You run your business from London, New York, Dubai or Singapore, and France is your next market: you invoice French customers, store goods in a French warehouse, or you have just created a French subsidiary. Within weeks, the same questions come back every time: do I need a French VAT number? Which tax office handles my file when I live abroad? How often must I file, and what happens if I file late or if the administration refuses my refund? French VAT (TVA, taxe sur la valeur ajout\u00e9e) is a self-assessed tax. You charge it on your sales, you deduct the VAT you paid on your purchases, and you send the balance to the tax administration with a periodic return. The mechanism is logical, but the entry points are completely different depending on whether your business is established inside the European Union or outside it, and the penalties for a missing return or a missing recapitulative statement add up quickly. This guide follows the practical order of a real project. First, when French VAT applies to a foreign-owned business and how you obtain your French identification number. Second, how you file, pay, recover overpaid VAT and defend yourself when the administration reassesses you. Each key rule below is tied to the exact article of the French Tax Code (CGI, Code g\u00e9n\u00e9ral des imp\u00f4ts) currently in force, so you or your adviser can check every statement against the official text on L\u00e9gifrance and manage the whole process from abroad with a clear calendar.<\/p>\n
Before any filing question, you must answer two prior questions: are your transactions caught by French VAT at all, and through which door do you enter the French system? A French company owned from abroad (typically a SAS, soci\u00e9t\u00e9 par actions simplifi\u00e9e, or a SARL, soci\u00e9t\u00e9 \u00e0 responsabilit\u00e9 limit\u00e9e) is a French taxable person like any other once it is registered with the trade register. A foreign company with no French entity follows a separate registration track. Getting this starting point wrong is the most expensive mistake, because it leads either to charging no VAT when you should, or to registering for a regime you do not need.<\/p>\n
The basic rule is broad. Article 256 of the French Tax Code<\/a> provides that “Sont soumises \u00e0 la taxe sur la valeur ajout\u00e9e les livraisons de biens et les prestations de services effectu\u00e9es \u00e0 titre on\u00e9reux par un assujetti agissant en tant que tel.” In plain terms, any supply of goods or services for consideration by a taxable person acting as such falls within VAT. If your French subsidiary sells products, bills consulting hours, rents equipped premises or licenses software to French customers, it is performing taxable transactions in France from day one, even if its shareholders and directors live abroad.<\/p>\n A second charging rule matters enormously to foreign groups: goods arriving from another EU Member State. Article 256 bis of the French Tax Code<\/a> states that “Sont \u00e9galement soumises \u00e0 la taxe sur la valeur ajout\u00e9e les acquisitions intracommunautaires de biens meubles corporels effectu\u00e9es \u00e0 titre on\u00e9reux par un assujetti agissant en tant que tel ou par une personne morale non assujettie lorsque le vendeur est un assujetti agissant en tant que tel et qui ne b\u00e9n\u00e9ficie pas dans son Etat du r\u00e9gime particulier de franchise des petites entreprises.” Suppose your German company ships stock to your French warehouse, or your French SAS buys equipment from an Italian supplier. Those intra-community acquisitions (acquisitions intracommunautaires) are themselves taxable in France and must appear on the French VAT return, with VAT simultaneously declared and, in most cases, deducted. Many foreign founders discover this rule only when their accountant asks why French VAT appears on purchases from abroad.<\/p>\n The third mechanism to master is the reverse charge (autoliquidation), which shifts the burden of paying the VAT from the supplier to the customer. The starting point, article 283 of the French Tax Code<\/a>, first recalls that “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.” It then provides the rule every non-established supplier must know. For supplies covered by article 259 A made by a supplier established outside 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 amount due is then shown on the return described in article 287. In practice, if your US or UK company bills services to a VAT-registered French client, you generally invoice without French VAT and your French client self-assesses it. A parallel rule covers services: For services of the kind described in article 259(1\u00b0) supplied by a business not established in France, “la taxe doit \u00eatre acquitt\u00e9e par le preneur.” This is why your contract wording matters: identifying your French customer and checking its French VAT number before invoicing determines whether you charge VAT or apply reverse charge.