Your Foreign Business Owes French VAT Without a French Company: Registration, Fiscal Representative and How to Challenge the Bill From Abroad
You run a company in London, New York, Geneva or Dubai. You have no office in France, no French subsidiary and no French employee, yet your goods are delivered to Lyon, your software is used in Bordeaux or your client in Paris asks for an invoice with French VAT. Then a letter arrives from the French tax administration, or your French customer warns you that it will not pay until you provide a French VAT number. This situation is routine, and French law has a complete regime for it: a foreign business can be liable for value added tax (VAT) in France without creating any French company, it must register and file returns in France, and a business established outside the European Union must act through an accredited fiscal representative (representant fiscal) established in France. This article explains when French VAT applies to your sales, how registration and filing work from abroad, what the fiscal representative does and risks, which penalties apply when filings are late, and how to challenge an assessment without travelling to France. Key terms are translated throughout: the service des impots des entreprises (SIE) is the local corporate tax office, the Registre national des entreprises (RNE) is the national business register, and the Bulletin officiel des finances publiques (BOFiP) is the official published commentary of the French tax administration.
I. Your foreign business can owe French VAT without any French company
French VAT does not wait for you to incorporate a societe par actions simplifiee (SAS, the flexible joint-stock company most foreign founders choose) or a societe a responsabilite limitee (SARL, the private limited company). If you carry out taxable transactions whose place is in France, you enter the French VAT system at once, with or without a French legal vehicle. Choosing between creating a French subsidiary and selling directly from abroad is a separate strategic decision, explained in our guide on how a foreign founder chooses between SAS, SARL, branch and subsidiary and registers the vehicle; this article covers the VAT track that applies when you sell into France while remaining established abroad.
A. Which sales are taxed in France when you are established abroad
French VAT applies to supplies of goods and services carried out in France, and the place of each transaction decides everything. For services supplied to a business customer (B2B), the place is where the customer is established: the place of services “is located in France” when the customer, acting as a taxable person, has in France the seat of its economic activity, a fixed establishment receiving the services, or failing that its domicile or habitual residence, as article 259 of the General Tax Code (code general des impots, CGI) provides. In practice, when a non-French supplier invoices services to a French business customer, the French customer normally accounts for the tax itself through the reverse charge (autoliquidation): where a supply mentioned in article 259 A is made by a taxable person not established in France, the tax is paid by the purchaser or recipient acting as a taxable person holding a French VAT identification number, as article 283 of the CGI states. That mechanism protects the foreign supplier, but only where the French customer genuinely acts as a taxable person and holds a French VAT number shown on the return mentioned in article 287 of the same code.
For sales to private individuals (B2C), the logic reverses: the place of the service is where the supplier is established, so a supplier established outside France is in principle outside French VAT, as article 259 of the CGI also provides. That principle has important statutory exceptions, including services physically carried out in France and specific categories of electronic, telecom and broadcasting services, so a foreign business selling to French consumers must check the exception applicable to its own activity rather than assume it owes nothing. For goods, the analysis is territorial in a different way: goods shipped to France, goods stored in a French warehouse before delivery, and distance sales dispatched from another Member State to French customers can be treated as taking place in France once the thresholds set by statute are exceeded, as article 258 A of the CGI provides for intra-Community distance sales. A United States software company whose French business clients reverse charge the tax, a British online shop dispatching parcels to French homes, and a Swiss contractor performing works on a French site therefore face three different answers, and the contract wording on who bears the tax decides who suffers if the analysis is wrong.
Two traps deserve emphasis. First, operating through people or premises in France can turn a supposedly remote activity into a French taxable presence. The commercial chamber of the Cour de cassation (the French supreme court for civil and commercial matters) held on 15 February 2023, appeal number 21-13.288, that “Une société de droit étranger est tenue, lorsqu’elle exerce une activité en France par l’intermédiaire d’un établissement stable, aux obligations résultant des articles 54, 209 et 286, I, 3°, du code général des impôts, qui exigent la passation d’écritures comptables permettant de justifier des opérations imposables en France, de sorte que lorsqu’elle a méconnu ses obligations déclaratives, elle peut être présumée avoir omis sciemment de passer ou de faire passer des écritures ou avoir passé ou fait passer sciemment des écritures inexactes ou fictives dans des documents comptables dont la tenue est imposée par le code général des impôts”, as the decision published by the Cour de cassation on 15 February 2023 records. In plain English: a foreign company acting in France through a stable establishment (etablissement stable) must keep the accounts that justify its French taxable transactions, and missing returns can ground a presumption of deliberate accounting omissions. A warehouse, a team working permanently from Paris, or direction effectively exercised from France can therefore drag the whole French VAT and corporate tax apparatus onto the foreign company, including the corporation tax liability that article 206 of the CGI attaches to companies and the territorial profits rule of article 209 of the CGI for business operated in France. Second, French customers increasingly push the burden back: a French business that cannot recover VAT because its foreign supplier failed to register may terminate the contract or claim the cost, so registration is a commercial credential as much as a tax duty.
