You run your company from London, New York, Dubai or Singapore, and your first French clients are ready to sign. Then the purchase order comes back with questions you did not expect: what is your French VAT number, will you invoice with or without French VAT, and who pays the tax if you have no office in France. Get these answers wrong and the consequences arrive fast: the client refuses to pay the invoice, the goods sit blocked at the border, or the French tax administration treats your travelling sales team as a taxable presence and charges years of VAT plus an 80 percent penalty.<\/p>\n
This guide answers the three questions every foreign founder asks before invoicing France: when French VAT applies to sales made from abroad, how to obtain a French VAT identification without moving to France, and how to invoice, declare and deduct the tax without creating a costly dispute. It is written for a business reader, it explains every French acronym the first time it appears, and every decisive rule is tied to the exact article of the French Tax Code (Code g\u00e9n\u00e9ral des imp\u00f4ts, usually shortened to CGI) or to a court decision you can open yourself. For the wider incorporation journey, from the company bank account to the Kbis extract and the first hire, our broader guide to setting up a company in France as a foreign founder remains the companion to this VAT-focused article: Setting Up a Company in France as a Foreign Founder: Bank Account, Kbis, VAT and Your First Hire<\/a>.<\/p>\n A first vocabulary note will save you hours. In France, a taxable person is called an assujetti. A price excluding tax is hors taxe (HT) and a price including all taxes is toutes taxes comprises (TTC). Your intra-Community VAT number (num\u00e9ro de TVA intracommunautaire) is the individual identification number under which you are known to the French VAT system, distinct from your company registration number. The SIREN is the nine-digit identifier of a company registered in France, the SIRET identifies each of its establishments, the RCS (Registre du commerce et des soci\u00e9t\u00e9s) is the trade and companies register kept by the clerk of the commercial court (greffe), the Kbis is the official extract proving that registration, and the BODACC (Bulletin officiel des annonces civiles et commerciales) is the gazette where company registrations are published. The DGFIP (Direction g\u00e9n\u00e9rale des finances publiques) is the French tax administration, the SIE (Service des imp\u00f4ts des entreprises) is the corporate tax office your file depends on, and the DSN (D\u00e9claration sociale nominative) is the monthly payroll return, which is outside the scope of this article.<\/p>\n The short answer is that it depends on what you sell, to whom, and from where. French VAT follows the transaction, not your passport or the location of your headquarters. A company with no office, no employee and no registration in France can still owe French VAT, while in other configurations it can invoice without any French VAT number at all because the French customer accounts for the tax itself.<\/p>\n The starting point is Article 256 of the CGI, which 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” (Article 256 of the Code g\u00e9n\u00e9ral des imp\u00f4ts<\/a>). In plain English: supplies of goods and services made for consideration by a taxable person acting as such fall within French VAT. If you sell software subscriptions, consulting days, machinery or inventory to French customers in the course of your business, you are within the scope of the tax, and the only remaining question is which country taxes the transaction.<\/p>\n For goods, the place-of-supply rule of Article 258 of the CGI looks at where the goods are. The place of the supply of movable goods is deemed to be in France, among other cases, when the goods are in France at the time of dispatch or transport to the buyer, when the seller assembles or installs them in France, or when they are made available to the buyer in France without transport (Article 258 of the Code g\u00e9n\u00e9ral des imp\u00f4ts<\/a>). A machine shipped from a warehouse in Lyon to a French buyer, equipment installed by your technicians in a Paris factory, or stock handed over at a French trade fair therefore points to French VAT. Goods shipped from outside the European Union are a separate case examined below: they are imports, not domestic supplies.<\/p>\n For services sold to business customers, the rule most foreign founders meet first is Article 259 of the CGI. The place of a supply of services is in France where the customer is a taxable person acting as such and has in France the seat of its economic activity, or a fixed establishment (\u00e9tablissement stable) to which the services are supplied, or, failing those, its domicile or habitual residence (Article 259 of the Code g\u00e9n\u00e9ral des imp\u00f4ts<\/a>). In practice, when your customer is a French company with its head office in France, the service is subject to French VAT even if you perform every hour of work from abroad. That single sentence explains why a London consultancy, a New York design studio or a Dubai IT firm invoicing a Paris company cannot simply stamp “no VAT” on the invoice and move on: French VAT is due somewhere, and the invoice must say who pays it.