France VAT registration for non-EU sellers (the représentant fiscal)

A business established outside the EU that owes French VAT appoints one accredited fiscal representative in France before its first French sale. The representative is established in France, is itself liable for VAT and is accredited by its tax office. The duty is in article 289 A, I of the Code général des impôts, and the administration states it in BOFiP. A business established in one of 42 listed states and territories is exempt: the United Kingdom is on the list, the United States is not. No threshold applies. This page is only what France adds to EU VAT registration; the role itself is on fiscal representative, and the other French rules are on the France page. It covers a business with no seat and no permanent establishment in France.

A business outside the EU appoints an accredited fiscal representative

A business is not established in France when it has neither the seat of its activity nor a permanent establishment there. If it is established outside the EU and carries out operations in France that are taxable, or exempt ones such as an intra-EU supply, it appoints a representative. Only one is allowed, for all its operations in France (BOFiP, § 20 and 70).

The representative is a taxable person established in France and known to the tax administration as a VAT payer. It can be your French subsidiary, a French customer or supplier, an approved customs agent or a firm that specialises in the work (§ 80). The appointment is in writing, signed by someone who can bind you. It names both parties and the date it takes effect, and the representative accepts it and undertakes to do your formalities and pay the VAT. The administration publishes a model, BOI-LETTRE-000082 (§ 100). The appointment must come before the French operations and does not run backwards, except where the tax office accepts it in a justified case and the representative undertakes to represent you from the start of the period to regularise (§ 90).

If you appoint nobody, the VAT and the penalties on the taxable operation are due from the customer. The tax office still addresses its assessment to you, as the taxpayer, following a decision of the Conseil d’État of 5 April 2006 (§ 130).

The mandataire à l’international (article 289 A bis) is not a substitute. It is open only to a business that has no French VAT number and whose only French operations are imports with full input-VAT deduction and certain exports and similar exempt operations. A taxable French sale to a buyer is not on its list, so it takes a business out of the scheme (BOFiP BOI-TVA-DECLA-20-30-40-30, § 10-30).

Your country decides whether you need one

A business established in one of these states and territories is exempt: South Africa, Antigua and Barbuda, Armenia, Aruba, Australia, Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cape Verde, Curaçao, Dominica, Ecuador, Georgia, Ghana, Grenada, Greenland, the Cook Islands, the Faroe Islands, India, Iceland, Jamaica, Japan, Kenya, Kuwait, North Macedonia, Mauritius, Mexico, Moldova, Nauru, Niue, Norway, New Zealand, Pakistan, French Polynesia, the Republic of Korea, the United Kingdom, Saint-Barthélemy, Saint-Martin, Sint Maarten, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine and Vanuatu. The list is in article 1 of the arrêté of 15 May 2013 (archive.org copy of Légifrance, 13 January 2025), and the tax administration’s registration page gives the same 42. The United States is not on it. An older DGFiP page, modified 4 July 2022, names only 24 and leaves out the United Kingdom; the arrêté decides.

The exemption comes from the mutual-assistance instrument that France has with your state (BOFiP, § 35). Two more groups need no representative: a business that makes only supplies under VAT suspension, and one that makes only supplies of gas, electricity, heat or cooling on which the buyer owes the tax (§ 40-50).

An exempt business registers with the Service des impôts des entreprises étrangères (SIEE), part of the Direction des impôts des non-résidents, 10 rue du Centre, 93465 Noisy-le-Grand. It files on the same portal as everyone else. It may name a mandataire established in France to do the formalities under its responsibility; the mandate is exclusive, in French, signed by someone who can bind the business and accepted by the mandataire (impots.gouv.fr).

You register in France when your sale is French

The tax administration lists the operations that call for a French VAT registration for a business with no establishment in France (impots.gouv.fr). The table shows the cases a non-EU seller meets.

The general cases are in EU VAT registration and EU VAT for online sellers.

If you have no taxable French operations and only paid French VAT on costs, you do not register. You claim the VAT back, and a business outside the EU does so through an accredited fiscal representative too. The representative files the claim electronically, in French and in euros, with a minimum of EUR 400 for a quarterly claim and EUR 50 for an annual one, and no later than 30 June of the year after the period (impots.gouv.fr).