<\/p>\n Finally, small turnovers may escape payment altogether under the small-business franchise (franchise en base de TVA), which exempts you from charging VAT but also blocks any deduction. Article 293 B of the French Tax Code<\/a> provides that “Pour leurs livraisons de biens et leurs prestations de services, les assujettis \u00e9tablis en France b\u00e9n\u00e9ficient d’une franchise qui les dispense du paiement de la taxe sur la valeur ajout\u00e9e lorsqu’ils n’ont pas r\u00e9alis\u00e9 en France un chiffre d’affaires, \u00e9valu\u00e9 dans les conditions pr\u00e9vues \u00e0 l’article 293 D, exc\u00e9dant les plafonds suivants”, with the table “Ann\u00e9e civile pr\u00e9c\u00e9dente 85 000 37 500 Ann\u00e9e en cours 93 500 41 250”, meaning 85,000 euros for sales of goods and 37,500 euros for most services as the previous-year ceilings. Two warnings for foreign readers. First, the franchise is reserved to businesses established in France (“assujettis \u00e9tablis en France”): your French SAS can use it, but your foreign head office billing directly into France generally cannot. Second, exceeding the threshold mid-year pushes you into VAT from the first day of the month of the overrun, so a fast-growing subsidiary must monitor turnover monthly rather than discovering the breach at year-end. The official business portal describes each regime and its thresholds in its guide to declaring and paying VAT<\/a>, which is the natural companion to the code articles cited here.<\/p>\n Once you know you are liable, you need a French VAT identification number (num\u00e9ro individuel d’identification \u00e0 la TVA, an FR-prefixed number used on every invoice and return). The obligation to come forward is fast. Article 286 of the French Tax Code<\/a> commands: “Toute personne assujettie \u00e0 la taxe sur la valeur ajout\u00e9e doit :”, and first among those duties, “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.” The fifteen-day clock runs from the start of your taxable activity in France, not from the moment you feel ready, which is why registration should be prepared in parallel with company formation rather than after the first invoice.<\/p>\n The number itself is governed by article 286 ter of the French Tax Code<\/a>: “Est identifi\u00e9 par un num\u00e9ro individuel :” notably “Tout assujetti qui effectue des livraisons de biens ou des prestations de services lui ouvrant droit \u00e0 d\u00e9duction”. In practice the number is issued after your business exists for tax purposes: a newly formed French SAS or SARL is entered in the trade and companies register (registre du commerce et des soci\u00e9t\u00e9s) through the single online portal (Guichet unique, operated by the INPI, Institut national de la propri\u00e9t\u00e9 industrielle), receives its Kbis certificate (the official identity card of the company, issued by the greffe, the commercial court registry) and is assigned to its local business tax office (SIE, service des imp\u00f4ts des entreprises). If you have not yet created that vehicle, our formation guide for foreign founders on bank account, Kbis, VAT and first hire<\/a> walks through the incorporation sequence that must come first.<\/p>\n Companies with no French establishment follow a different track, and here nationality of establishment changes everything. If your business is established in another EU Member State, or in one of the listed third countries that cooperate with France on VAT recovery, you do not appoint a fiscal representative; you register directly and may simply use an agent (mandataire) to deal with the administration. The tax administration’s VAT registration page for foreign businesses<\/a> explains which office is competent according to your place of establishment and the nature of your transactions. If instead your business is established outside the EU in a country without such mutual assistance, representation becomes compulsory. Article 289 A of the French Tax Code<\/a> provides: “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.” That representative (repr\u00e9sentant fiscal) must itself be established in France and liable for VAT there, it files and pays in your name, and your competent tax office will be the office where the representative already files its own returns. The detailed duties of that representative are spelled out in the administration’s official doctrine on fiscal representation of non-EU businesses<\/a>. One practical tip from the registration page is worth following immediately: provide French bank details (relev\u00e9 d’identit\u00e9 bancaire) or, if your account is abroad, an original foreign bank certificate from the moment you register, because that document will condition how fast any future VAT credit is refunded to you. Businesses that only carry out intra-community acquisitions in France without transactions requiring full VAT returns may be registered for identification only, but as soon as you invoice French VAT to private individuals or non-registered customers from France, full periodic returns on form CA3 become mandatory.<\/p>\n Registration is only the entrance ticket. French VAT then runs as a monthly or quarterly discipline of returns, invoices and cross-border statements, with a symmetrical right: when you paid more VAT than you collected, the administration owes you the difference. Foreign-owned businesses most often fail on three points: returns filed late because the accountant abroad never received the documents, invoices missing mandatory particulars, and recapitulative statements forgotten on intra-EU sales. Each of these has its own penalty scale, and each can still be fixed or contested if you act within the deadlines.<\/p>\n The return is the heart of the system. Article 287 of the French Tax Code<\/a> states: “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.” The standard regime is monthly: “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.” Smaller payers get breathing room: “Lorsque la taxe exigible annuellement est inf\u00e9rieure \u00e0 4 000 \u20ac, ils sont admis \u00e0 d\u00e9poser leurs d\u00e9clarations par trimestre civil.” Below those levels sits the simplified regime (r\u00e9gime r\u00e9el simplifi\u00e9), where the business pays two instalments during the year and files one annual return reconciling the balance; the official service-public guide to declaring and paying VAT<\/a> details the turnover bands that assign you to each regime and the instalment mechanics. Returns are filed and paid online through the professional tax account, and the VAT due is paid at the same time as the return. From abroad, the operational lesson is simple: give your French accountant or representative a fixed monthly cutoff for sending sales and purchase data, because a return cannot be filed on time if invoices arrive six weeks late.