<\/p>\n Exceptions exist, and Article 259 A of the CGI lists supplies whose place is fixed differently by derogation: short-term hiring of means of transport, services connected with immovable property, passenger transport, catering, and access to cultural or sporting events, among others (Article 259 A of the Code g\u00e9n\u00e9ral des imp\u00f4ts<\/a>). If you lease vehicles to French users, renovate a building in Bordeaux, or sell tickets for an event in Paris, read Article 259 A before Article 259, because the exception displaces the general customer-location rule. Services connected with a French building, for instance, are taxed in France regardless of where the customer sits.<\/p>\n Imports follow their own track. Article 291 of the CGI provides that “I. – 1. Les importations de biens sont soumises \u00e0 la taxe sur la valeur ajout\u00e9e. 2. 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” (Article 291 of the Code g\u00e9n\u00e9ral des imp\u00f4ts<\/a>). Goods entering France from the United States, the United Kingdom, China or the Gulf are therefore subject to French VAT at import, and Article 293 A of the CGI designates who bears it, starting with the person carrying out the supply where the goods are the subject of a supply located in France (Article 293 A of the Code g\u00e9n\u00e9ral des imp\u00f4ts<\/a>). The practical consequence is immediate: a foreign e-commerce brand shipping parcels to French consumers, or a manufacturer sending components to its French distributor, must organise import VAT before the goods reach the border, not after the customer complains about a blocked delivery.<\/p>\n One figure frames everything that follows. Article 278 of the CGI states: “Le taux normal de la taxe sur la valeur ajout\u00e9e est fix\u00e9 \u00e0 20 %” (Article 278 of the Code g\u00e9n\u00e9ral des imp\u00f4ts<\/a>). Reduced rates exist for specific categories, but the standard 20 percent rate is the default assumption on which your pricing, your cash planning and your contracts should be built whenever French VAT applies and no reduced rate has been positively confirmed for your product.<\/p>\n French VAT identification is an administrative formality you complete with the tax administration, and it is separate from incorporating a French company. You can be identified for VAT in France while keeping your existing foreign company, with no share capital to deposit, no articles of association to file at the greffe, and no Kbis to obtain. The confusion between the two tracks is the most frequent and the most expensive mistake: founders either incorporate a full subsidiary they do not need, or sell for months without any VAT identification they do need.<\/p>\n The entry point is Article 286 of the CGI. Every person liable for VAT must, within fifteen days of starting operations, file a declaration with the office designated by order: “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” (Article 286 of the Code g\u00e9n\u00e9ral des imp\u00f4ts<\/a>). The fifteen-day period runs from the start of your taxable operations in France, and the declaration must be renewed if the business ceases. A declaration is therefore due within fifteen days of starting taxable operations, a rule the text states expressly and which leaves no room for a grace period invented by practice. The same article requires the trader to keep day-by-day records of operations and to preserve books and supporting documents under the conditions of Article L. 102 B of the Livre des proc\u00e9dures fiscales (the tax procedure code), so your invoicing system should be designed for audit from day one.<\/p>\n Identification itself runs through Article 286 ter of the CGI, which provides that an individual number identifies, among others, every taxable person carrying out supplies of goods or services giving a right to deduct: “Est identifi\u00e9 par un num\u00e9ro individuel : 1\u00b0 Tout assujetti qui effectue des livraisons de biens ou des prestations de services lui ouvrant droit \u00e0 d\u00e9duction” (Article 286 ter of the Code g\u00e9n\u00e9ral des imp\u00f4ts<\/a>). This individual number is your French intra-Community VAT number, the number your French customers will check, the number that appears on your invoices for intra-Community trade, and the number under which you file French VAT returns. If you only sell to French private consumers with goods already located in France, you will generally need it; if your French sales are exclusively services to French taxable customers under reverse charge, the next paragraph may dispense with it.