For a foreign company with a French VAT number but no fixed establishment (“établissement stable”) in France, everything rests on a distinction the reform itself does not highlight.
Two obligations, two logics
E-invoicing under article 289 bis of the Code général des impôts covers, in principle, transactions between two companies established in France. A foreign company without a fixed establishment therefore has neither to issue nor to receive its invoices through a French platform.
E-reporting under article 290 II follows a different logic. It bites as soon as a transaction is deemed to take place in France and the company is liable for the VAT on it. What decides is not the nature of the transaction but who owes the tax, flow by flow.
Those typically caught are companies holding goods in a French warehouse, buying and reselling on French territory, or supplying private customers in France.
The size category is assessed at the level of the legal entity, not the group, at 1 January 2025 on the last financial year closed before that date. For a foreign company, worldwide turnover is what counts. The dates by size category
Situation 1: selling to consumers from French stock
A German company holds stock in France and supplies French consumers from it. That is in principle a French domestic supply: the company is liable for French VAT and transmits the corresponding data.
The exception changes everything. Where those consumer sales are declared through the European one-stop shop OSS, the flows concerned fall outside French e-reporting.
Situation 2: supplying a business customer registered in France
If the customer holds a French VAT number and applies the reverse charge, the reporting obligation follows liability: it sits with the customer, not with the foreign supplier.
The answer flips if the customer has no French number and the foreign company becomes liable itself. The transaction then belongs in its own e-reporting. Charging no VAT does not mean standing outside the scope.
Situation 3: one company, several flows
Each flow is assessed on its own, and the same registration can produce different answers.
| Flow | In the company’s own e-reporting? |
|---|---|
| Intra-Community acquisitions | may become reportable on 1 September 2027 |
| Purchases from French suppliers with French VAT | may stay outside |
| Intra-Community supplies | may stay outside |
| Business sales under the reverse charge | may stay outside |
| Sales to French consumers outside the OSS | may fall in |
A single French VAT registration therefore leads to treatments and dates that do not line up. Looking at the activity as a whole is not enough.
What to prepare now
- Determine the size category.
- Map the French flows.
- For each transaction, establish who owes the VAT.
- Check whether the OSS is used for consumer sales.
- Choose an approved platform and build it into the processes before the applicable date.
Sources: articles 289 bis and 290 II of the Code général des impôts; DGFiP, “L’e-reporting pour les entreprises étrangères sans établissement stable”. Position as at 27 August 2026.