You live in London, New York, Dubai or Singapore. Your French company \u2014 a SAS (soci\u00e9t\u00e9 par actions simplifi\u00e9e, the flexible joint-stock company most foreign founders choose) or a SARL (soci\u00e9t\u00e9 \u00e0 responsabilit\u00e9 limit\u00e9e, the limited liability company with a more rigid legal frame) \u2014 operates in France, invoices clients, and everything seemed fine. Then a letter arrives from the SIE (Service des imp\u00f4ts des entreprises, the local corporate tax office that handles your company): a VAT return is missing, a CA3 (the standard French VAT return, filed on form number 3310-CA3-SD) was never filed, and money is now due \u2014 tax, late interest, and a surcharge. If you ignore it, the amounts grow every month, and the SIE can move to forced recovery against the company’s French bank account.<\/p>\n
This article explains, in plain English, how French VAT returns work when the owner lives abroad, what a missed CA3 really costs, and the exact path to fix it from outside France: file late but file now, cut the interest in half through spontaneous regularisation, keep the surcharge at 10% instead of 40%, and contest what is wrongly charged. Every French acronym is explained, every decisive legal statement is backed by the official text of the statute or the court decision it comes from, and every step can be done remotely through the impots.gouv.fr professional account, if needed with a French adviser acting under a written mandate.<\/p>\n
The starting point matters. VAT registration itself \u2014 getting your French VAT identification number before you invoice \u2014 is a separate battle, covered in our guide on French e-invoicing and reporting duties for foreign companies<\/a> and in our general hub for setting up a company in France as a foreign founder<\/a>. This article takes over where those stop: you are registered, you have a SIREN (the unique identification number issued to every French company when it is entered on the RCS, the Registre du commerce et des soci\u00e9t\u00e9s, the commercial register kept by the greffe, the clerk’s office of the commercial court, which also issues your Kbis, the official certificate proving your company’s existence), and now the recurring returns must be filed on time \u2014 or repaired when they are not.<\/p>\n France does not have a single VAT return rhythm. Your company falls under one of two regimes, and the regime decides what you file, when you pay, and therefore what goes wrong when you miss a deadline. A foreign owner who understands this split already avoids half of the penalties described below.<\/p>\n Most operating companies are under the r\u00e9gime r\u00e9el normal (the standard VAT regime). The rule is stated in Article 287 of the CGI (Code g\u00e9n\u00e9ral des imp\u00f4ts, the French Tax Code)<\/a>: “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.” In other words, every identified VAT payer must send its tax office the return the administration prescribes, within the deadline set by ministerial order. For companies under the standard regime, the same article continues: “Les redevables soumis au r\u00e9gime r\u00e9el normal d’imposition d\u00e9posent mensuellement la d\u00e9claration vis\u00e9e au 1 indiquant, d’une part, le montant total des op\u00e9rations r\u00e9alis\u00e9es, d’autre part, le d\u00e9tail des op\u00e9rations taxables.” Each month, you declare the total of your transactions and the detail of the taxable ones, and you pay the VAT due for that month at the same time.<\/p>\n The official tax portal states the same rule in operational terms: companies under the standard regime e-file a CA3 each month, computing the VAT that became chargeable during the previous month (see TVA \u2014 professionnels, impots.gouv.fr<\/a>). Everything is dematerialised: you file and pay online through the company’s professional account on impots.gouv.fr, which your French accountant or tax adviser can access under mandate if you live abroad. The filing calendar depends on the location of your SIE \u2014 the tax administration publishes department-by-department CA3 deadlines (see Le r\u00e9gime r\u00e9el normal \u2014 dates limites de transmission des CA3, impots.gouv.fr<\/a>) \u2014 so the first task for a foreign owner is to confirm which SIE handles the company and which day of the month its CA3 is due.