<\/p>\n Invoices are your evidence for both the VAT you charge and the VAT you deduct, so their content is regulated. Article 289 of the French Tax Code<\/a> provides: “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 invoice between taxable persons must show the parties’ VAT numbers, the nature and quantity of the goods or services, the price, the applicable rate and the VAT amount, and since the generalization of electronic invoicing, issuance and transmission follow structured electronic formats whose mandatory mentions the administration checks automatically. For a foreign group this has a concrete consequence: intercompany invoices between the foreign parent and the French subsidiary must be as rigorous as invoices to third parties, because the subsidiary’s deduction depends on them, and transfer-pricing documentation does not replace VAT-compliant invoicing.<\/p>\n Cross-border sales inside the EU add a second declaration layer that foreign businesses constantly overlook. Article 289 B of the French Tax Code<\/a> requires: “Tout assujetti identifi\u00e9 \u00e0 la taxe sur la valeur ajout\u00e9e doit d\u00e9poser, dans un d\u00e9lai et selon des modalit\u00e9s fix\u00e9s par d\u00e9cret, un \u00e9tat r\u00e9capitulatif des clients, avec leur num\u00e9ro d’identification \u00e0 la taxe sur la valeur ajout\u00e9e”. If your French company ships goods VAT-exempt to a German customer or bills intra-EU services under reverse charge, those customers and their VAT numbers must be listed on the recapitulative statement (\u00e9tat r\u00e9capitulatif, the former DEB\/DES system now filed as the EMEBI survey and European statements). Missing this statement while correctly filing the CA3 return is the classic trap: the VAT itself is right, but the information obligation is breached, and the fine follows automatically. E-commerce sellers making distance sales to consumers in other Member States can simplify the geography through the EU One-Stop Shop (OSS, guichet unique TVA europ\u00e9en), declaring the VAT of all destination countries in a single return filed in their state of identification, with a parallel Import One-Stop Shop (IOSS) for low-value imports; if your model includes online sales across borders, ask your adviser whether OSS reporting replaces some French registrations before multiplying local VAT numbers.<\/p>\n The reward for this discipline is the right to deduct and to be refunded. Article 271 of the French Tax Code<\/a> states the principle: “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.” Timing follows exigibility: “Le droit \u00e0 d\u00e9duction prend naissance lorsque la taxe d\u00e9ductible devient exigible chez le redevable.” Each month, the VAT you paid on rent, equipment, stock, professional fees and intra-community acquisitions is set against the VAT you collected; if the balance is positive you pay it, if it is negative you hold a VAT credit (cr\u00e9dit de TVA). That credit is first carried forward onto the next returns, and when it cannot be absorbed, you claim the refund on the return itself. Exporters, newly formed subsidiaries investing heavily before their first sales, and holding structures with little output VAT live on these refunds, so the bank-details advice given at registration matters: the administration pays refunds to the account on file, and as the registration page<\/a> warns, supplying a French RIB or an original foreign bank certificate from the start facilitates the processing of your future credit refunds. Keep every purchase invoice and, if your business does not keep full accounts allowing turnover to be determined, remember that article 286 of the French Tax Code<\/a> still expects a day-by-day numbered ledger distinguishing taxable from non-taxable transactions, because a refund claim without supporting documents is a reassessment waiting to happen.<\/p>\n When a deadline slips, the sanction is mechanical. Article 1788 A of the French Tax Code<\/a> opens with the headline: “Entra\u00eene l’application d’une amende de 750 \u20ac”. The first target is information reporting: “Le d\u00e9faut de production dans les d\u00e9lais des \u00e9tats pr\u00e9vus \u00e0 l’article 289 B.” In other words, each missing or late recapitulative statement on intra-EU customers costs 750 euros, raised to 1,500 euros if you still have not filed thirty days after a formal notice (mise en demeure), with an additional 15 euros per omission or inaccuracy capped at 1,500 euros. Late VAT returns and late payments attract their own surcharges and late interest on top of the tax itself, and persistent failure to file lets the administration assess you automatically (taxation d’office) on an estimated base that is always harder to overturn than a return you filed yourself. The BODACC (Bulletin officiel des annonces civiles et commerciales, the official gazette where company events are published) will not show your VAT debt, but the Treasury’s recovery machinery, from formal notice to seizure, does not require your presence in France to operate against French bank balances, receivables or stock.