Who accounts for French VAT: supplier or customer

Under BOI-TVA-DECLA-10-10-20, the supplier normally accounts for French VAT on supplies of goods and servicesImpots, and the customer accounts for it wherever a reverse charge appliesImpots. The doctrine sets out the general rule alongside the sectoral reverse charges, with an articulation table stating, for each regime, which provision of Article 283 of the code général des impôts applies depending on where the supplier is established.

The exception to the general rule covers supplies by a supplier not established in France to a customer acting as a taxable person and identified for VAT in FranceImpots: the customer self-assesses. It also applies, as an express carve-out, where the supplier is in metropolitan France and the customer in an overseas département or Monaco, in which case the supplier remains liableImpots. A supplier's failure to file its European services statement does not relieve the French customer of self-assessment, and failure to self-assess is punished by the fine in 4 of Article 1788 A of the CGI.

Sectoral reverse charges cover cross-border supplies of gas, electricity, heat and coldImpots; waste and recovered materials and related façon services; transfers of greenhouse-gas emission allowances and of origin, capacity and production certificates; wholesale electronic-communications services between operatorsImpots; and subcontracted construction works in relation to immovable propertyImpots. For construction subcontracting, a supplier established in France falls under 2 nonies of Article 283Impots, while a supplier in another EU Member State or a third country falls under the second paragraph of 1 of Article 283Impots; further detail on applying the construction-subcontracting reverse charge is given in binding ruling BOI-RES-TVA-000269.

Common operating rules recur across the regimes: the invoice shows no VAT dueImpots but states the customer is liable with the mention “autoliquidation”Impots; the customer reports the ex-tax amount on the “autres opérations imposables” lineImpots and deducts the tax under ordinary rulesImpots; the supplier reports symmetrically on the “autres opérations non imposables” lineImpots and keeps its own input-tax deduction rights. Franchise-en-base suppliers stay outside the reverse charge and invoice “TVA non applicable, article 293 B du CGI”, unless they have opted to pay the tax.Impots

Legal basis: Article 283 of the code général des impôts (1, 2, 2 quinquies, 2 sexies, 2 septies, 2 octies and 2 nonies), Article 196 of Directive 2006/112/EC and Article 242 nonies A of Annex II to the CGI, as construed by BOI-TVA-DECLA-10-10-20 with references to BOI-RES-TVA-000269 and BOI-RES-TVA-000232.