<\/p>\n There are two narrow exceptions to monthly filing. First, small payers under the standard regime may file quarterly: still under Article 287 of the CGI<\/a>, “Lorsque la taxe exigible annuellement est inf\u00e9rieure \u00e0 4 000 \u20ac, ils sont admis \u00e0 d\u00e9poser leurs d\u00e9clarations par trimestre civil.” For these small payers, the statute itself adds: “Lorsque la taxe exigible annuellement est inf\u00e9rieure \u00e0 4 000 \u20ac, ils sont admis \u00e0 d\u00e9poser leurs d\u00e9clarations par trimestre civil.” (see Article 287 of the CGI<\/a>, with a practical summary on TVA \u2014 professionnels, impots.gouv.fr<\/a>). Second, smaller businesses may fall under the r\u00e9gime simplifi\u00e9 (the simplified regime), where there is no monthly CA3 at all: you pay two half-yearly instalments, in July and December \u2014 “Des acomptes semestriels sont vers\u00e9s en juillet et en d\u00e9cembre.” \u2014 equal to “55 % et 40 % de la taxe due au titre de l’exercice pr\u00e9c\u00e9dent avant d\u00e9duction de la taxe sur la valeur ajout\u00e9e relative aux biens constituant des immobilisations”, and you file a single annual return that settles the balance (see Article 287 of the CGI<\/a>). If you overpaid through instalments, the balance comes back to you; if you underpaid, you top it up when filing the annual return.<\/p>\n Why does this matter for a foreign founder? Because the most common mistake is assuming that a quiet company owes nothing and files nothing. A company with no transactions in a month under the standard regime still files its CA3 \u2014 a nil return \u2014 and a company under the simplified regime still pays its July and December instalments. The SIE’s computer does not know you were travelling, that your accountant changed, or that emails from impots.gouv.fr went to spam. It only sees a missing return, and the penalty machine described in Part II starts automatically. Foreign owners should therefore ask their adviser, in writing, three questions at the start of every year: which regime are we under, what is our exact filing calendar, and who files if our usual contact is unavailable.<\/p>\n One more identification duty is worth knowing, because it sits at the root of many files. Under Article 286 of the CGI<\/a>, every VAT payer must, “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.” If your company started trading and nobody completed that step, or if the activity changed (new business line, first intra-EU purchases, first imports), the SIE may treat later returns with suspicion. Keeping the identification data current \u2014 address of the registered office, activity code, contact email on the professional account \u2014 costs nothing and prevents the kind of file mismatch that turns a simple late CA3 into a full audit.<\/p>\n The basic principle is simple and is stated in Article 283 of the CGI<\/a>: “La taxe sur la valeur ajout\u00e9e doit \u00eatre acquitt\u00e9e par les personnes qui r\u00e9alisent les op\u00e9rations imposables, sous r\u00e9serve des cas vis\u00e9s aux articles 275 \u00e0 277 A o\u00f9 le versement de la taxe peut \u00eatre suspendu.” Your French company, when it carries out taxable sales of goods or supplies of services in France, is the VAT payer: it charges VAT on its invoices, collects it from customers, deducts the VAT it paid on its own purchases, and sends the difference to the Treasury with its CA3.<\/p>\n Foreign founders are often surprised by the mirror rule that applies when the supplier is outside France. The same Article 283 of the CGI<\/a> provides: “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” This is the reverse charge (autoliquidation): when a supplier established outside France sells to your French VAT-registered company, it is your company that accounts for the French VAT on its CA3, with the amount due shown separately on the Article 287 return. Many foreign groups discover this rule the hard way, when the parent company invoices the French subsidiary for management fees, IT services or brand royalties without French VAT, and nobody self-assesses it on the subsidiary’s CA3. Each such invoice is a missing VAT line that later produces back tax plus interest.<\/p>\n Invoicing discipline is therefore part of VAT compliance, not an administrative detail. Article 289 of the CGI<\/a> states: “Tout assujetti est tenu de s’assurer qu’une facture est \u00e9mise, par lui-m\u00eame, ou en son nom et pour son compte, par son client ou par un tiers”. Every sale to another taxable business must be covered by a proper invoice, and since 1 September 2026 large and then progressively all French companies must also issue and receive invoices electronically and transmit transaction data to the administration \u2014 the e-invoicing and e-reporting reform described in our dedicated guide for foreign companies selling in France<\/a>. A foreign owner should make sure the company’s billing tool produces compliant invoices with the French VAT number shown, sequential numbering, and the correct VAT rate per line: without clean invoices, the company’s deducted VAT (its input VAT refunds) is the first thing a controller attacks.