<\/p>\n Article 286 ter A of the CGI then narrows the obligation in a way many advisers overlook. Taxable persons carrying out only certain operations are not required to obtain the individual number, including “Des livraisons de biens ou prestations de services pour lesquelles la taxe est due par le destinataire” (Article 286 ter A of the Code g\u00e9n\u00e9ral des imp\u00f4ts<\/a>). Supplies for which the tax is due from the recipient, which is exactly the reverse-charge situation described in the second part of this article, can therefore be made without French VAT identification, provided they are the only French operations and the supplier files nothing else in France. The exemption is narrow and conditional, but where it fits, it saves a registration and the recurring return cycle that comes with it.<\/p>\n Companies established outside the European Union face one more layer. Article 289 A of the CGI requires a person not established in the European Union who owes French VAT or must complete reporting obligations to have an established taxable representative accredited with the tax office, who undertakes to complete the formalities and, for taxable operations, to pay the tax in its place: “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” (Article 289 A of the Code g\u00e9n\u00e9ral des imp\u00f4ts<\/a>). Failing that, the same article warns that “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”. A non-EU supplier without a French representative therefore does not escape the tax; it transfers the burden and the irritation to its French customer, who will either renegotiate the price or find another supplier. The article provides exemptions where France has a mutual assistance instrument with the third country, but those exemptions turn on treaty analysis, not on assumption, and the representative remains the default for American, Gulf, Asian and post-Brexit British businesses with direct French VAT debts.<\/p>\n The decision tree for a foreign founder is therefore the following. First, locate each stream of French sales under Articles 258, 259, 259 A and 291: goods in France, services to French taxable customers, exceptional services, and imports. Second, determine who pays under Article 283 or the import rules, examined in the second part. Third, identify only if the rules require it: declaration within fifteen days and individual number under Articles 286 and 286 ter, possible dispensation under Article 286 ter A for reverse-charge-only activity, and accredited representative under Article 289 A for non-EU businesses. Fourth, invoice and declare as the second part explains, because identification without correct invoicing still produces penalties.<\/p>\n Once the place of taxation and the question of identification are settled, execution decides everything. French VAT disputes between foreign suppliers and French customers rarely concern the principle of the tax; they concern the invoice. A missing mandatory mention, a VAT number that should not have been charged, or a return filed one quarter late is what transforms a routine cross-border sale into an assessment, and the courts show little sympathy for suppliers who invoiced first and read the rules later.<\/p>\n The mechanism that governs most foreign-to-French business services is the reverse charge (autoliquidation). Article 283 of the CGI provides that where a supply of goods or a service covered by Article 259 A is made by a taxable person not established in France, the tax is paid by the buyer, recipient or customer acting as a taxable person holding a French VAT identification number, with the amount identified on the return mentioned in Article 287: “Toutefois, lorsqu’une livraison de biens ou une prestation de services mentionn\u00e9e \u00e0 l’ article 259 A 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. Le montant d\u00fb est identifi\u00e9 sur la d\u00e9claration mentionn\u00e9e \u00e0 l’ article 287 .” (Article 283 of the Code g\u00e9n\u00e9ral des imp\u00f4ts<\/a>). The same article adds that where the services mentioned in Article 259 are supplied by a taxable person not established in France, the tax must be paid by the customer. Your American SaaS company, your British consultancy or your Emirati agency therefore issues its invoice without French VAT, and the French client declares the French VAT itself.<\/p>\n The official English-language guidance of the French administration describes the invoicing consequence in operational terms. Where the supply is subject to French VAT, everything turns on whether the seller holds a French VAT number: a seller identified in France bills the French VAT to the French customer, who receives a TTC invoice, while a seller without a French VAT number must bill an HT amount, with the VAT self-assessed by the client company, and the invoice must carry the mention “reverse charge” (French administration guidance on VAT for services exchanged between two EU Member States<\/a>). The guidance continues that the buyer established in France collects the French VAT on behalf of the tax authorities and reports it, and that where it holds a right to deduct, it deducts the self-assessed amount in its VAT return. Three practical duties follow for the foreign supplier: verify that the French customer is genuinely a taxable person with a valid VAT number, invoice HT rather than adding a foreign VAT rate by reflex, and print the exact mention “reverse charge” (autoliquidation) on the invoice, because that mention is what allows the customer to process the invoice without calling your finance team.