Fiscal representative for EU VAT: when a business outside the EU needs one, what it owes and who is liable

What the VAT Directive says about a tax representative

Article 204 has two options for the EU country, and a limit.

“Member States may allow that person to appoint a tax representative as the person liable for payment of the VAT.” (Art. 204(1)Directive 2006/112/EC, the VAT Directive (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 204, paragraph 1Click opens the article on EUR-Lex., first subparagraph)

That is the voluntary route. It applies where the non-established business is the person liable under Articles 193Directive 2006/112/EC, the VAT Directive (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 193Click opens the article on EUR-Lex. to 197Directive 2006/112/EC, the VAT Directive (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 197Click opens the article on EUR-Lex., 199Directive 2006/112/EC, the VAT Directive (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 199Click opens the article on EUR-Lex. and 200Directive 2006/112/EC, the VAT Directive (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 200Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.. The country sets its conditions and procedures (Art. 204(2)Directive 2006/112/EC, the VAT Directive (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 204, paragraph 2Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.).

“Member States may take measures to provide that the person liable for payment of VAT is to be a tax representative appointed by the non-established taxable person.” (Art. 204(1)Directive 2006/112/EC, the VAT Directive (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 204, paragraph 1Click opens the article on EUR-Lex., second subparagraph)

That is the compulsory route, and it has a condition: no legal instrument “relating to mutual assistance similar in scope to” Directive 76/308/EEC and Regulation (EC) No 1798/2003 exists with the country where the business is established. The text names those two acts. The Directive’s import scheme uses a similar test, but with an agreement the Union has concluded, measured against Directive 2010/24/EU and Regulation (EU) No 904/2010 (Art. 369m(1)(c)Directive 2006/112/EC, the VAT Directive (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 369m, paragraph 1, point (c)Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.). France’s doctrine names the same two later acts. Article 204 does not say which party to the instrument counts. France reads it as an instrument France has with the country: its doctrine exempts businesses established in a non-EU State with which France has such an instrument (BOFiP, § 35).

The limit is the third subparagraph: a country may not use the compulsory route against a business that opted for the special scheme for services supplied by taxable persons not established in the EU (Art. 204(1)Directive 2006/112/EC, the VAT Directive (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 204, paragraph 1Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.).

That limit covers the scheme itself, not a refund claim. Article 2(3) of the Thirteenth Directive, 86/560/EEC, lets a country require a tax representative from a business that claims a refund of VAT incurred there. Article 368Directive 2006/112/EC, the VAT Directive (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 368Click opens the article on EUR-Lex. of the VAT Directive now sets that provision aside for refunds relating to the non-Union scheme. Directive (EU) 2025/516Directive (EU) 2025/516, VAT in the Digital Age (ViDA)The whole regulationClick opens the law on the EU Publications Office. replaces Article 368Directive (EU) 2025/516, VAT in the Digital Age (ViDA)The whole regulationClick opens the law on the EU Publications Office. with effect from 1 January 2027 and drops that exclusion. The Commission's Explanatory Notes (section 6.1) conclude that from then on countries may request a tax representative from a non-established business that claims VAT under the Thirteenth Directive.

Two more articles matter to a representative. A country may hold a person other than the one liable jointly and severally liable for the VAT (Art. 205Directive 2006/112/EC, the VAT Directive (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 205Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.), and it must ensure that a representative liable in place of a non-established business meets its payment obligations (Art. 207Directive 2006/112/EC, the VAT Directive (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 207Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.).

Which countries require a fiscal representative from a business outside the EU

The table above gives each country in one line. What stands behind each line:

• France. The duty comes from CGI Art. 289 A, I: a person established outside the EU that owes VAT or must meet filing duties must have a representative established in France accredited by the tax office. The exemption is for a business established in a non-EU State with which France has a mutual assistance instrument, listed by the order (arrêté) of 15 May 2013. That order is the source of the list. As amended by the order of 16 February 2021, it names 42 countries and territories, among them the United Kingdom, Norway, Japan, India and Mexico, and not the United States. The tax administration's own page, last modified on 4 July 2022, lists fewer countries and omits the United Kingdom; the order wins (arrêté of 15 May 2013, read on Légifrance and in an archive.org copy; DGFiP; BOFiP, § 1, 20, 35). Two more exemptions: a business that makes only supplies under VAT suspension (CGI Art. 277 A, I), and one that makes only supplies of gas, electricity, heat or cooling on which the customer owes the tax (§ 40, 50). A business not identified in France may also use the mandataire à l’international of CGI Art. 289 A bis where it meets that regime's conditions (§ 1, remark 1). The BOFiP text was open to public consultation from 11 February to 31 March 2026, and the administration says its comments may be relied on until any revision. How a non-EU seller registers in France is on France VAT registration.
• Poland. A foreign company with no seat in the EU that carries out VAT-taxable activity in Poland, such as selling goods, must appoint a tax representative. A company from another EU country may, but need not (biznes.gov.pl). The Ministry of Finance announced on 24 February 2021 a regulation, in force from 1 January 2021, that lifts the duty for a business with its seat or a fixed place of business in the United Kingdom or Norway (Ministry of Finance). The regulation is Dz.U. 2021 poz. 347, of 23 February 2021, listed as in force (regulation text).
• Spain. Among the obligations of a taxable person, Ley 37/1992 lists naming a representative to meet the law’s obligations when the taxable person is not established in the Community. It excepts one established in the Canary Islands, Ceuta or Melilla, or in a State with mutual assistance instruments like those of the Community (Ley 37/1992, Art. 164.Uno.7). The Reglamento del IVA also excludes a business that uses the OSS or IOSS (Art. 82.1). The Act names no State; the tax agency’s page for non-established businesses, updated 10 October 2025, says “actualmente solo en Noruega” (Agencia Tributaria). How a non-EU seller names a representative in Spain is on Spain VAT tax representative.
• Italy. The Agenzia delle Entrate says non-residents, including those from non-EU countries, can meet their VAT duties by appointing a fiscal representative, and that those from EU and EEA countries can identify directly instead. The direct route, form ANR/3 under Art. 35-ter of DPR 633/1972, is for businesses from another EU country or from a third country with a mutual assistance instrument (Agenzia delle Entrate; form ANR/3). The United Kingdom qualifies: taxable persons established there may identify directly instead of appointing a representative, because the Protocol on VAT cooperation and mutual assistance in the EU-UK agreement of 24 December 2020 is, in the agency's reading, substantially similar to the EU instruments (Risoluzione 7/E, 1 February 2021). The United States is not named in the sources read. How a non-EU seller registers in Italy is on Italy VAT tax representative.
• Netherlands. A foreign entrepreneur can appoint one. The Belastingdienst makes it a duty in one case: to apply the reverse-charge mechanism on import, you must engage a tax representative (Belastingdienst).
• Germany. A foreign business with no German seat, management or branch, that makes only exempt German supplies and cannot deduct input VAT, may be represented by a fiscal representative. A business with taxable German sales is outside that provision, and Germany has no general duty in the text read (UStG Section 22a).
• Ireland. Revenue may, where it appears requisite for the protection of the revenue, serve a notice on a taxable person not established in the EU that requires it to appoint an EU-established tax representative. The business has 21 days from the notice to give Revenue the details. The notes describe a fixed penalty of EUR 4,000 for ignoring the notice. A business covered by mutual assistance provisions, or on the non-Union scheme, is outside the power (Revenue, Notes for Guidance, Finance Act 2020, section 41).

