader tax position clean — returns filed on time, their own prior points answered — because a company that asks a court to order a refund while its own filings are late starts with a handicap. And where the amount at stake or the legal question is significant, the decision to litigate, to settle, or to accept a partial correction deserves a documented discussion weighing costs, interest, and the odds on each disputed invoice.

Conclusion

A French VAT credit is company cash held temporarily by the Treasury, not a subsidy and not a gift: when deductible VAT exceeds collected VAT, the excess can be carried forward or refunded, including for a young foreign-owned company with no sales yet, provided each euro of VAT rests on a compliant invoice correctly shown on the returns. The refund path runs through the monthly or quarterly CA3 returns, the dedicated form 3519, the 150 euro minimum, and the annual windows that monthly and quarterly filers must not miss — January with the December return, early February with the fourth-quarter return. When the payment stalls, the cause is usually documentary, arithmetic, or procedural, and the remedy follows a fixed order: complete the file with the SIE, correct what is wrong, pay what is undisputed, then complain formally to the territorial office before any court action. Late returns add their own surcharges and interest while the dispute lasts, so regularising the filing position is part of every refund strategy. Kept in this order — invoices first, returns second, claim third, complaint fourth — the VAT credit of a French company managed from London, New York, Dubai or Singapore stops being a sleeping line in the accounts and becomes what it should be: working capital back in the business.