Your company ships machines, components, stock or samples from the United States, Britain, Switzerland, the Emirates or Asia to a customer or a warehouse in France. The container reaches Le Havre or the parcel lands at Roissy, and then everything stops. The forwarder tells you the goods cannot clear customs until import value added tax is dealt with, and asks for your French VAT number. You have none, because nobody in your team lives in France and you never registered anything there. The forwarder then asks for a cash advance of twenty percent of the cargo value, your customer refuses to pay an invoice without a proper French VAT line, and your accountant warns you that every week of improvisation adds penalties. This is the most common VAT crisis foreign sellers meet in France, and it has a strict legal frame that changed on 1 January 2022. Since that date, import VAT self-assessment, known in France as ATVAI (autoliquidation de la TVA \u00e0 l’importation), is compulsory and automatic for businesses identified for VAT in France, the customs office no longer collects the tax at the border for them, and the whole control moved from customs to the tax authority. A company with no French VAT number cannot use this circuit at all. The Conseil d’Etat confirmed the logic of self-assessment on 15 November 2019 in case 420251, holding that under reverse charge the buyer both owes and deducts the same tax so that, in principle, nothing is due, while wrongly paid VAT cannot simply be deducted. This article follows the exact order of the crisis: what French import VAT hits at the border and who owes it, then how you pay without advancing cash, deduct, recover and contest when the bill is wrong.<\/p>\n
French VAT, called TVA (taxe sur la valeur ajout\u00e9e), strikes goods the moment they enter France from outside the European Union. Article 291 of the CGI (Code g\u00e9n\u00e9ral des imp\u00f4ts, the French General Tax Code)<\/a> states the principle in one line: “Les importations de biens sont soumises \u00e0 la taxe sur la valeur ajout\u00e9e.” It then defines the event: “Est consid\u00e9r\u00e9e comme importation d’un bien : a. l’entr\u00e9e en France d’un bien, originaire ou en provenance d’un Etat ou d’un territoire n’appartenant pas \u00e0 l’Union europ\u00e9enne, et qui n’a pas \u00e9t\u00e9 mis en libre pratique”. Any machine, batch of components, consignment of stock or even samples arriving from a non-EU country and cleared in France is therefore an importation, whatever the nationality of the seller or the buyer, and French VAT becomes due on the customs value plus duties and incidental costs. Goods arriving from another Member State are not importations but intra-Community acquisitions with their own declaration logic, and goods that merely transit France under a suspensive customs procedure are not taxed until they are released for consumption. The first practical question is thus factual: where do your goods physically clear customs, because a clearance in Rotterdam or Antwerp followed by a transfer to France obeys different rules from a clearance at Le Havre, Marseille or Roissy.<\/p>\n The declaration itself forces the issue into the open. Every importer must enter a valid French VAT identification number on the French customs declaration, and the official customs guidance states the duty plainly on the ATVAI page of douane.gouv.fr, the site of the DGDDI (Direction g\u00e9n\u00e9rale des douanes et droits indirects, the customs authority)<\/a>: the declarant must show its French intra-Community VAT number in force, failing which automatic self-assessment cannot apply. Without that number, the goods do not self-assess anything: either the forwarder advances the VAT and bills it back to you with fees, or the clearance waits while you sort out your identification. This is why the forwarder’s first question is always the number, not the rate: the number decides the whole circuit. The number itself is built on the SIREN (Syst\u00e8me d’identification du r\u00e9pertoire des entreprises, the nine-digit business identifier issued by INSEE, the national statistics institute), and companies with premises also use a SIRET (the fourteen-digit establishment identifier). A foreign company with no French premises receives a VAT number without opening a branch or obtaining a Kbis extract (the company identity certificate issued by the greffe, the commercial court registry): VAT identification is a tax track, completely separate from company registration with the INPI single window. Alongside it, customs work uses the EORI number (Economic Operators Registration and Identification, the EU customs identifier): your declarant needs both identifiers aligned, and a mismatch between the EORI and the VAT number is one of the most frequent causes of blocked clearances. Mixed contracts deserve attention too: equipment sold with installation, commissioning or after-sales services performed in France can combine a goods import with French-taxable services, since Article 259 of the CGI<\/a> places services received by a French taxable customer in France when the customer has there its head office, the establishment receiving the services, or failing that its domicile or habitual residence. Map the goods flow and the services flow separately before you sign, because each follows its own VAT track.