B. Getting identified: the French VAT number, returns and the one-stop shop
Once French VAT applies, the foreign business must obtain an individual French VAT identification number (numero de TVA intracommunautaire): every taxable person carrying out supplies giving a right to deduct is identified by an individual number, as article 286 ter of the CGI provides. The identification covers taxable persons making intra-Community acquisitions in France and persons liable for the tax on imports, so e-commerce sellers, non-EU manufacturers using a French fulfilment warehouse, and service providers with French B2C liabilities all pass through the same door. Registration is not a right to postpone: every person liable for VAT must, within fifteen days of starting operations, file a declaration with the office designated by regulation, and a further declaration is required when the business ceases, as article 286 of the CGI requires. Missing that fifteen-day step is the most common and the most expensive mistake foreign businesses make, because interest and surcharges run from the undeclared period even where the business would have had little or no net tax to pay after deducting input VAT.
Filing then follows the standard French rhythm. Every person liable for VAT identified under the combined provisions of articles 286 ter and 286 ter A must file with its tax office a return in the form prescribed by the administration within the period fixed by order, as article 287 of the CGI provides. Businesses under the normal real assessment regime (regime reel normal) file the turnover return (declaration de chiffre d’affaires, known as CA3) each month, showing total transactions and the detail of taxable transactions, and pay the tax due each month, as the same article 287 of the CGI states. Smaller turnovers may qualify for simplified or quarterly rhythms fixed by regulation, but the foreign business should assume monthly filing until its tax office confirms otherwise. Invoices must meet French content rules, accounting records must be available to the administration, and where accounts are kept in a foreign language a certified translation by a sworn translator (traducteur jure) must be produced on request. For certain cross-border sales within the European Union, EU law provides a one-stop shop scheme that lets a business declare VAT due in several Member States through a single registration in its Member State of identification instead of registering in each country, and the French administration publishes guidance for businesses on its international pages, including VAT for businesses in the EU and registration for VAT. The one-stop shop never replaces the analysis of where each transaction is taxed; it only simplifies declarations once the liability map is drawn.
II. Fiscal representative, penalties and challenging the assessment from abroad
Registration is only the first half of the regime. A business established outside the European Union cannot file alone: it must act through an accredited fiscal representative in France who pays the tax in its place, and every late or missing filing draws statutory fines and surcharges that must be challenged quickly and in the right forum.
A. Outside the EU, you need an accredited fiscal representative in France
The rule is blunt. Where a person not established in the European Union is liable for VAT or must complete declaration obligations, that person must have accredited with the tax office a representative liable for VAT and established in France who undertakes to complete the formalities incumbent on that person and, for taxable transactions, to pay the tax in its place, as article 289 A of the CGI provides, in these exact terms: “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.” The representative is therefore not a mere mailbox: it files the returns, keeps the records and pays the French Treasury, and the foreign business remains economically liable between them under their private agreement. If no representative is appointed, the tax and any related penalties are owed by the recipient of the taxable transaction, as the same article 289 A of the CGI states, which means a French customer can be pursued for the VAT its foreign supplier failed to secure. Commercial contracts should therefore name who appoints and funds the representative rather than leave the question to the first audit.
The statute then carves out exemptions, principally for persons established in a non-EU State with which France has a mutual assistance instrument comparable in scope to the EU recovery assistance directive 2010/24/EU and the administrative cooperation regulation 904/2010, the list of such States being fixed by order, as article 289 A of the CGI continues. Norway is the textbook example, and the list evolves, so a business established in a cooperative State must verify the current order rather than assume it is exempt. Businesses established in another EU Member State are outside the scope of this paragraph entirely: they register and file directly with the French tax office without a fiscal representative, although many appoint a French tax agent (mandataire) in practice to handle correspondence in French. The official doctrine of the tax administration details the whole mechanism in its published commentary on the declaration obligations of persons not established in France, which foreign businesses and their advisers should read before choosing a representative: BOFiP on declaration obligations and the fiscal representative. That commentary covers the designation of the representative, its accreditation by the tax office, the withdrawal of accreditation where conditions are no longer met, and the representative’s own accounting and declaration duties, including issuing invoices, keeping accounts and filing turnover returns and client listings.
Choosing the representative is a liability decision, not an administrative formality. The accreditation can be withdrawn, the representative that breaches its duties faces recovery action, and the foreign business that changes activity, address or representative must update its file promptly. Foreign groups sometimes ask a French subsidiary or a specialised tax firm to act; both are possible where the representative is a taxable person established in France, but a subsidiary with its own disputes or cash constraints makes a fragile representative. The accreditation file, the proof of the representative’s standing, and the correspondence designating the competent tax office should be kept with the registration certificate and every return, because the first question an auditor asks a foreign operator is who its representative is and where its French records are.