<\/p>\n That mention is not a courtesy formula. The administration’s fact sheet points to Article 242hA of Annex II to the CGI as the source of the mandatory invoice mention for reverse charge (Article 242hA of Annex II to the Code g\u00e9n\u00e9ral des imp\u00f4ts<\/a>). The general invoicing duty itself sits in Article 289 of the CGI, which requires every taxable person to ensure that an invoice is issued for supplies to another taxable person: “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” (Article 289 of the Code g\u00e9n\u00e9ral des imp\u00f4ts<\/a>). An invoice between businesses without the proper VAT treatment is therefore not a minor formatting issue; it is the breach of an express statutory duty, and the penalty section below shows what that costs.<\/p>\n Imports work differently but converge on the same logic of self-assessment. Since 1 January 2022, self-assessment of import VAT has been compulsory and automatic for all businesses identified for VAT in France, as the Ministry of the Economy explains: import VAT is no longer paid at the border to customs but declared and deducted on the VAT return (Ministry of the Economy guidance on import VAT self-assessment<\/a>). The foreign supplier that is itself the importer, or whose French customer imports the goods, must therefore coordinate in advance who holds the VAT number under which the import is self-assessed, because the carrier will otherwise advance the VAT and recharge it with fees.<\/p>\n A Rennes Court of Appeal decision of 11 February 2025 shows what happens when that coordination fails. A French electronics company imported components from China and the United States through an international carrier, which paid import VAT and re-invoiced it. The importer objected that it held a self-assessment authorisation and had informed the carrier. The court recorded that “La soci\u00e9t\u00e9 Cordon justifie de l’autorisation d’autoliquidation de la TVA due \u00e0 l’importation en tant qu’assujettie \u00e9tabli dans le territoire douanier de l’Union europ\u00e9enne d\u00e9livr\u00e9e par la Direction g\u00e9n\u00e9rale des douanes et droits indirects” and concluded: “En cons\u00e9quence, les factures relatives \u00e0 la TVA \u00e0 l’importation ne sont pas dues par la soci\u00e9t\u00e9 Cordon” (Rennes Court of Appeal, 11 February 2025, No. 24\/02101<\/a>). The judgment was reversed in full against the carrier: “Infirme le jugement du tribunal de commerce<\/a> de Saint-Malo en toutes ses dispositions soumises \u00e0 la cour” and “Rejette l’int\u00e9gralit\u00e9 des demandes de la soci\u00e9t\u00e9 Fedex express FR”. For a foreign founder, the lesson is contractual as much as fiscal: confirm in writing, before the first shipment, who self-assesses import VAT and under which number, notify the carrier with proof of the authorisation, and keep that proof, because the carrier’s invoice is not conclusive once a valid self-assessment position is established.<\/p>\n Non-EU suppliers should re-read Article 289 A at this stage. Where no accredited representative has been appointed and the operation does not qualify for an exemption, the French recipient owes the tax and any related penalties. Commercially, this means your French customer becomes your tax collector of last resort, a position no procurement department accepts twice. Either appoint the representative, restructure the flow so the customer knowingly operates under reverse charge, or accept that sophisticated French buyers will walk away.<\/p>\n Identification and correct invoices lead to the recurring discipline: returns, payment, and deduction. Article 287 of the CGI sets the standard cycle. Every person liable for VAT identified under Articles 286 ter and 286 ter A must file a return with the tax office on which it depends within the period fixed by order. Taxpayers under the normal (r\u00e9el normal) regime file monthly, showing total operations and taxable detail, and pay the tax due each month: “Les redevables soumis au r\u00e9gime r\u00e9el normal d’imposition d\u00e9posent mensuellement la d\u00e9claration vis\u00e9e au 1” and “La taxe exigible est acquitt\u00e9e tous les mois” (Article 287 of the Code g\u00e9n\u00e9ral des imp\u00f4ts<\/a>). Where the annual tax due is below 4,000 euros, the same article allows quarterly filing: “Lorsque la taxe exigible annuellement est inf\u00e9rieure \u00e0 4 000 \u20ac, ils sont admis \u00e0 d\u00e9poser leurs d\u00e9clarations par trimestre civil”. The monthly return and monthly payment are therefore the default; quarterly filing is an option conditioned on the 4,000 euro threshold stated in the article, not a right the business can simply assume.