<\/p>\n Audit pressure on foreign-owned structures typically takes two forms. A desk audit (contr\u00f4le sur pi\u00e8ces) asks for documents by correspondence and questions specific lines of your returns, often the deduction of foreign invoices or the application of reverse charge. A full on-site audit (v\u00e9rification de comptabilit\u00e9) examines the accounts at the French establishment and ends, if adjustments are envisaged, with a formal reassessment proposal (proposition de rectification) that you can answer within thirty days. Because you live abroad, two reflexes decide the outcome. First, keep a reachable French contact point, your accountant, your fiscal representative or your lawyer, designated to receive and date-stamp every letter, since most appeal deadlines run from notification and the administration validly notifies the French address on file. Second, never let an information request go unanswered while preparing the perfect reply: ask for a short extension in writing, send what you have, and complete the file afterwards, because silence converts a routine check into an estimated assessment.<\/p>\n If the administration maintains the reassessment, contesting follows a strict two-stage path that works perfectly well from abroad. You start with an administrative claim (r\u00e9clamation contentieuse) sent to the competent tax office, setting out the facts, the legal grounds with the exact code articles, and attaching the invoices, contracts and proof of payment that support your position. The deadline is longer than most foreign founders expect but absolutely rigid. Article R*196-1 of the Tax Procedures Book<\/a> provides: “Pour \u00eatre recevables, les r\u00e9clamations relatives aux imp\u00f4ts autres que les imp\u00f4ts directs locaux et les taxes annexes \u00e0 ces imp\u00f4ts, doivent \u00eatre pr\u00e9sent\u00e9es \u00e0 l’administration au plus tard le 31 d\u00e9cembre de la deuxi\u00e8me ann\u00e9e suivant celle”, running from the collection or notification event the article then details. Miss that New Year’s Eve date and the claim is inadmissible, however strong the merits. If the administration rejects the claim expressly or stays silent for six months, you move to the second stage: an appeal before the administrative court (tribunal administratif) of the tax office’s district, filed by a lawyer admitted in France, with the whole file translatable into a written procedure where your physical presence is not required. Throughout, separate the roles clearly: your accountant rebuilds the figures and the audit trail, your lawyer frames the legal argument around the articles cited in this guide and the evidence, and neither URSSAF (the social-security collection body, which handles payroll charges, not VAT) nor the commercial court registry has any part in the dispute. Interest and collection are suspended only if you file a formal suspension request alongside the claim and, where required, provide guarantees, so ask for that protection expressly instead of assuming the claim alone stops enforcement.<\/p>\n French VAT rewards foreign businesses that treat it as a calendar, not as an annual chore. Determine first whether your transactions are taxable in France under the supply, intra-community acquisition and reverse-charge rules, and whether your French subsidiary can claim the small-business franchise. Then enter through the right door: Guichet unique and Kbis for a French company, direct registration for an EU-established business, accredited fiscal representative for a non-EU business, with bank details supplied from day one. Then hold the monthly rhythm: returns on time, compliant invoices, recapitulative statements for every intra-EU customer, deduction claimed only on genuine supporting documents, and VAT credits recovered through the return. If a penalty or reassessment arrives, check the exact article, answer information requests before the thirty-day windows close, file the administrative claim before the 31 December deadline of the second year, and take the dispute to the administrative court with a complete file rather than letting an estimated assessment stand. Run that sequence and France becomes what it should be for a foreign founder: a large market with predictable tax mechanics, managed from anywhere in the world.<\/p>\n Do you need to register for French VAT, recover a VAT credit, or answer a reassessment from abroad? Our firm offers a telephone consultation within 48 hours with a lawyer of the firm. Call 06 46 60 58 22<\/a> (Ma\u00eetre Reda Kohen) or write through our contact page<\/a> with your invoices, returns and any letter from the tax office, and you will receive a clear action plan for your French VAT position.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Foreign-owned business in France? How to get a French VAT number, file returns, recover VAT credits and contest reassessments from abroad.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":251031309,"featured_media":16384,"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-2123849","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-decryptage","category-doing-business-in-france"],"yoast_head":"\nB. Getting identified from abroad: single portal, competent tax office and the non-EU fiscal representative<\/h3>\n
II. How you file, pay and recover French VAT, and how you fight a reassessment from abroad<\/h2>\n
A. Returns, invoices, EU statements, deduction and refunds: the monthly discipline that protects your cash<\/h3>\n
B. Late filings, penalties, audits and contesting a reassessment without living in France<\/h3>\n
Conclusion<\/h2>\n
Need a quick opinion on your case<\/h2>\n