TVA chargeability guide rewritten: advances, débits option, year-end rule

The date d'exigibilité is the date from which the tax administration can require a taxable person to pay the TVA attached to a transactionService Public; it cannot arise without a prior fait générateurService Public. The fait générateur is the event that fulfils the legal conditions for chargeability — the delivery of goods, or the performance of a serviceImpots — and the two moments coincide only in some cases. The date d'exigibilité determines two periods: the period for the declaration and payment by the redevable business, and the period from which the customer charged with the TVA at invoicing can deduct the TVA paid.Service Public For deliveries of goods, the fait générateur is the delivery — the physical handoverService Public — and the tax becomes exigible thenService Public. But where an advance was paid before delivery, the TVA due on it becomes exigible on receipt, up to the amount receivedImpots. That rule covers acomptes received from 1 January 2023 under article 30 of the loi de finances pour 2022, whatever contracts were running thenImpots; all relevant elements of the future delivery, especially the precise identity of the goods, must already be known when the advance is paid (CJEU, BUPA Hospitals, 21 February 2006)Impots.

For services, the fait générateur is performance of the serviceService Public, but exigibilité follows receipt: the TVA sur les encaissements regime applies by default: the tax becomes exigible when the price, or even the acomptes and avances are receivedService Public — which does not coincide with the fait générateur, the execution of the service. Businesses subject to the exigibilité à l'encaissement regime may opt for exigibilité at the moment of débit. Taxable receipts are broad — avances, acomptes, balance payments, whatever their destination — and where the price is paid in instalments, each receipt opens exigibilitéImpots. An invoice issued before the fait générateur counts as an acompteService Public, and a service-advance invoice always makes TVA exigible for the supplier as a partial advance payment under the encaissements regimeService Public. One standing exception: where services run continuously over more than a year with neither staggered payments nor acomptes, the TVA is exigible at the end of each calendar year for the whole duration of the service.Service Public

A business carrying on both deliveries of goods and services (activité mixte) is subject partly to the TVA sur les encaissements regime for its services and to the TVA sur les débits regime for its deliveries: the TVA collectée regime. To facilitate management of its TVA, the business may choose the TVA sur les débits regime for all of its operationsService Public, so that all of its operations share one exigibilité date — the débit dateService Public, the entry of the débit on the customer account, generally the invoice dateService Public. The reverse is impossible: no global encaissements election.Service Public The election is a written request to the service des impôts des entreprises (SIE) for TVA, effective from the first day of the following monthService Public; it may be noted on invoices with « Paiement de la TVA d'après les débits », though that is optional. Renunciation takes a simple letterService Public, with the TVA collectée regime returning from the first day of the following monthService Public.

Note that when the TVA rate changes, it is the fait générateur and not the date d'exigibilité that determines which rate appliesService Public.

Legal basis: Code général des impôts, article 269; Bofip BOI-TVA-BASE-20 (fait générateur et exigibilité), BOI-TVA-BASE-20-10 (livraisons de biens) and BOI-TVA-BASE-20-20 (prestations de services).