You run your business from London, New York, Dubai or Singapore, and France has just become unavoidable: a French customer asks for an invoice with French value added tax (VAT), a logistics provider tells you that your stock in a French warehouse needs a French VAT number, or the tax office writes to say you should have registered months ago. This guide explains, for a foreign founder or foreign company with no office in France, when France requires VAT registration, how to obtain a French VAT number from abroad, how to invoice, file and pay once registered, and how to challenge a reassessment without travelling to France. Every French acronym is explained on first use.<\/p>\n
French VAT is governed mainly by the Code général des impôts<\/em> (CGI, the French Tax Code). The administration in charge of foreign businesses is the Service des Impôts des Entreprises Etrangères<\/em> (SIEE, the tax office for foreign companies), a unit of the Direction des Impôts des Non-Résidents<\/em> (DINR, the non-residents tax directorate) in Noisy-le-Grand. Registration runs through the Guichet unique<\/em> (the single online company formalities portal at formalites.entreprises.gouv.fr). Your French VAT identification number (numéro de TVA intracommunautaire) starts with FR, followed by two check digits and your nine-digit SIREN company identifier. The Kbis<\/em> is the official extract proving your French company exists; a foreign company without a French establishment does not get a Kbis but still receives a VAT number. VAT returns are filed on form CA3 (the standard monthly or quarterly VAT return). The BODACC<\/em> (Bulletin officiel des annonces civiles et commerciales<\/em>) publishes company registrations. URSSAF<\/em> collects social charges and is a different body from the VAT office. Understanding which office does what saves weeks of misdirected letters.<\/p>\n The companion starting point for the whole setting-up sequence, from capital deposit to Kbis and first hire, is our overview Setting Up a Company in France as a Foreign Founder: Bank Account, Kbis, VAT and Your First Hire<\/a>. This article takes the VAT registration step and examines it in full procedural depth, because it is the step where foreign businesses most often discover the problem too late, after penalties have already started to run.<\/p>\n The starting rule is broad. Article 256 of the CGI<\/a> provides that “Sont soumises à la taxe sur la valeur ajoutée les livraisons de biens et les prestations de services effectuées à titre onéreux par un assujetti agissant en tant que tel.” In plain English: supplies of goods and services made for payment by a taxable person acting as such fall within VAT. If you sell goods located in France, or supply services deemed to take place in France, you are inside the French VAT net even if your company seat, directors and bank account are abroad.<\/p>\n For goods, the place rule is physical. Article 258 of the CGI<\/a> states that “Le lieu de livraison de biens meubles corporels est réputé se situer en France lorsque le bien se trouve en France”. Typical cases caught from abroad include: stock stored in a French fulfilment warehouse and sold to French or European consumers; goods bought from a French supplier and resold without leaving France; equipment installed or assembled in France by you or for your account; distance sales of goods dispatched from another European Union (EU) Member State to private individuals in France above the single EU-wide threshold of 10,000 euros, which then become taxable in France under the distance-sales regime. Each of these requires a French VAT number before the first taxable transaction, not after the year-end accounts.<\/p>\n For intra-EU movements, Article 256 bis of the CGI<\/a> adds that “Sont également soumises à la taxe sur la valeur ajoutée les acquisitions intracommunautaires de biens meubles corporels effectuées à titre onéreux par un assujetti agissant en tant que tel”. When your foreign company moves its own stock from Germany, Spain or Italy to a French warehouse, that transfer is treated like an intra-Community acquisition in France and must be declared under your French VAT number. Many e-commerce founders discover this when the carrier asks for an import document they do not have, or when the French warehouse operator refuses to release goods without a valid FR VAT number on the delivery note.<\/p>\n For services, the decisive test in business-to-business (B2B) relations is where the customer is established. Article 259 of the CGI<\/a> provides that “Le lieu des prestations de services est situé en France : 1° Lorsque le preneur est un assujetti agissant en tant que tel et qu’il a en France”. In other words, when your customer is a French taxable business, the service is deemed supplied in France, but the good news is that you generally do not charge French VAT yourself: the reverse-charge mechanism described below shifts the liability to the customer. You need your own French VAT number for services mainly when you supply private individuals in France (business-to-consumer, B2C), for example consultancy, software access, training or digital services used in France, or when you carry out property-related services, passenger transport, catering or short-term rental services physically performed in France. Real-estate work, hotel accommodation and restaurant services supplied on French territory remain French-taxable regardless of where the supplier sits.