VAT registration and filing of VAT returns in France

Compliance with VAT in France

If you have a company registered in the EU and do business related to international trade and have sales to non-taxable persons (individuals B2C) in France, you may be liable for VAT registration in France. This affects you in particular if you are selling through your website or through a market place and you find yourself in the following situations:

• Distance selling;
• Dropshipping;
• Selling goods that have been previously transported to a warehouse of a market place, a fulfilment centre or a warehouse rented by you in Bulgaria, from where you send them to customers;
• Other less frequent cases may arise where registration obligations arise.

Intra-Community Distance selling

In cases where you sell to individuals in France from your website or via a market place and you send the goods from the country where you are registered (EU member) to your customers in France you are subject to VAT registration in France after reaching sales of EUR 35 000. Please note that you must submit an application for VAT registration in France within two weeks before the stated sales amount is reached. The necessary documents to prepare are:

• VAT Registration Certificate as proof that the company has a VAT registration in another European Union country;
• Articles of association;
• Document from the Commercial Register of the respective country in which the company is registered.

Dropshipping

In case of delivery with place of execution on the territory of France, the foreign companies are subject to mandatory registration before their first sale. It is important to note that the application for registration must be submitted two weeks before the first sale. This obligation may arise in the case of sales via your website or via a market place to individuals in France, provided that the good you sell and do not own is located with your supplier in France and you are registered in another Member State.

This is also the case if you sell in any other EU country and your French supplier sends the goods directly to your customers in other EU countries. Under the VAT Act, you become the owner of the goods before they are handed over to the final customer, and accordingly you are obliged to register under the VAT Act in France, as the goods depart from France. Depending on the volume of your sales to other EU countries, VAT registration obligations may also arise in other countries for your distance sales.

Selling goods that have been previously transported to a warehouse in a market place (Amazon and others), a fulfilment centre or a warehouse rented by you, from where you send them to customers.

If your activity relates to the sale of goods (which are your property) and are in a warehouse in France in order to comply with the VAT requirements in France you are obliged to register for VAT in France before your first sale takes place. In some cases, in addition to VAT registration, you must register a place of business in France and therefore pay corporate tax for your profit realised in France.

A VAT registration obligation may also arise for you if you carry out transactions with VAT registered persons in France (B2B), Example:  You import goods from a third country (non-EU country) into France and then sell them to France or another EU country.  

Another case where an obligation to register for VAT in France arises is when you purchase a good from a VAT-registered person in France (B2B), but do not transport it to the country from which you have a VAT number issued, but sell it directly from France to your customer.

The base VAT rate on sales of goods in France is 20%.

You should bear in mind that, in addition to VAT registration, you also have obligations related to Intrastat when reaching the specified parameters by flow of arrivals under French legislation.

For registration and submission of VAT declarations in Bulgaria, as well as for information on prices of the services offered, contact us