<\/p>\n Deduction is where foreign businesses most often lose money they thought was safe. French VAT on your French expenses, rent, subcontractors, equipment, is deductible only where the formal conditions are met, and the administration checks arithmetic, not intentions. In a 9 December 2022 decision, the Marseille Administrative Court of Appeal upheld the refusal of input VAT where the amounts recorded by the company in its accounts did not match the invoices: “D\u00e8s lors, c’est \u00e0 bon droit que l’administration a pu refuser la d\u00e9duction de la taxe sur la valeur ajout\u00e9e figurant \u00e0 hauteur du surplus de la diff\u00e9rence entre le montant des op\u00e9rations enregistr\u00e9 par la SCI<\/a> dans ses documents comptables et celui figurant sur ces factures” (Marseille Administrative Court of Appeal, 9 December 2022, No. 21MA00040<\/a>). A foreign founder running French books from abroad should read this as a warning about sloppy reconciliations: every euro of deducted VAT must trace to an invoice for the same amount recorded in the accounts, and a spreadsheet prepared for the occasion, without a certain date and without a proven link to the invoices, proves nothing.<\/p>\n The heavier risk is structural: operating in France through people and premises while believing you have no presence. In a 10 November 2022 decision, the Marseille court examined a Polish company supplying temporary staff to French user companies, which argued it had no fixed establishment in France and that its French clients had already self-assessed the VAT. The court recalled the European test, citing the Court of Justice case law, that an establishment can fix the place of services only where “il pr\u00e9sente un degr\u00e9 suffisant de permanence et une structure apte, du point de vue de l’\u00e9quipement humain et technique, \u00e0 rendre possibles, de mani\u00e8re autonome, les prestations de services consid\u00e9r\u00e9es” (Marseille Administrative Court of Appeal, 10 November 2022, No. 21MA05016<\/a>). Applying that test to the human and technical resources the company permanently held in French premises, the court held the French VAT assessments well-founded and rejected the claim in full: “La requ\u00eate de la soci\u00e9t\u00e9 Int\u00e9rim A… SP Zoo est rejet\u00e9e”. Because the company had filed no returns and registered nowhere, neither with a business formalities centre nor with the commercial court registry, the administration added the hidden-activity surcharge of Article 1728 of the CGI, under which late or missing returns trigger an increase of “80 % en cas de d\u00e9couverte d’une activit\u00e9 occulte” (Article 1728 of the Code g\u00e9n\u00e9ral des imp\u00f4ts<\/a>). A sales representative working permanently from a Paris desk, a stock of spare parts in a French warehouse, or a local manager signing contracts in France can therefore convert a clean reverse-charge model into several years of French VAT plus an 80 percent increase, and the decision shows the courts will sustain both where the establishment test is met and no return was ever filed.<\/p>\n Penalties for invoicing breaches complete the picture and they are severe by design. Article 1737 of the CGI punishes with a fine of 50 percent of the amount, among other cases, disguising the identity of suppliers or customers, issuing invoices that do not correspond to a real supply, and failing to issue an invoice or to record the transaction: “Entra\u00eene l’application d’une amende \u00e9gale \u00e0 50 % du montant : 1. Des sommes vers\u00e9es ou re\u00e7ues, le fait de travestir ou dissimuler l’identit\u00e9 ou l’adresse de ses fournisseurs ou de ses clients, les \u00e9l\u00e9ments d’identification mentionn\u00e9s aux articles 289 et 289 B et aux textes pris pour l’application de ces articles ou de sciemment accepter l’utilisation d’une identit\u00e9 fictive ou d’un pr\u00eate-nom ; 2. De la facture, le fait de d\u00e9livrer une facture ne correspondant pas \u00e0 une livraison ou \u00e0 une prestation de service r\u00e9elle ; 3. De la transaction, le fait de ne pas d\u00e9livrer une facture ou la note pr\u00e9vue \u00e0 l’article 290 quinquies et de ne pas comptabiliser la transaction. Le client professionnel est solidairement tenu au paiement de cette amende, qui ne peut exc\u00e9der 375 000 \u20ac par exercice.” (Article 1737 of the Code g\u00e9n\u00e9ral des imp\u00f4ts<\/a>). The business customer is jointly liable for the fine within a cap per financial year, which is why French groups audit their foreign suppliers’ invoices: your error becomes their contingent liability. Note that these figures come from the articles cited alongside them; the broader penalty landscape, interest for late payment and criminal exposure for fraud, requires a case-by-case analysis that no general article can replace.