The mutual assistance test works country by country, which is why the same business can be exempt in one country and bound in another. A UK business is exempt in France (the order of 15 May 2013 as amended in 2021) and in Poland (regulation of 23 February 2021), and may identify directly in Italy (Risoluzione 7/E); a US business is bound in France and Poland. The rule that counts is the one in force in the country on the day you register.

France has one more feature that matters to a seller who imports goods and sells them on to another EU country. The one-off representative, which suited a single import, was repealed from 1 January 2025. The tax administration allowed it to keep working until 31 December 2025, and for a business that began its French registration before then, until it gets its French VAT number (BOFiP, § 5). The same doctrine states that an importer not established in France who makes an exempt supply to another EU country after import must indicate its representative as the consignee on the import declaration (§ 30). The VAT Directive’s own version of this is the importer’s number, or its tax representative’s number, given to customs (Art. 143(2)(a)Directive 2006/112/EC, the VAT Directive (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 143, paragraph 2, point (a)Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.). In Poland, a customs agency that clears such an import can hold the status of tax representative for it (biznes.gov.pl).

In France, the representative must be a VAT taxable person established in France and known as such to the tax administration: your subsidiary, a French customer or supplier, an approved customs agent, or a company that provides fiscal representation. One business has one representative for all its operations in France. The appointment is in writing, names both parties, gives an effective date, and carries the representative’s acceptance and its commitment to meet your duties and pay the VAT due. The tax administration publishes a model letter, BOI-LETTRE-000082 (BOFiP § 70-100).

The accreditation file of the representative holds, among other things, proof of its solvency or a financial guarantee, and a statement of its organisation and means (BOFiP § 150). When you register, the tax office asks for a copy of your trade register entry, a VAT certificate from your home country where there is one, the letter appointing the representative, and proof of identity for a sole trader, or the articles of association for a company (BOFiP § 285).

How the IOSS intermediary differs from a fiscal representative

The Directive defines the intermediary as a person established in the Community, appointed by the seller “as the person liable for payment of the VAT and to fulfil the obligations laid down in this special scheme in the name and on behalf of the taxable person” (Art. 369lDirective 2006/112/EC, the VAT Directive (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 369lClick opens the article on EUR-Lex., point (2)). It looks like a tax representative, and the Commission says as much: the concept is similar to the tax representative that certain countries have in their national law, and countries could apply the two in the same way (Explanatory Notes, question 37).

The differences that matter:

• It exists only for IOSS. The number it registers for you is an IOSS number, used for no other supply (Art. 369qDirective 2006/112/EC, the VAT Directive (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 369qClick opens the article on EUR-Lex.).
• One seller has one intermediary at a time (Art. 369m(2)Directive 2006/112/EC, the VAT Directive (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 369m, paragraph 2Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.).
• The seller stays liable together with the intermediary. Countries try to recover from the intermediary first and the seller second (Explanatory Notes, section 4.2.5).
• A seller established in a country with a VAT mutual assistance agreement with the EU, which the notes say is Norway alone at the date of publication, can register for IOSS directly (Explanatory Notes, section 4.2.4).

Appointing an IOSS intermediary does not give you a fiscal representative for your other VAT registrations, and a fiscal representative does not register you for IOSS. How to choose and appoint an intermediary is on IOSS.

What happens if you do nothing

Where a country requires a representative and you appoint none, the VAT is still due. In France, the VAT and any penalties are due by the recipient of the taxable operation when no representative has been appointed. The same doctrine adds that the tax office must still address its assessment to the foreign company as the legal taxpayer (BOFiP § 130).

Elsewhere, the sources read set out no consequence for the missing appointment itself. Ireland describes a fixed penalty of EUR 4,000 for ignoring a notice from Revenue to appoint (Revenue notes, section 41). The EU rules on penalties for a missing registration or a late return are each country’s own; the VAT Directive sets none. For the registration itself, see EU VAT registration.

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