B. Penalties for late or missing filings and how to challenge from abroad
French VAT penalties accrue mechanically, and they surprise foreign businesses that treated registration as optional. Failure to file a declaration showing the basis of assessment on time draws a surcharge on the duties payable of 10 percent where no formal notice was sent or where the return is filed within thirty days of receiving a notice to file, 40 percent where it is not filed within thirty days of that notice, and 80 percent where an undisclosed (occulte) activity is discovered, as article 1728 of the CGI provides. Alongside surcharges, specific fines punish missing statements and records: failure to produce the statements required by article 289 B on time draws a fine of 750 euros, raised to 1,500 euros where the statement is still missing thirty days after a formal notice, as article 1788 A of the CGI provides. Late-payment interest runs in addition, and the representative, or the French customer where no representative was appointed, can be pursued for the total. A British seller that started dispatching goods to France in March, registered in October and filed nothing in between therefore faces surcharges on each undeclared period plus fines, even if input VAT would have reduced the net bill.
Challenging the bill follows the standard contentious claim track (reclamation contentieuse) and can be handled entirely from abroad. Claims seeking correction of assessment or calculation errors or the benefit of a statutory right fall within the contentious jurisdiction, as article L190 of the Tax Procedures Book (livre des procedures fiscales, LPF) provides. To be admissible, claims concerning taxes other than local direct taxes must reach the administration no later than 31 December of the second year following, as applicable, the enforcement of the roll, the notification of the recovery notice, the payment of the disputed tax, or the event giving rise to the claim, as article R*196-1 of the LPF requires. Missing that 31 December deadline makes the claim inadmissible whatever its merits, so the representative should diary it on receipt of the first notice, not after months of commercial negotiation. The claim is filed in writing with the competent tax office, in French, setting out the facts, the legal basis and the precise relief sought, with supporting invoices, contracts and proof of VAT charged or reverse charged by the customer; VAT cases fall to the administrative courts (tribunaux administratifs) if the administration rejects the claim expressly or by silence. Foreign businesses should also preserve evidence of where each transaction was taxed and who held a valid VAT number at the invoicing date, because place-of-supply disputes turn on documents, not assertions.
Enforcement risk is real and should discipline the timetable. On the same day as the stable-establishment ruling, 15 February 2023, the commercial chamber also decided appeal number 20-20.599, recalling the legal standard for tax dawn raids: “Selon ce texte, des visites et saisies peuvent être autorisées par l’autorité judiciaire si l’administration fiscale établit qu’il existe des présomptions qu’un contribuable se soustrait à l’établissement ou au paiement des impôts sur le revenu ou sur les bénéfices ou des taxes sur le chiffre d’affaires en se livrant à des achats ou à des ventes sans facture, en utilisant ou en délivrant des factures ou des documents ne se rapportant pas à des opérations réelles ou en omettant sciemment de passer ou de faire passer des écritures ou en passant ou en faisant passer sciemment des écritures inexactes ou fictives dans des documents comptables dont la tenue est imposée par le code général des impôts”, as the decision published by the Cour de cassation on 15 February 2023 states. In other words, presumptions of undeclared French activity, missing invoices or fictitious entries can support judicially authorised visits and seizures of business premises. A Paris or Ile-de-France footprint concentrates this exposure: correspondence with the tax office, audits and any court proceedings run through the area of the competent office, and foreign operators that centralise their French records and representative in Paris handle notices, hearings and document requests far more efficiently than those that scatter paperwork across time zones. Practical preparation therefore means registering before the first assessment, filing the CA3 turnover return each month, keeping French-compliant invoices and accounts available in France or with the representative, and instructing the representative to forward every notice at once so the 31 December claim deadline is never missed. Businesses that already hold a French company for other operations should align the two tracks, since the VAT registration of the foreign head office and the filings of the French subsidiary are audited together; our overview of setting up a company in France as a foreign founder, from bank account and Kbis to VAT and first hire shows how the company track and the tax track fit together.
Conclusion
A foreign business needs no French company to owe French VAT, but it needs a French VAT number, a filing rhythm and, outside the European Union, an accredited fiscal representative who pays in its place. The place of each sale decides the liability, the fifteen-day registration declaration starts the clock, monthly returns keep the account current, and surcharges of 10, 40 or 80 percent plus targeted fines punish delay. Where the administration assesses tax the business disputes, the contentious claim filed by 31 December of the second year, followed if necessary by the administrative court, gives a full remedy from abroad, provided invoices, contracts and VAT numbers were preserved. Map the transactions first, register second, and never let a notice age: French VAT rewards foreign businesses that file early and punishes those that wait for the assessment.