<\/p>\n Once the import exists, the statute designates who hands the money over. Article 1695 of the CGI<\/a> organises the collection: “La taxe sur la valeur ajout\u00e9e est d\u00e9clar\u00e9e et per\u00e7ue lorsqu’elle devient exigible, pour les op\u00e9rations suivantes : 1\u00b0 Les importations pour lesquelles le redevable est une personne non assujettie et non identifi\u00e9e conform\u00e9ment aux dispositions combin\u00e9es des articles 286 ter et 286 ter A”. For importers that are neither taxable persons nor VAT-identified, the tax is still declared and collected when it becomes chargeable, and the same article adds that in these situations “la taxe sur la valeur ajout\u00e9e est recouvr\u00e9e et contr\u00f4l\u00e9e selon les m\u00eames proc\u00e9dures et sous les m\u00eames sanctions, garanties, s\u00fbret\u00e9s et privil\u00e8ges que les droits de douanes”, meaning VAT follows customs recovery with customs guarantees and privileges. In plain terms, a foreign seller with no French VAT number cannot self-assess: the VAT is collected at the border like a duty, cash must be advanced, and the customs administration holds the guarantees. This is the cash trap that surprises first-time importers: twenty percent of the cargo value immobilised at each shipment, plus the forwarder’s advance fees, simply because the number was missing.<\/p>\n The opposite circuit applies as soon as the importer is VAT-identified in France. Since 1 January 2022, management and recovery of import VAT moved from customs to the DGFIP (Direction g\u00e9n\u00e9rale des Finances publiques, the tax authority) for all VAT-identified operators, and self-assessment became compulsory and automatic: the identified importer declares the import VAT as collected tax and simultaneously as deductible tax on its next VAT return, the CA3 (the standard French VAT return, monthly or quarterly), with the administration pre-filling the amounts from customs data through the online Donn\u00e9es ATVAI service. No cash moves. The Conseil d’Etat explained why this circuit is neutral in Conseil d’Etat, 9th and 10th chambers together, 15 November 2019, no. 420251 (Eye Shelter)<\/a>: “lorsque le r\u00e9gime de l’auto-liquidation s’applique, l’acqu\u00e9reur d’un bien, qui est redevable de la taxe sur la valeur ajout\u00e9e aff\u00e9rente \u00e0 cette op\u00e9ration, est en droit de d\u00e9duire cette m\u00eame taxe, de telle sorte que, en principe, aucun montant n’est d\u00fb \u00e0 l’administration fiscale.” When reverse charge applies, the buyer both owes and deducts the same tax, so in principle nothing is payable. The same decision restates the general rule of Article 283 of the CGI as quoted by the Conseil d’Etat<\/a>: “La taxe sur la valeur ajout\u00e9e doit \u00eatre acquitt\u00e9e par les personnes qui r\u00e9alisent les op\u00e9rations imposables, (…) \/ Toutefois, lorsqu’une livraison de biens (…) est effectu\u00e9e par un assujetti \u00e9tabli hors de France, la taxe est acquitt\u00e9e par l’acqu\u00e9reur, le destinataire ou le preneur qui agit en tant qu’assujetti et qui dispose d’un num\u00e9ro d’identification \u00e0 la taxe sur la valeur ajout\u00e9e en France. (…)” The supplier rule and its exception sit side by side: the person carrying out the taxable transaction pays, unless a non-French supplier faces a French taxable customer holding a French number, in which case the customer self-assesses. For a foreign seller this yields three clean positions. If you are VAT-identified in France, you import under your own number and self-assess with zero cash effect. If your French customer is the importer of record and holds a French number, it self-assesses on its return and you invoice accordingly. If neither you nor anyone in the chain is identified, cash is due at the border and someone must advance it. Never let the contract stay silent on which of the three applies: the Incoterms, the named importer and the VAT numbers must all point to the same person, or the goods will wait at the port while the parties argue.<\/p>\n Self-assessment is a reward for identified operators only, so registration is the door and the clock runs fast. Article 286 of the CGI<\/a> provides: “Toute personne assujettie \u00e0 la taxe sur la valeur ajout\u00e9e doit : 1\u00b0 Dans les quinze jours du commencement de ses op\u00e9rations, souscrire au bureau d\u00e9sign\u00e9 par un arr\u00eat\u00e9 une d\u00e9claration conforme au mod\u00e8le fourni par l’administration.” Within fifteen days of starting your French operations you must file the model declaration with the designated office. For a company with no French establishment that office is the DGFIP foreign-companies service, reached through the procedure on the official page Immatriculation \u00e0 la TVA on impots.gouv.fr<\/a>: company identity with sworn translation of the incorporation certificate, powers of the signatory, description of the French operations with the first contracts or invoices, and bank details. Once identified, the operator enters the automatic ATVAI circuit described by customs: the import VAT appears pre-filled on the CA3 from customs data, the return is filed by the 24th of each month for import VAT operators, and collection and deduction happen simultaneously with no cash advance. Specialist VAT advisers summarise the practical consequence the same way: as specialist commentary on the 2022 reform notes, foreign companies importing in France that are not VAT registered must register and self-assess the import VAT in French returns instead of recovering it through the European or 13th Directive refund routes, and non-EU companies additionally need a customs broker setup. The doctrine of the administration is consolidated in the BOI (Bulletin officiel des Finances publiques-Imp\u00f4ts, the binding official tax commentary), and your declarant or representative applies it on every shipment.