<\/p>\n Finally, a foreign founder should know that a French tax dispute can begin with officers at the door, not with a letter. Article L. 16 B of the Livre des proc\u00e9dures fiscales provides that where the judicial authority finds presumptions that a taxpayer is evading the establishment or payment of taxes, including taxes on turnover, through transactions without invoices or knowingly inaccurate accounting, “elle peut, dans les conditions pr\u00e9vues au II, autoriser les agents de l’administration des imp\u00f4ts, ayant au moins le grade d’inspecteur et habilit\u00e9s \u00e0 cet effet par le directeur g\u00e9n\u00e9ral des finances publiques, \u00e0 rechercher la preuve de ces agissements” (Article L. 16 B of the Livre des proc\u00e9dures fiscales<\/a>). Dawn raids under that article are therefore authorised by a judge where the statutory presumptions exist, and they can target premises occupied by or connected with a foreign company operating in France. The Marseille fixed-establishment case itself arose after such a visit, and the court recalled the safeguards surrounding it: “Un proc\u00e8s-verbal relatant les modalit\u00e9s et le d\u00e9roulement de l’op\u00e9ration et consignant les constatations effectu\u00e9es est dress\u00e9 sur-le-champ par les agents de l’administration des imp\u00f4ts”, and “Les originaux du proc\u00e8s-verbal et de l’inventaire sont, d\u00e8s qu’ils ont \u00e9t\u00e9 \u00e9tablis, adress\u00e9s au juge qui a autoris\u00e9 la visite” (Marseille Administrative Court of Appeal, 10 November 2022, No. 21MA05016<\/a>). Keeping complete, reconcilable VAT records available in France, as Article 286 requires, is therefore not only an accounting virtue; it is the first line of defence when officers arrive, because a file that reconciles invoices, returns and payments answers most questions before they become assessments.<\/p>\n The operational checklist that follows from this second part is short. Invoice HT with the “reverse charge” mention whenever the French taxable customer self-assesses, and never add French VAT by default. Coordinate import self-assessment in writing before the first shipment and keep the authorisation proof. File the French return on the cycle Article 287 assigns to you, monthly by default, and pay with it. Reconcile every deducted euro to a matching invoice and accounting entry. And treat any permanent human or technical presence in France as a potential fixed establishment from day one, because the administration will, and the Marseille case shows the courts may agree, with the 80 percent surcharge attached where no returns were filed.<\/p>\n Selling to French clients from abroad does not require a French company, but it always requires a French VAT analysis. Locate each sale under the place-of-supply rules: goods where they are, services where the taxable customer sits, exceptional services and imports under their special provisions. Identify where the law demands it, within fifteen days and under your individual number, appoint a representative where a non-EU position requires one, and claim the dispensation where reverse-charge-only activity allows it. Then execute without improvisation: HT invoices carrying the reverse-charge mention, import VAT self-assessed under the correct number since the 2022 reform, monthly returns and payment as the default, and deductions reconciled euro for euro. The decisions cited here reward the businesses that document each step and punish those that invoice first and verify later, whether the sanction is a lost deduction, a requalified establishment, or an assessment increased by 80 percent. A founder who runs this sequence before the first French invoice signs clients faster, keeps carriers and customers out of disputes, and meets any audit with a file that already contains the answers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" No French office, but French clients: when French VAT applies to your sales, how to get identified from abroad, and how to invoice under reverse charge and self-assess import VAT without penalties.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":251031309,"featured_media":16315,"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-2156220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-decryptage","category-doing-business-in-france"],"yoast_head":"\nI. Do you need a French VAT number to invoice French clients from abroad?<\/h2>\n
A. When French VAT applies to your sales: goods, services and imports<\/h3>\n
B. Getting your French VAT identification from abroad<\/h3>\n
II. How do you invoice and pay French VAT correctly from abroad?<\/h2>\n
A. Reverse charge, import self-assessment and the exact words on your invoices<\/h3>\n
B. Filing returns, deducting VAT and surviving a French tax audit<\/h3>\n
Conclusion<\/h2>\n