<\/p>\n As for the tax office: a company with a French registered office files with the SIE of the district where that office sits, and all correspondence \u2014 formal notices (mises en demeure), reassessment proposals, collection notices (AMR, avis de mise en recouvrement, the formal document by which the Treasury bills tax after an audit or a default assessment) \u2014 comes from that office. Companies with no French establishment follow a dedicated national procedure for foreign businesses. Either way, from abroad everything passes through the impots.gouv.fr professional account: returns, payments by SEPA transfer, claims, and secure messages to the SIE. Practical advice that saves files every month: activate email alerts on the professional account, give access to two people (for example the foreign director and the French accountant), and treat any letter from the SIE \u2014 even in French you barely read \u2014 as urgent. The thirty-day clock described in Part II often starts on the day that letter is received.<\/p>\n A missed CA3 produces three layers of cost: the VAT itself, which remains due; late interest, which runs month by month; and a surcharge, whose rate depends on how quickly you react. The good news is that French law rewards taxpayers who come forward on their own, and that the surcharge is reviewable by a judge. The bad news is that every week of waiting makes both layers heavier. Here is the repair sequence, in order.<\/p>\n Step one is to file the missing return immediately, even if you cannot pay the full amount at once. Filing stops some clocks and always improves your position: the 10% surcharge (see below) applies whether or not you received a formal notice, provided you file within thirty days of it, while the 40% rate hits taxpayers who let the formal notice expire. File the exact missing period on the professional account, declare the real figures \u2014 output VAT collected, deductible input VAT with supporting invoices \u2014 and pay whatever you can. A wrong or deliberately understated late return is worse than a late honest one, because deliberate inaccuracies open the door to higher penalties.<\/p>\n Step two is to understand the interest meter, so you can stop it. Article 1727 of the CGI<\/a> provides: “Le taux de l’int\u00e9r\u00eat de retard est de 0,20 % par mois.” That is 2.4% per year, and it applies to the tax due on top of any surcharge. The same article fixes the computation period: “L’int\u00e9r\u00eat de retard est calcul\u00e9 \u00e0 compter du premier jour du mois suivant celui au cours duquel l’imp\u00f4t devait \u00eatre acquitt\u00e9 jusqu’au dernier jour du mois du paiement.” Interest therefore starts on the first day of the month after the missed deadline and stops at the end of the month in which you pay. A CA3 due in March and paid in September accrues roughly six months of interest \u2014 and paying on the 1st or the 30th of September costs the same, since the month counts in full either way.<\/p>\n Step three is to claim the reward the law gives to taxpayers who regularise spontaneously. The same Article 1727 of the CGI<\/a> states: “Le montant d\u00fb au titre de l’int\u00e9r\u00eat de retard est r\u00e9duit de 50 % en cas de d\u00e9p\u00f4t spontan\u00e9 par le contribuable, avant l’expiration du d\u00e9lai pr\u00e9vu pour l’exercice par l’administration de son droit de reprise, d’une d\u00e9claration rectificative \u00e0 condition, d’une part, que la r\u00e9gularisation ne concerne pas une infraction exclusive de bonne foi et, d’autre part, que la d\u00e9claration soit accompagn\u00e9e du paiement des droits simples”. A spontaneous filing \u2014 before any audit notice or reassessment proposal \u2014 accompanied by payment of the principal can therefore halve the late interest. The conditions matter: the error must not be a deliberate fraud (a simple omission or accounting mistake qualifies; a hidden activity does not), and the principal must be paid with the corrective filing, or at the latest by the payment date on the assessment. If cash is short, do not wait: contact the SIE’s collection department (the comptable public, the public accountant in charge of recovery) to request a payment plan, and file the return anyway. A filed-but-unpaid return with a plan costs far less than an unfiled one.<\/p>\n Step four is to measure the surcharge grid, because it decides your urgency. Article 1728 of the CGI<\/a> provides: “Le d\u00e9faut de production dans les d\u00e9lais prescrits d’une d\u00e9claration ou d’un acte comportant l’indication d’\u00e9l\u00e9ments \u00e0 retenir pour l’assiette ou la liquidation de l’imp\u00f4t entra\u00eene l’application, sur le montant des droits mis \u00e0 la charge du contribuable ou r\u00e9sultant de la d\u00e9claration ou de l’acte d\u00e9pos\u00e9 tardivement, d’une majoration de :” \u2014 then three rates: “10 % en l’absence de mise en demeure ou en cas de d\u00e9p\u00f4t de la d\u00e9claration ou de l’acte dans les trente jours suivant la r\u00e9ception d’une mise en demeure d’avoir \u00e0 le produire dans ce d\u00e9lai ;” and “40 % lorsque la d\u00e9claration ou l’acte n’a pas \u00e9t\u00e9 d\u00e9pos\u00e9 dans les trente jours suivant la r\u00e9ception d’une mise en demeure d’avoir \u00e0 le produire dans ce d\u00e9lai ;” (with 80% reserved for hidden activity). In practice: file before any formal notice, or within thirty days of receiving it, and the surcharge is 10%. Miss that thirty-day window and it jumps to 40% of the tax due \u2014 four times more, on top of interest. For a company that owes 20,000 euros of VAT, the difference between reacting and sleeping is 2,000 versus 8,000 euros of surcharge, plus interest. From abroad, the single most valuable reflex is therefore to calendar every SIE letter and answer within days, through your adviser if your French is limited.