You have just formed a French company \u2014 a SAS, a SARL, a branch of your foreign parent \u2014 or you sell into France from abroad, and a single question keeps coming back from your accountant, your bank and your first French customer: what about French VAT? Value added tax (TVA, taxe sur la valeur ajout\u00e9e) is the tax your business collects on sales, reclaims on purchases and pays over to the French Treasury. Get it wrong and the cost is immediate: invoices your customers refuse to pay, input VAT you cannot recover, penalties from the SIE (Service des imp\u00f4ts des entreprises, the local corporate tax office), and a bank account file that stalls because your Kbis (the official company identity certificate issued by the greffe, the commercial court registry) does not match your tax paperwork. Get it right early and VAT becomes what it should be \u2014 a neutral pass-through that never touches your margin.<\/p>\n
This guide is written for foreign founders and foreign companies doing business in France, entirely in English, with every French acronym explained. It answers the three questions every newcomer asks. First, do you actually need a French VAT number \u2014 the famous intra-Community VAT number starting with FR \u2014 or does the reverse charge (autoliquidation, the mechanism where your customer, not you, accounts for the tax) spare you from registering? Second, how does registration work in practice when you live abroad: which tax office, which forms, do you need a fiscal representative (repr\u00e9sentant fiscal), and how long does it take? Third, once registered, how do you declare and pay \u2014 monthly or quarterly CA3 returns (the standard VAT return form), the annual CA12 return (the yearly recapitulative return used under the simplified regime), and the special 2026\u20132027 changes every founder must know: compulsory electronic invoicing (facturation \u00e9lectronique) and the brand-new CIBS code (Code des impositions sur les biens et les services, the new code that takes over most VAT rules from the CGI, the Code g\u00e9n\u00e9ral des imp\u00f4ts or General Tax Code). All figures below are the current official thresholds published by the French tax administration, and every legal reference links to its official source.<\/p>\n
French VAT does not apply because you own a French company; it applies because you carry out taxable transactions on French territory. The distinction matters enormously for foreign founders, because the most common mistake is to register for VAT \u2014 or to ignore VAT \u2014 based on the wrong trigger. Here is how the tax administration reasons, step by step.<\/p>\n
The starting point is territoriality. Articles 256 and 259 of the CGI (Code g\u00e9n\u00e9ral des imp\u00f4ts, the General Tax Code, published on L\u00e9gifrance<\/a>) define which supplies of goods and services are deemed to take place in France. If you store goods in a French warehouse, deliver goods located in France to French customers, or perform most services for French private individuals, you are inside French VAT territory and the standard 20% rate (with reduced rates of 10%, 5.5% and 2.1% for specific goods and services) applies. If instead you only supply services to French businesses from abroad, a different mechanism usually takes over: the reverse charge.<\/p>\n The reverse charge (autoliquidation) is the single most valuable concept for a foreign founder to understand, because it often means you do not need to register at all. Under Article 283 of the CGI<\/a>, where services are supplied in France by a taxable person who is not established in France, the person liable for the tax is the customer: “The person liable for payment of value added tax to the Treasury shall be \u2026 the recipient of those services where said recipient has its registered office \u2026 in France”, for services “supplied \u2026 by a taxable person who is not established in France”. In plain English: a US, UK or Dubai company invoicing a French SAS for consulting, software development or marketing services generally invoices without French VAT, and the French customer self-accounts for the tax on its own return. EU law says exactly the same thing \u2014 the EU VAT Directive 2006\/112\/EC<\/a> provides that “Member States shall take the measures necessary to ensure that the following persons are identified by means of an individual number”, including “every taxable person \u2026 who \u2026 makes \u2026 supplies of services for which VAT is payable solely by the customer in accordance with Articles 192a to 196”. So before doing anything else, ask your French customers whether they are VAT-registered businesses: if they are, and you sell them services from abroad, the reverse charge normally applies and you invoice excluding tax with the words “autoliquidation \u2013 Article 283 CGI \/ Article 196 VAT Directive”.