<\/p>\n The decisive fork, again, is whether your company sits inside or outside the European Union. A company established in another Member State registers directly, files its own CA3 returns and corresponds with the DGFIP itself. A company established outside the Union that owes French VAT or must complete French declaration formalities must act through an accredited fiscal representative, and the administrative court of appeal of Marseille recalls the exact statutory wording in CAA Marseille, 2nd chamber, 12 May 2022, no. 20MA04739 (Aviva Metals)<\/a>: “Lorsqu’une personne non \u00e9tablie dans l’Union europ\u00e9enne est redevable de la taxe sur la valeur ajout\u00e9e ou doit accomplir des obligations d\u00e9claratives, elle est tenue de faire accr\u00e9diter aupr\u00e8s du service des imp\u00f4ts un repr\u00e9sentant assujetti \u00e9tabli en France qui s’engage \u00e0 remplir les formalit\u00e9s incombant \u00e0 cette personne et, en cas d’op\u00e9rations imposables, \u00e0 acquitter la taxe \u00e0 sa place. A d\u00e9faut, la taxe sur la valeur ajout\u00e9e et, le cas \u00e9ch\u00e9ant, les p\u00e9nalit\u00e9s qui s’y rapportent, sont dues par le destinataire de l’op\u00e9ration imposable”. Your representative must be a taxable person established in France, accredited by the tax office, who files for you and pays in your place; failing that, your French customer answers for your tax and penalties, which is why no serious customer signs with an unrepresented non-EU supplier. The Aviva case shows the price of improvising around this duty: an American group bought materials from French suppliers without a fiscal representative in France and recharged the VAT to its French affiliate through internal debit notes, and the court upheld the full reassessment over 2015-2016, finding that “seule NBM Inc pouvait d\u00e9duire cette TVA” and that “la TVA devait \u00eatre rappel\u00e9e aupr\u00e8s de la soci\u00e9t\u00e9 NBME”. Only the American principal could have deducted, through a representative it never appointed, so the French affiliate lost the deduction entirely. The operational lesson is blunt: appoint the representative before the first container sails, align the EORI, the French VAT number and the name on every invoice, and never deduct French VAT on documents made out to another group company. Accreditation, guarantees and invoice controls take weeks; the fifteen-day declaration period and the ship’s arrival date do not wait.<\/p>\n Once inside the circuit, each month follows the same mechanics: declare, deduct, pay the balance or carry forward the credit. Article 287 of the CGI<\/a> sets the return duty: “Tout redevable de la taxe sur la valeur ajout\u00e9e identifi\u00e9 conform\u00e9ment aux dispositions combin\u00e9es des articles 286 ter et 286 ter A est tenu de remettre au service des imp\u00f4ts dont il d\u00e9pend et dans le d\u00e9lai fix\u00e9 par arr\u00eat\u00e9 une d\u00e9claration conforme au mod\u00e8le prescrit par l’administration.” Every identified VAT operator files the prescribed return with its tax office within the fixed period, in practice the monthly CA3 for newly registered foreign companies, with import VAT pre-filled from the Donn\u00e9es ATVAI data, and payment of any balance by electronic means. Deduction is what makes the system neutral. Article 271 of the CGI<\/a> provides: “La taxe sur la valeur ajout\u00e9e qui a grev\u00e9 les \u00e9l\u00e9ments du prix d’une op\u00e9ration imposable est d\u00e9ductible de la taxe sur la valeur ajout\u00e9e applicable \u00e0 cette op\u00e9ration.” VAT that burdened the price of a taxable transaction is deductible from the VAT on that transaction. And it fixes the timing: “Le droit \u00e0 d\u00e9duction prend naissance lorsque la taxe d\u00e9ductible devient exigible chez le redevable”, the right to deduct arises when the deductible tax becomes chargeable. Import VAT self-assessed on the CA3, VAT on French purchases, subcontracts and expenses linked to your taxable activity all reduce the VAT you remit, and a surplus becomes a credit carried forward or refunded under the statutory conditions. Three conditions are absolute: the expense must serve taxable transactions, the tax must be chargeable, and you must hold a valid invoice or customs document made out in your name with your French VAT number. Debit notes between group companies, pro forma invoices and documents addressed to another entity never open a deduction, as the Aviva reassessment demonstrates.