<\/p>\n Step five is to know how far back the administration can go, because it sets your exposure. For turnover taxes, Article L.176 of the LPF (Livre des proc\u00e9dures fiscales, the Book of Tax Procedures that governs audits, time limits and disputes)<\/a> provides: “Pour les taxes sur le chiffre d’affaires, le droit de reprise de l’administration s’exerce jusqu’\u00e0 la fin de la troisi\u00e8me ann\u00e9e suivant celle au cours de laquelle la taxe est devenue exigible”. The SIE can generally reassess VAT going back three years \u2014 ten in cases of hidden activity. A single missed CA3 from last year is therefore not an isolated incident in the eyes of a controller: it invites the SIE to check the surrounding periods. Regularising the whole gap at once, with consistent figures across returns, closes that door instead of leaving it open.<\/p>\n Paying to stop the bleeding does not mean accepting everything. French tax procedure gives you a structured path to challenge the surcharge, the interest, or the VAT itself \u2014 and recent case law has strengthened the judge’s power to reduce penalties that do not fit the behaviour.<\/p>\n The first tool is the r\u00e9clamation contentieuse (the formal tax claim): a written, reasoned claim sent to the SIE, normally within the legal time limit after the assessment or collection notice, asking for discharge or reduction of the tax, interest or surcharge and explaining precisely why \u2014 wrong figures, VAT that was in fact deductible with invoices attached, formal notice never received, good faith, disproportionate penalty. Attach everything: the late CA3s, the invoices proving deductible input VAT, proof of the payment date, the envelopes and receipt dates of the SIE’s letters, evidence that the omission was an error (change of accountant, professional account locked, director abroad without access) rather than a scheme. If the SIE rejects the claim expressly or stays silent, you can take the dispute to the administrative court (tribunal administratif), which re-examines the whole file.<\/p>\n The strongest legal lever against a heavy surcharge is the judge’s duty to check proportionality. In a decision of 12 February 2025 (Court of Cassation, Commercial Chamber, appeal number 23-14.047, see Cass. com., 12 Feb. 2025, no. 23-14.047<\/a>), the Court held: “Il r\u00e9sulte de ce texte qu’un recours de pleine juridiction doit \u00eatre ouvert au contribuable pour permettre au juge de se prononcer sur le principe et le montant de la p\u00e9nalit\u00e9 fiscale.” And it added the operational rule: “Le juge, saisi d’une demande en ce sens, doit v\u00e9rifier que la p\u00e9nalit\u00e9 fiscale est proportionn\u00e9e au comportement du contribuable dans les circonstances de l’esp\u00e8ce.” In that case, the court of appeal had upheld an 80% penalty with a blanket statement that it was proportionate; the Court of Cassation quashed that part of the ruling because the lower court had not concretely assessed the penalty against the taxpayer’s actual behaviour. The lesson for a foreign company facing 40%: do not just state that the penalty is heavy \u2014 file a documented plea showing the context (first omission, immediate correction once alerted, no concealment, payment made, compliance since), and expressly ask the judge to moderate the penalty. The court has the power to reduce it when the facts justify it.<\/p>\n A second line of defence matters when the file slides toward fraud accusations. VAT omissions can, in serious cases, trigger both a tax surcharge and a criminal prosecution for tax fraud, but that combination is fenced in. The Criminal Chamber of the Court of Cassation (22 March 2023, appeal number 19-81.929, see Cass. crim., 22 Mar. 2023, no. 19-81.929<\/a>) recalls, following the European case law on the matter, “que le pr\u00e9venu de fraude fiscale doit avoir \u00e9t\u00e9 en mesure de pr\u00e9voir, au moment o\u00f9 l’infraction a \u00e9t\u00e9 commise, que ses agissements \u00e9taient susceptibles de faire l’objet d’un cumul de sanctions fiscale et p\u00e9nale.” For an ordinary foreign founder who simply missed returns, this case law is reassurance: your situation belongs to the administrative track \u2014 file, pay, claim, and if needed litigate the penalty \u2014 not the criminal one, which targets the most serious fraudulent schemes. Conversely, if you ever receive a summons or a fraud-related notice, treat it as a separate emergency and take criminal tax advice immediately, because statements made casually in the administrative file can be used elsewhere.