<\/p>\n Registration becomes unavoidable in several classic foreign-founder situations. If your French company sells goods or services to French private individuals or non-taxable persons, there is no customer to absorb the tax and you must charge French VAT from the first euro \u2014 subject only to the small-business exemption described below. If you hold stock in France (an Amazon FBA warehouse near Lyon, a 3PL in \u00cele-de-France, your own premises), every domestic sale is a French taxable supply. If you sell goods online from another EU country to French consumers, the EU distance-sales threshold of 10,000 euros per year across the EU sends you into the One-Stop Shop (OSS) scheme or French registration once exceeded. And if you import goods through a French port or airport, you need a French VAT number to clear customs and recover import VAT \u2014 Article 262 of the CGI deals with exports, while imports make you the person liable at the border. Intra-Community acquisitions (buying goods from another EU country for your French business) likewise require identification: that is precisely why the administration issues the individual number the Directive requires.<\/p>\n One exemption can delay all of this: the franchise en base (the small-business VAT exemption that lets you invoice without VAT below a turnover ceiling). The current official ceilings, applicable since 1 January 2025 and confirmed on the impots.gouv.fr page on VAT regimes<\/a>, are “85 000 \u20ac pour les livraisons de biens, les ventes \u00e0 consommer sur place et les prestations d’h\u00e9bergement” (85,000 euros for supplies of goods, on-site food sales and accommodation) and “37 500 \u20ac pour les autres prestations de services” (37,500 euros for other services). Exceed the ceiling and you lose the exemption from the first day of the month of the overrun. Note the tolerance mechanism: exceeding the ceiling does not immediately expel you if turnover stays within a second, higher limit \u2014 a safety margin the administration applies before forcing you into a real VAT regime. The administration’s practical guidance illustrates the scale with everyday examples: “37 500 \u20ac pour un mandataire, 85 000 \u20ac pour un acheteur-revendeur” (37,500 euros for an agent, 85,000 euros for a buy-and-resell trader), and while exempt you must print on every invoice “\u00ab TVA non applicable, article 293 B du CGI \u00bb” (“VAT not applicable, Article 293 B of the CGI”), per the official service-public.fr franchise en base guide<\/a>. For a foreign founder testing the French market with a few thousand euros of turnover, the franchise en base is legitimate and simple \u2014 but it forbids recovering any input VAT, so the moment you fit out premises, import equipment or pay significant French suppliers, opting into a real VAT regime usually pays for itself.<\/p>\n Practical decision tree for your first month: (1) services to French VAT-registered businesses only, from a company with no French establishment \u2014 reverse charge, generally no French VAT number needed, but confirm with the SIE des entreprises \u00e9trang\u00e8res (the non-resident business tax office) if volumes grow; (2) any sales to French consumers, any French warehouse, any imports through France \u2014 register before the first invoice; (3) turnover below 85,000\/37,500 euros with no recoverable input VAT \u2014 franchise en base is available, invoice with the Article 293 B wording; (4) everything else \u2014 register and choose your declaration regime, which is the subject of Part II. Where founders go wrong is confusing company registration with tax registration: your Kbis from the greffe (the commercial court clerk’s office that issues it after the INPI Guichet unique single-window filing) proves your company exists, but it is the SIE that activates you for VAT, and the BODACC (Bulletin officiel des annonces civiles et commerciales, the official gazette where company creations are published) publication does not trigger anything fiscal by itself.<\/p>\n Once you know you need French VAT, the procedure depends on one question: is your business established inside or outside the European Union? The two tracks share the same endpoint \u2014 an intra-Community VAT number in the format FR + 2 check digits + 9-digit SIREN (your French company identification number) \u2014 but the road to it is very different.<\/p>\n EU-established businesses and French companies owned by foreigners take the simple track. If you formed a SAS or SARL through the INPI Guichet unique (the single online company-formation portal that replaced the old CFE centres), your VAT activation is normally handled together with your creation file: the SIE (Service des imp\u00f4ts des entreprises) competent for your registered office (si\u00e8ge social) creates your VAT account once the company is registered at the RCS (Registre du commerce et des soci\u00e9t\u00e9s, the trade register kept by the greffe). In practice, allow two to six weeks after the Kbis is issued before the number appears on the EU VIES database (the European Commission’s online VAT-number validation system, where your customers will check you). If VAT was not activated at creation \u2014 frequent when the founder ticked “franchise en base” by default and now exceeds the ceiling \u2014 you request activation directly from your SIE, in person in Paris or by secure message from your impots.gouv.fr professional account (espace professionnel). No fiscal representative is needed inside the EU: EU mutual-assistance instruments let France recover tax debts across borders, so the administration trusts the system.