<\/p>\n The administration confirms the practical consequence on its foreign-business page: a foreign company with no establishment in France is not liable for French VAT where its customer is a business, French or foreign, identified for VAT in France. And it adds the warning that matters: where the foreign company owes no French VAT and carries out no transaction requiring a French VAT number, VAT registration is not necessary. Registration follows liability; it is not optional decoration. If none of your transactions is located in France under Articles 258 to 259, you do not register. If at least one is, you register before invoicing, because an invoice without a valid VAT number blocks your customer’s deduction and exposes you to the first penalty tier.<\/p>\n The small-business exemption does not rescue a company established abroad. Article 293 B of the CGI<\/a> states that “Pour leurs livraisons de biens et leurs prestations de services, les assujettis établis en France bénéficient d’une franchise qui les dispense du paiement de la taxe sur la valeur ajoutée”. The exemption is reserved to businesses established in France, within national turnover ceilings (85,000 euros for sales of goods, 37,500 euros for most services for the previous calendar year, with higher current-year tolerance thresholds of 93,500 and 41,250 euros). A company seated in London, Delaware or Dubai cannot claim the French franchise even for modest French sales; it registers from the first euro of French-taxable turnover. This surprises founders coming from systems with a registration threshold, such as the United Kingdom value added tax threshold, and it explains many retrospection shocks where the SIEE reconstructs twelve months of undeclared French sales.<\/p>\n Two recent court illustrations show how strictly the administration and the courts police the boundary between supplier liability and customer reverse charge. In its decision of 15 June 2023, the Conseil d’Etat (the supreme administrative court) recalled the European rule that “Lorsque la livraison de biens ou la prestation de services imposable est effectuée par un assujetti qui n’est pas établi dans l’État membre dans lequel la TVA est due, les États membres peuvent prévoir que le redevable de la taxe est le destinataire de la livraison de biens ou de la prestation de services” (CE, 15 June 2023, No. 465719, Worldwide Euro Protection<\/a>). In that case a Luxembourg company had supplied administrative, financial and IT services to two French subsidiaries which had reverse-charged the VAT, but the administration argued the Luxembourg supplier should have been treated as established in France through a stable establishment and therefore as the proper person liable, and the court upheld the assessment, ruling “Le pourvoi de la société Worldwide Euro Protection est rejeté.” The lesson for a foreign group is direct: if your foreign parent keeps staff, offices or technical means in France that participate in the supply, the administration may reclassify you as established in France and demand the VAT from you with an 80 percent penalty for concealed activity. Keep the functions of the foreign parent and the French customer or subsidiary clearly separated and documented.<\/p>\n The second illustration concerns paperwork discipline. By a judgment of 5 December 2024, the Lyon administrative court of appeal held “La requête de la SARL Saving Business est rejetée” (CAA Lyon, 5 December 2024, No. 23LY02068, Saving Business<\/a>), rejecting a telephone-card wholesaler’s attempt to rely on customer attestations promising to reverse-charge VAT instead of verifying the customers’ taxable status itself. For a foreign supplier, the message is that a clause in your contract stating that the customer will handle VAT does not protect you if the customer is not a taxable person identified for VAT in France. Check the customer’s FR VAT number on the European VIES database before issuing a reverse-charge invoice, keep a dated screenshot, and refuse reverse charge where the number is invalid.<\/p>\n Once liability is established, registration has three layers: identification, declaration of activity, and appointment of a representative where required. Article 286 ter of the CGI<\/a> provides that “Est identifié par un numéro individuel : 1° Tout assujetti qui effectue des livraisons de biens ou des prestations de services lui ouvrant droit à déduction”. That individual number is your FR VAT number. Article 286 of the CGI<\/a> adds the timing rule: “Toute personne assujettie à la taxe sur la valeur ajoutée doit : 1° Dans les quinze jours du commencement de ses opérations, souscrire au bureau désigné par un arrêté une déclaration conforme au modèle fourni par l’administration.” In practice the fifteen-day period runs from the first French-taxable transaction, including the first stock movement into France. File early; the SIEE treats a registration filed after the first invoice as late, and lateness feeds the penalty analysis later.<\/p>\n The competent office for a business with no stable establishment in France is the SIEE within the DINR at 10 rue du Centre, 93465 Noisy-le-Grand Cedex (telephone +33 1 72 95 20 31). Since the company-formalities reform, the entry point is the Guichet unique at formalites.entreprises.gouv.fr, which routes the file to the SIEE. Companies established in another EU Member State, or in a listed third country that has a mutual-assistance instrument with France of similar scope to Council Directive 2010\/24\/EU and Council Regulation No. 904\/2010 (a list that includes the United Kingdom, Norway, Switzerland in some configurations, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Canada-related territories and many others published by the tax office), do not need to appoint a tax representative; the administration states that in this configuration there is no obligation to appoint a tax representative, although assistance by an agent remains possible. Businesses established in other third countries without such an instrument must appoint a French-established fiscal representative (représentant fiscal<\/em>) who is jointly liable for the VAT, which means the representative will ask for a bank guarantee or cash deposit before accepting the mandate. Even where no representative is mandatory, appointing a French-speaking agent (mandataire<\/em>) or chartered accountant (expert-comptable<\/em>) is strongly advisable: the SIEE corresponds in French, deadlines run in French law, and a missed French letter can cost you the right to appeal.