No threshold applies to you

France has no registration threshold for a business with its seat outside the EU and no establishment in France. The franchise en base of article 293 B is open to a business established in France, to a business with its seat outside the EU and a permanent establishment in France that chooses to be attached to France, and to a business established in another EU country that has told its own state it wants to use it in France (BOFiP, § 5-15; BOI-TVA-DECLA-40-15, § 220). A seller outside the EU is none of these. The EU rule is in VAT OSS.

How you register, in order

1. Choose the representative and have it accredited. The representative asks its own tax office (SIE) for an accreditation, one for each business it represents, with its company number, a description of its staff and means, a recent criminal-record extract, proof of solvency or a financial guarantee, your name, address and activities, and the two signed designation documents. To be accredited it is established in France and liable for VAT, neither it nor its managers has committed a serious or repeated tax offence, and it shows solvency in line with its duties or a guarantee of a quarter of the sums arising from them. Where that level cannot be set, the guarantee is EUR 10,000 (BOFiP BOI-TVA-DECLA-20-30-40-10, § 140-170).
2. File the creation declaration on the business formalities portal. It is filed electronically at formalites.entreprises.gouv.fr, on the foreign-business form (EE0) (BOFiP; impots.gouv.fr). You can give the representative an express mandate to file it. The representative’s accreditation number goes into the declaration (§ 280).
3. Attach the papers. For every business: a copy of the certificate of entry in the commercial register or equivalent in your country, a certificate of liability to VAT in the country of your seat where there is one, and the letter designating the representative. A sole trader adds proof of identity (identity card, passport, or birth certificate with a free translation that the trader certifies). A legal entity adds its articles of association or founding documents with a French translation (§ 285). The translation rules are in the next paragraph.
4. Receive the VAT number. After INSEE registers you, the tax office of the representative gives you a VAT identification number. The representative declares your operations under it and its own under its own number (§ 280). The welcome letter, with your filing duties, goes to the representative by e-mail. Give a bank account in SEPA format: only such an account lets the tax office refund a VAT credit (impots.gouv.fr).

A free translation of the main elements of the statutes (legal form, partners, manager, share capital, corporate purpose) is accepted where the statutes are written in the language of an EU country. Otherwise a sworn translation into French is required (impots.gouv.fr). Your VAT number is separate from your EORI number and your IOSS number. The EORI is on the EORI guide, and the VAT number itself on what a VAT number is.

The representative answers for your French VAT

The representative is responsible for the VAT duties on all your operations in France, including those it did not know of, for as long as the appointment is valid. It files the returns, including nil returns, and pays the tax when operations are taxable. A business that has named a representative also files the recapitulative statement of customers (article 289 B). The representative keeps the accounts of your French operations. You may keep them yourself, but the representative must be able to show the books and the supporting papers whenever the tax office asks. When the representative issues an invoice, it states that it acts as your representative; when you issue it, the invoice shows the representative’s name and address, so that a business customer can deduct the VAT (BOFiP BOI-TVA-DECLA-20-30-40-10, § 210-260).

The appointment lasts until the tax office is told it has ended. If you stop having taxable French operations, you end it and the representative tells the SIE in writing without delay. If the representative wants out, it informs you and the SIE in writing. The end takes effect no earlier than the date the administration is notified, and the SIE then withdraws the accreditation (§ 110-120 and 190).

You file and pay in France

E-reporting covers sales to consumers that are subject to French VAT, as daily totals by VAT rate, and sales located in France to another business that is not established in France. Exempt operations, such as exports and intra-EU supplies, and imports are left out, and so is a sale to a consumer if you are registered with a European VAT one-stop shop. Payment data is sent for services and for deposits on goods. The duty covers only operations on which you owe French VAT. Taxable intra-EU acquisitions in France, and other purchases on which you owe the VAT as the buyer, are reported from 1 September 2027 whatever your size. The platform does the sending (impots.gouv.fr).

What happens if you do nothing

The VAT is due whether or not you appointed anyone. The customer owes it with the penalties, and the tax office still assesses you. The other consequences:

The one-off fiscal representative no longer exists. Article 112 of the finance law no. 2023-1322 of 29 December 2023 repealed it, in force from 1 January 2025. The administration let the old VAT numbers of one-off representatives stay valid until 31 December 2025, and let a business that applied for registration before that date use a one-off representative until it receives its French VAT number (BOFiP, § 5). An importer not established in France that imports goods and then makes an exempt intra-EU supply of them names its representative as the consignee on the import declaration (§ 30).