<\/p>\n Non-EU businesses take the guarded track. A company established outside the EU that must register for French VAT \u2014 because it warehouses goods in France, sells to French consumers, or imports through Le Havre or Roissy \u2014 must in most cases appoint a repr\u00e9sentant fiscal (fiscal representative), a France-based professional jointly liable for your VAT debts, or at least a mandataire (authorised agent) depending on the country of establishment and the applicable tax treaty. The SIE des entreprises \u00e9trang\u00e8res in Noisy-le-Grand handles these files. Expect the office to ask for: your foreign certificate of incorporation with sworn translation, proof of taxable activity in France (warehouse contract, marketplace statements, first customer contracts), the representative’s acceptance letter and guarantee, bank details (RIB, relev\u00e9 d’identit\u00e9 bancaire) for refunds, and powers of attorney. Timelines run from four to ten weeks; founders who wait until the first container is blocked at customs learn this the hard way. Budget the representative’s annual fee (typically 1,500 to 5,000 euros depending on transaction volume) into your landing costs, and note that the representative’s liability is real \u2014 choose a firm, not a favour.<\/p>\n Three newcomers’ traps deserve special attention. First, the bank account trap: French banks ask for the Kbis, the beneficial-owner register entry and sometimes the VAT number before opening a professional account, while the SIE sometimes wants to see activity before activating VAT. Break the circle by opening the account with the Kbis plus your INPI filing receipt, then feeding the RIB back to the SIE the same week. Second, the URSSAF confusion: URSSAF (Unions de recouvrement des cotisations de s\u00e9curit\u00e9 sociale et d’allocations familiales, the social-security collection agency) registers you as an employer and collects directors’ social charges \u2014 it has nothing to do with VAT, and founders regularly call the wrong agency and lose weeks. VAT is DGFIP (Direction g\u00e9n\u00e9rale des finances publiques, the tax authority) and the SIE only. Third, the marketplace trap: Amazon, Cdiscount and other platforms must verify your VAT number and can suspend payouts when it is missing or invalid \u2014 register before peak season, not during it. Finally, directors should keep one corporate calendar: VAT returns, corporate income tax (IS, imp\u00f4t sur les soci\u00e9t\u00e9s), the annual accounts filing at the greffe, and the BODACC publication of any capital or director change all run on different clocks, and the SIE shows little mercy to a founder who pleads ignorance of the French language \u2014 which is precisely why this guide exists in English.<\/p>\n Registration is the doorway; declaration is the house you live in. France runs three VAT regimes, and the tax administration assigns yours automatically based on turnover \u2014 but a foreign founder who understands the ladder can climb it deliberately instead of suffering it.<\/p>\n The three rungs are set out on the official VAT-regimes page<\/a>. At the bottom, the franchise en base already described (no returns at all). In the middle, the RSI (r\u00e9gime simplifi\u00e9 d’imposition, simplified regime): “Le r\u00e9gime simplifi\u00e9 d’imposition (RSI) s’applique lorsque le chiffre d’affaires \u2026 est compris entre 85 000 \u20ac et 840 000 \u20ac” for goods, and “entre 37 500 \u20ac et 254 000 \u20ac” for services. At the top, the RN (r\u00e9gime r\u00e9el normal, standard regime): “Le r\u00e9gime r\u00e9el normal (RN) s’applique lorsque le chiffre d’affaires hors taxes est sup\u00e9rieur \u00e0 840 000 \u20ac” for goods and “sup\u00e9rieur \u00e0 254 000 \u20ac” for services \u2014 and, crucially, “En cas de d\u00e9passement des seuils du r\u00e9gime simplifi\u00e9 d’imposition en N, l’entreprise rel\u00e8vera du r\u00e9gime r\u00e9el normal \u00e0 compter du 1er janvier N+1” (if you exceed the simplified-regime ceiling in year N, you move to the standard regime on 1 January N+1). New companies that expect fast growth can opt directly for the RN from day one; founders who want minimal paperwork in year one can accept the RSI and switch later. The option is a genuine management decision, not a bureaucratic accident \u2014 discuss it with your expert-comptable (chartered accountant) before your first return, because the wrong regime means either monthly paperwork you did not need or a cash-flow shock you did not expect.<\/p>\n Under the RN, you file the CA3 (form 3310-CA3-SD) every month, or every quarter if annual VAT payable stays low: “Les entreprises dont la TVA exigible est inf\u00e9rieure \u00e0 4 000 \u20ac par an peuvent d\u00e9poser des d\u00e9clarations trimestrielles” (businesses whose VAT payable is below 4,000 euros a year may file quarterly). The CA3 is filed and paid online (t\u00e9l\u00e9-d\u00e9claration and t\u00e9l\u00e9-paiement are compulsory) by the 19th to 24th of the following month depending on your SIE’s schedule \u2014 in practice, most Paris SIE offices set the deadline around the 19th\u201321st for monthly filers. Every line of the CA3 has a purpose foreign founders discover one by one: domestic output VAT by rate, intra-Community acquisitions, reverse-charge lines for services received from abroad (where you simultaneously declare the tax due and deduct it \u2014 cash-neutral, but the lines must appear), imports with deferred accounting (autoliquidation des importations, the optional mechanism letting you declare import VAT on the CA3 instead of paying customs at the border \u2014 request it, it transforms cash flow), and deductible input VAT on purchases, rents and professional services. Miss a reverse-charge line and you create a false VAT credit; double-declare an import and you pay twice. Your accountant’s monthly checklist should reconcile the CA3 against your sales ledger, your EU sales listing (\u00e9tat r\u00e9capitulatif, the separate declaration of intra-EU supplies) and your customs statements.