<\/p>\n The file itself is documentary and must be complete at first submission. Expect to provide: proof of existence of the foreign company (certificate of incorporation with sworn French translation), articles of association, proof of the powers of the signatory, identity documents of directors, description of the French activity with expected start date and expected French turnover, French address for correspondence (your agent’s address if you have no premises), bank details (RIB, the French bank identity statement, or foreign IBAN accepted with BIC), existing EU VAT numbers, contracts or purchase orders evidencing imminent French transactions, and where goods are involved, the French warehouse address and logistics contract. E-commerce sellers using the EU One-Stop Shop (OSS, the EU-wide portal for declaring distance sales) or the Import One-Stop Shop (IOSS, the portal for consignments from outside the EU up to 150 euros) still need a French VAT number for stock held in France, because OSS covers the sale but not the domestic warehousing and deemed transfers. Allow four to eight weeks between a complete filing and receipt of the FR number; incomplete files restart the clock. Do not invoice with French VAT before the number is issued, and do not invent a number: issue pro-forma documents marked VAT number pending, then issue the final VAT invoice once registered.<\/p>\n Three timing traps deserve emphasis. First, imports: if you import goods through French customs in your own name, you need the FR VAT number before the customs declaration, because the import VAT is entered on your French VAT return and the customs broker will block the release without it. Second, construction and installation supplies: where you deliver machinery with assembly in France, the place of supply shifts to France at the moment of installation, so the contract signature date is not the registration trigger but the installation start date is. Third, group reorganisations: when a foreign parent transfers its French customer contracts to a new subsidiary, each entity needs its own assessment; the parent’s VAT number does not cover the subsidiary’s first invoices. In each case, backdating is impossible, and the SIEE will date your liability from the objective facts, not from the date you decided to comply.<\/p>\n Once the number is issued, verify it immediately on the VIES system, check that the two check digits and SIREN-equivalent foreign identifier are correctly recorded, and circulate the exact legal invoicing name to your billing team. A single wrong digit invalidates your customers’ intra-Community statements (DEB, déclaration d’échanges de biens<\/em>, and DES, déclaration européenne de services<\/em>) and generates automatic mismatch notices. Keep the SIEE registration letter permanently: banks, marketplaces, warehouse operators and the customs service will ask for it again years later.<\/p>\n Liability and collection are distinct. Article 283 of the CGI<\/a> opens with the principle that “La taxe sur la valeur ajoutée doit être acquittée par les personnes qui réalisent les opérations imposables”, then organises the main exception: where a supply covered by Article 259 A is made by a taxable person established outside France, the VAT is payable by the buyer, recipient or customer acting as a taxable person and holding a French VAT identification number. The administration summarises this for foreign suppliers: explaining that in this case the customer identified for VAT in France necessarily reverse-charges the VAT under Article 283-1 of the CGI. On your invoice you therefore show no French VAT, using wording such as autoliquidation under Article 283-1 of the CGI with VAT due by the customer, showing both VAT numbers, and keep the VIES verification. If the customer has no valid French VAT number, you charge French VAT at the applicable rate (standard 20 percent, reduced 10, 5.5 or 2.1 percent depending on the goods or services) and the customer cannot recover it.<\/p>\n For domestic French invoices you must apply the full French mandatory particulars: consecutive invoice number, issue date, supplier and customer names and addresses, both VAT numbers where applicable, quantity and description of goods or extent of services, taxable amount per rate, VAT rate and amount in euros, and where relevant the reverse-charge wording, the margin-scheme reference for second-hand goods, or the exemption reference with the directive article. Electronic invoicing (facturation électronique<\/em>) becomes progressively mandatory in France; even before your size bracket becomes subject to the obligation, issue invoices that already contain structured data your agent can ingest, because the SIEE cross-checks your CA3 against your customers’ filings automatically. Keep invoices, VIES screenshots, transport documents (CMR consignment notes, bills of lading, warehouse in-and-out slips) and contracts for ten years. The Saving Business judgment above shows that attestations signed after the event do not replace contemporaneous proof.<\/p>\nI. Do you need a French VAT number and how do you obtain one while living abroad?<\/h2>\n
A. When does France treat your foreign business as liable for French VAT?<\/h3>\n
B. How do you register from abroad: which office, which route, which representative and how long?<\/h3>\n
II. How do you charge, file and defend French VAT once you hold the number?<\/h2>\n
A. How do you invoice, reverse-charge, file the CA3 return and recover VAT from abroad?<\/h3>\n