<\/p>\n The third tool points the other way: when it is the Treasury that owes you money. If your claim succeeds \u2014 wrong VAT reassessed, deductible VAT finally admitted, surcharge discharged \u2014 the administration refunds the overpaid amounts, and the refund carries interest in your favour. Article L.208 of the LPF<\/a> provides: “Quand l’Etat est condamn\u00e9 \u00e0 un d\u00e9gr\u00e8vement d’imp\u00f4t par un tribunal ou quand un d\u00e9gr\u00e8vement est prononc\u00e9 par l’administration \u00e0 la suite d’une r\u00e9clamation tendant \u00e0 la r\u00e9paration d’une erreur commise dans l’assiette ou le calcul des impositions, les sommes d\u00e9j\u00e0 per\u00e7ues sont rembours\u00e9es au contribuable et donnent lieu au paiement d’int\u00e9r\u00eats moratoires dont le taux est celui de l’int\u00e9r\u00eat de retard pr\u00e9vu \u00e0 l’article 1727 du code g\u00e9n\u00e9ral des imp\u00f4ts.” Overpayments returned to you therefore bear moratory interest at the same 0.20% monthly rate. This is why, paradoxically, paying a disputed VAT bill quickly and claiming immediately is often better than refusing to pay: you stop your own interest meter, and if you win, the state’s meter runs for you.<\/p>\n Two practical warnings complete the picture for owners managing from abroad. First, never let a formal notice go unanswered because it is written in French: the jump from 10% to 40% turns on thirty days from receipt of the mise en demeure, and “I did not understand the letter” is not a legal defence \u2014 a local adviser or a sworn translator costs a fraction of the extra 30 points. Second, keep every invoice, contract and bank proof behind each CA3 line, in a form the administration accepts: Article 289 of the CGI<\/a> requires that “Tout assujetti est tenu de s’assurer qu’une facture est \u00e9mise, par lui-m\u00eame, ou en son nom et pour son compte, par son client ou par un tiers”, and input VAT without a compliant invoice is routinely thrown out in audits. With electronic invoicing now mandatory in stages since September 2026, a billing system that is not compliant is itself a red flag \u2014 see our guide on e-invoicing duties for foreign companies<\/a>.<\/p>\n A missed French VAT return is a solvable problem, but only if you treat it as urgent. Identify your regime \u2014 monthly CA3 under the standard regime, quarterly if your annual VAT is below 4,000 euros, half-yearly instalments under the simplified regime \u2014 and file the missing return now through the professional account, even from the other side of the world. Spontaneous regularisation with payment can halve the 0.20%-per-month late interest; reacting within thirty days of the formal notice keeps the surcharge at 10% instead of 40%; and if the penalty still does not fit the facts, the administrative judge must check its proportionality to your actual behaviour and can reduce it. Pay first and claim in parallel where the figures are disputed, because refunds carry moratory interest at the same rate. And use the scare as a reset: confirm your SIE and filing calendar in writing, secure your invoicing chain as electronic invoicing becomes the norm, and make sure two people \u2014 not one \u2014 monitor the professional account. Run from abroad, a French company stays compliant the same way it does business: with a calendar, a paper trail, and someone who answers the administration’s letters within days, not months.<\/p>\n Our firm offers a telephone consultation within 48 hours with a lawyer of the firm for any foreign founder or company facing a French VAT issue. Call 06 46 60 58 22<\/a> or write through our contact page<\/a> with your SIE letter and your last CA3: we will tell you what to file, what to pay now, and what to contest.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" You run your French company from abroad and a CA3 VAT return was missed. This guide explains the monthly and simplified regimes, the 0.20 percent monthly interest, the 10 or 40 percent surcharge, and how to file late, halve the interest and contest the penalty.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":251031309,"featured_media":16418,"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-2121255","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-decryptage","category-doing-business-in-france"],"yoast_head":"\nI. How do I file VAT in France for my company when I live abroad: monthly CA3 or yearly return?<\/h2>\n
A. Do I file a CA3 every month or pay instalments once a year?<\/h3>\n
B. Who pays the French VAT and which tax office handles my company from abroad?<\/h3>\n
II. I missed a French VAT return: how do I fix the CA3, cut penalties and contest from abroad?<\/h2>\n
A. How do I file the late CA3 and stop interest running?<\/h3>\n
B. How do I challenge the 10% or 40% surcharge and get overpaid VAT back?<\/h3>\n
Conclusion<\/h2>\n
Need a quick opinion on your case<\/h2>\n