<\/p>\n Under the RSI, life is lighter but not free. You pay two instalments (acomptes) during the year \u2014 “55 % de la TVA due au titre de l’exercice pr\u00e9c\u00e9dent au plus tard en juillet ; 40 % de cette m\u00eame TVA au plus tard en d\u00e9cembre” (55% of the previous year’s VAT by July at the latest, 40% by December) \u2014 then you file the single annual return, the CA12 (form 3517), which settles the balance: “La d\u00e9claration annuelle CA12 doit \u00eatre transmise au plus tard le 2e jour ouvr\u00e9 suivant le 1er mai” (the annual CA12 return must be filed no later than the second working day after 1 May). First-year companies with no previous year pay instalments based on estimated VAT, then true up on the CA12 \u2014 a detail that surprises founders who assumed “simplified” meant “nothing to pay until May”. Penalties bite identically under both regimes: 5% late-payment increase plus 0.2% monthly interest (int\u00e9r\u00eat de retard), late-filing surcharges, and \u2014 the sanction foreign directors underestimate \u2014 the SIE can suspend your intra-Community number’s validity on VIES after repeated failures, which freezes your EU customers’ purchases overnight because their own deductions depend on your number being valid.<\/p>\n Refunds (remboursements de cr\u00e9dit de TVA) deserve a paragraph of their own, because foreign founders are structurally in refund position: you pay French VAT on fit-out works, equipment, launch marketing and professional fees months before your French sales generate output VAT. The CA3 carries the refund claim \u2014 request it quarterly at minimum, monthly once the credit exceeds 760 euros \u2014 and the SIE pays within weeks for clean files, or audits first for large first claims. Non-EU businesses with no French registration recover through the 13th-Directive refund procedure instead, a slower paper track with a 30 June deadline for the previous year’s VAT \u2014 one more reason non-EU operators with real French activity usually prefer full registration with a fiscal representative. Keep every invoice in the administration’s format (see Part II.B on e-invoicing), because a refund file with non-compliant invoices is the fastest route to a full VAT audit (contr\u00f4le fiscal), and a contr\u00f4le that starts on VAT invariably extends to corporate tax and transfer pricing for foreign-owned companies.<\/p>\n Two reforms transform French VAT during 2026 and 2027, and a foreign founder setting up today must build for the new system, not the old one. Both are already enacted; only the timetable still moves.<\/p>\n First, compulsory electronic invoicing (facturation \u00e9lectronique obligatoire). From 1 September 2026, every French VAT-registered business must be able to receive electronic invoices in the new standardised formats (Factur-X, UBL, CII), and from 1 September 2027 every business must issue them \u2014 with an intermediate step on 1 September 2026 for large and mid-sized companies’ issuance. Paper PDFs sent by email will no longer count as invoices for VAT purposes; invoices must transit through the public invoicing portal (PPF, portail public de facturation) or a registered private platform (PDP, plateforme de d\u00e9mat\u00e9rialisation partenaire), which automatically reports the transaction data (e-reporting) to the tax administration. For a foreign founder this has three concrete consequences. Your accounting software must be connected to a PDP before September 2026 \u2014 ask your expert-comptable which platform they support, because switching mid-year is painful. Your supplier invoices only remain deductible if they arrive through the compliant channel, so brief every foreign supplier invoicing your French company now. And your customers’ payment discipline will change: e-invoicing gives the administration real-time visibility on who declares what, so the era of approximate returns is over \u2014 monthly reconciliation becomes non-negotiable. Businesses working only with foreign customers are not exempt from the reception obligation: if you hold a French VAT number, you must be reachable on the network.