<\/p>\n Errors have their own regime, and the Conseil d’Etat drew its boundaries in the Eye Shelter decision. Where reverse charge was mishandled and the buyer wrongly paid VAT to its supplier instead of self-assessing, the court held in Conseil d’Etat, 15 November 2019, no. 420251<\/a> that “lorsque l’acqu\u00e9reur d’un bien a vers\u00e9 par erreur au fournisseur la taxe sur la valeur ajout\u00e9e mentionn\u00e9e \u00e0 tort sur les factures \u00e9mises par ce dernier, alors que, en application du r\u00e9gime de l’auto-liquidation, il aurait d\u00fb, en tant que b\u00e9n\u00e9ficiaire d’une livraison de biens, s’acquitter directement de la taxe sur la valeur ajout\u00e9e aupr\u00e8s des autorit\u00e9s fiscales, il ne peut pas se pr\u00e9valoir d’un droit \u00e0 d\u00e9duction de la taxe acquitt\u00e9e \u00e0 tort.” A buyer that pays wrongly invoiced VAT to its supplier when it should have self-assessed cannot deduct that wrongly paid tax. The remedy runs first against the supplier, which must refund the undue amount, and only where recovery from the supplier is impossible or excessively difficult, for instance on insolvency, can the buyer turn directly to the tax authority, which may first check that the Treasury suffered no loss because the supplier repaid the wrongly collected tax. For a foreign seller this cuts both ways: if your French customer paid you VAT it should have self-assessed, expect a refund claim and regularise quickly by credit note and repayment before the dispute hardens; if you paid import VAT in cash at the border that should have been self-assessed, claim it back through the proper channel with the customs and tax documents rather than deducting a sum you never validly bore. Late or wrong filing is punished on top of the principal. Interest for late payment runs by law, and Article 1729 of the CGI<\/a> adds surcharges on recalled tax: “Les inexactitudes ou les omissions relev\u00e9es dans une d\u00e9claration ou un acte comportant l’indication d’\u00e9l\u00e9ments \u00e0 retenir pour l’assiette ou la liquidation de l’imp\u00f4t ainsi que la restitution d’une cr\u00e9ance de nature fiscale dont le versement a \u00e9t\u00e9 ind\u00fbment obtenu de l’Etat entra\u00eenent l’application d’une majoration de : a. 40 % en cas de manquement d\u00e9lib\u00e9r\u00e9”. Inaccuracies or omissions attract a 40 percent surcharge for deliberate failure, higher for abuse of law, plus interest. When the administration sends a reassessment proposal or a demand, answer within the stated deadlines with documents and legal grounds, use the available commission opinion, then file an administrative claim and appeal to the administrative court within two months of rejection. Never ignore a French letter because it arrived in French at a foreign address: give your representative a valid contact, open the professional tax account, calendar the 24th of each month, and reply to every request, because silence turns a correction into enforced collection with bank attachment.<\/p>\n Goods stopped at the French border are a paperwork crisis before they are a money crisis. Identify the importation under Article 291, name the importer of record on the customs declaration with a valid French VAT number, and choose the right circuit: self-assessment with zero cash effect for VAT-identified operators since 1 January 2022, cash collection like a customs duty for everyone else under Article 1695. Register within fifteen days through the DGFIP foreign-companies service, have your non-EU company appoint its accredited fiscal representative before the first shipment, and align the EORI, the VAT number and the invoice names across the whole chain. File the CA3 every period, deduct only on proper documents in your name, regularise wrongly paid VAT against the supplier first as the Conseil d’Etat requires, and answer every reassessment inside its deadline before the 40 percent surcharge hardens the bill. Run in this order, importing into France becomes a routine monthly return instead of a container waiting at the port, and your French customers keep ordering because your documents carry the numbers their auditors demand.<\/p>\n Foreign company with goods held at French customs or a dispute over import VAT, self-assessment or deduction. Get a telephone consultation within 48 hours with a lawyer of the firm by calling +33 6 46 60 58 22<\/a>. You can also write through our contact page<\/a> with your customs declaration and any letter from the French tax or customs office.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Goods blocked at French customs? When import VAT is due, how self-assessment avoids cash advances, and how a foreign seller deducts, recovers and contests the charge.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":251031309,"featured_media":4163,"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-2120226","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-decryptage","category-doing-business-in-france"],"yoast_head":"\nB. Who pays when the seller sits outside France: the importer of record, the customer under reverse charge and the border cash trap<\/h3>\n
II. Paying without advancing cash, deducting and recovering: registration, self-assessment and how you fight a wrong bill<\/h2>\n
A. Getting into the self-assessment circuit: fifteen-day registration, the DGFIP foreign-companies office and the accredited representative for non-EU sellers<\/h3>\n
B. Deducting, recovering and contesting: the CA3 entries, wrongly paid VAT and the surcharges that punish silence<\/h3>\n
Conclusion<\/h2>\n
Need a quick opinion on your case<\/h2>\n