Refund of intra-Community VAT

A company established in a Member State of the European Union may claim a refund of the VAT paid in France, when completing the 3 conditions following:

• It must be subject to VAT arrangements (taxable person) in the Member State in which its registered office is located (place of domicile of the company).
• It must not not be established in France, i.e. it must not have its place of business or a permanent establishment from which it carried out the operations in France.
• It must not have carried out transactions involving the supply of goods, the provision of services or the importation of goods taxable or not deductible from VAT in France.

Not all transactions carried out in France make it possible to obtain a refund of the VAT applied to them.

Operations that complete all of the following conditions give the possibility of obtaining a refund of the VAT paid:

• They must be necessary for the carrying out of the economic activity or correspond to supplies of services which give rise to a right to deduct VAT (expenditure on transport, catering, etc.)
• Transactions on which VAT has been applied must be considered as deductible from VAT in France.
• They must be justified by invoices containing mandatory particulars, including the intra-Community VAT number of the customer and his supplier.

The company must make its claim before 30 September of the year which follows that during which the VAT for which it requested a refund was chargeable. The applicant must apply through the electronic portal of the State in which he is established:

Electronic portal of the Member States of the European Union for the transmission of applications for refund of intra-Community VAT

The company must attach to its claim the following information and documents following:

• Company name and full address
• Company email
• Description of the professional activities for which the goods or services were acquired
• Reimbursement period covered by the application
• Declaration that, during the period for which the refund application is made, the company has not supplied goods or services which do not give rise to a VAT refund in France
• Intra-Community VAT Number
• Bank details (IBAN, BIC)
• Possibly, a mandate by which the company has appointed a representative to carry out the procedures on its behalf
• Dematerialized copy of the originals of invoices with an amount net of VAT €1,000 (€250 for fuels) or originals of invoices or commercial documents. They must contain the following information:
  
  • Name and full address of the supplier
  • Except in the case of importation: intra-Community VAT number of the supplier or his tax identification number assigned by the French State
  • Except in the case of importation: French prefix
  • Date and number of the document or invoice
  • Taxation basis and amount of VAT in euro
  • Amount of deductible VAT calculated in euro
  • Where necessary, the deductible proportion calculated in percentage
  • Nature of goods and services broken down
• Nature of the goods and services acquired broken down by the following codes:
  
  1. Fuel
  2. Hire of means of transport
  3. Other expenditure related to means of transport
  4. Road tolls and roads
  5. Travel expenses such as taxi fares or public transport costs
  6. Accommodation
  7. Food, beverages and catering services
  8. Admission to fairs and exhibitions
  9. Luxury, entertainment and entertainment expenses
  10. Other

France may ask the company for additional information concerning its request for reimbursement.

The VAT for which the refund is claimed must not be less than one of the following amounts depending on the period to which the refund relates:

• For a period between 3 months and 1 year: €400
• For a period of 1 year: €50

Follow-up of the request

Once the refund request (correct and complete) has been sent, the company receives an acknowledgement of receipt from France.

France then 4 months to process the request. This period may be lying down at 6 or 8 months if requests for additional documents are made.

Once the request for reimbursement has been accepted, France has a period of 10 working days from the expiry of the time limit for processing the request. Default interest (late payment penalties) is paid to the company if the deadlines are not respected.

In the event of rejection of the request for reimbursement, France must inform the company of the reasons for such rejection.

If France has not given a decision within the prescribed period, the company may bring the matter before the competent administrative court as early as 1^er the day on which the deadline expires.