<\/p>\n Second, the great recodification: VAT leaves the CGI for the CIBS. Ordonnance No. 2025-1247 of 17 December 2025<\/a>, enacted under the enabling act that created it (see the JORF authorisation file<\/a>), transfers the VAT rules into the brand-new Code des impositions sur les biens et les services (CIBS)<\/a>, with effect from 1 September 2026 (commentators reported in mid-2026 that a further ordinance may defer application to 1 January 2027 \u2014 check the current JORF text before citing a date to a court). The substance does not change; the numbering does, and every founder’s templates must follow. The mapping the administration publishes is mechanical: Article 261 D of the CGI becomes Article L.221-21 of the CIBS, Article 293 B (the franchise en base) becomes Article L.223-3 of the CIBS<\/a>, Article 293 C becomes Article L.223-18 \u2014 and the practical impact lands on your invoices immediately. As the official business formalities guide<\/a> warns: “\u00c0 compter du 1er septembre 2026, la mention \u00ab TVA non applicable, article 293 B du CGI \u00bb devra \u00eatre remplac\u00e9e par \u00ab TVA non applicable, art. L. 223 et s. du CIBS \u00bb” (from 1 September 2026, the wording “VAT not applicable, Article 293 B of the CGI” must be replaced by “VAT not applicable, Art. L.223 et seq. of the CIBS”), with a tolerance for old invoice templates running until 31 December 2027. Update your ERP templates, your marketplace tax settings and your accountant’s review checklist for that date; an invoice bearing a repealed reference after the tolerance period is a defective invoice, and defective invoices lose their deduction rights in an audit.<\/p>\n Taken together, the two reforms point in one direction: real-time, machine-readable VAT compliance. The founder who chooses accounting tools, invoice wordings and declaration calendars for the 2026\u20132027 system \u2014 PDP-connected software, CIBS references, monthly CA3 discipline even under RSI thresholds \u2014 will pass through the transition silently. The founder who hard-codes 2024 wordings into a fast-growing French subsidiary will discover the problem during the first contr\u00f4le fiscal, when every invoice line is already in the administration’s database. If your group operates in several EU countries, align France with the EU ViDA (VAT in the Digital Age) timetable at the same time: one compliant invoicing pipeline for the whole group costs less than one French penalty procedure.<\/p>\n French VAT rewards founders who sequence three decisions correctly. Decide first whether you need registration at all: services to French businesses from abroad usually fall under the reverse charge of Article 283 of the CGI, while sales to consumers, French warehousing and imports through France require a number before the first invoice. Decide second how to register: direct SIE activation for EU-established and French-incorporated businesses, fiscal representative and the non-resident tax office for non-EU operators, with the bank-account, URSSAF and marketplace traps avoided by running company, tax and banking tracks in parallel. Decide third which declaration life you want: monthly CA3 under the standard regime with its 4,000-euro quarterly easement, or instalments plus annual CA12 under the simplified regime between 85,000 and 840,000 euros for goods and 37,500 to 254,000 euros for services \u2014 then build for 2026\u20132027 from day one with e-invoicing connectivity and CIBS wording on every template. None of this requires moving to France (that is the desk-britannique team’s subject), buying French property (the en-immo team’s subject) or mastering French-language company law (the societes team’s subject in French): it requires one VAT number, one calendar and one accountant who answers in English. Set those three up in your first month, and French VAT stays what the law intends it to be \u2014 a tax your customers fund and your business merely carries.<\/p>\n Setting up in France and unsure whether you need a French VAT number, a fiscal representative or a different declaration regime? Get a phone consultation within 48 hours with an attorney of the firm. Call +33 6 46 60 58 22<\/a> (Ma\u00eetre Reda Kohen) or reach us through our contact page<\/a>. We assist foreign founders and companies in Paris and throughout \u00cele-de-France with company formation, VAT registration and ongoing French tax compliance \u2014 in English.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Do you need a French VAT number? Thresholds, reverse charge, SIE registration, CA3\/CA12 returns, e-invoicing and the new CIBS code \u2014 a complete English guide for foreign founders.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":251031309,"featured_media":16414,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kj_source_type":"","_kj_official_id":"","_kj_official_url":"","_kj_judilibre_id":"","_kj_jur":"","_kj_lieu":"","_kj_chambre":"","_kj_rg":"","_kj_date":"","activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":4,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"federated","footnotes":""},"categories":[80314,80313],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2115698","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-decryptage","category-doing-business-in-france"],"yoast_head":"\nB. How registration works in practice: tax office, fiscal representative and the intra-Community number<\/h3>\n
II. Living with French VAT once you are registered<\/h2>\n
A. Declaring and paying: CA3, CA12, instalments and refunds<\/h3>\n
B. What changes in 2026 and 2027: electronic invoicing and the new CIBS code<\/h3>\n
Conclusion<\/h2>\n
Need a quick opinion on your case?<\/h2>\n