TL;DR: The EU VAT number is assigned upon request to the Service des Impôts des Entreprises (SIE) of the DGFiP to taxable persons or non-taxable legal entities meeting the conditions of Article 286 ter of the French Tax Code (CGI). It is mandatory for transactions entitling to deduction, intra-Community acquisitions exceeding €10,000, or specific cases provided by law. The request is made using the BOI-LETTRE-000081 form.
Who is concerned by the assignment?
The number is assigned to taxable persons carrying out transactions entitling to deduction (Art. 286 ter, 1° CGI). It also concerns:
- taxable persons or non-taxable legal entities making intra-Community acquisitions of goods subject to VAT (Art. 256 bis or 298 sexies CGI) or liable for VAT on imports or exits from suspensive regimes (Art. 286 ter, 2° CGI);
- taxable persons making intra-Community acquisitions in France or liable for VAT on economic transactions carried out abroad (Art. 286 ter, 3° CGI);
- taxable persons receiving services for which they are liable for VAT in France (Art. 286 ter, 4° CGI);
- service providers established in France for which only the recipient is liable for VAT in another Member State (Art. 286 ter, 5° CGI).
Who is not concerned?
Non-liable taxable persons, those benefiting from the VAT exemption scheme (Art. 293 B CGI), those subject to the agricultural flat-rate refund scheme (Art. 298 bis CGI), as well as non-taxable legal entities do not normally have a number, unless they carry out transactions entitling to deduction.
How to obtain the number?
The assignment is done upon request to the competent Service des Impôts des Entreprises (SIE) of the DGFiP. Taxable persons established in France who do not already have an individual number can apply if they meet the conditions of paragraphs 2°, 3°, 4°, or 5° of Article 286 ter of the CGI. The request can be submitted using the BOI-LETTRE-000081 letter template.
Structure of the number
The EU VAT number begins with the prefix "FR", followed by an alphanumeric key and the 9 characters of the SIREN number.
Derogatory regime for intra-Community acquisitions
Taxable persons benefiting from a derogatory regime for intra-Community acquisitions of goods (threshold ≤ €10,000) may retain this regime after the number is assigned, provided they specify this in their request to the SIE.
Invalidation of the number
When a taxable person no longer carries out transactions for which VAT identification is mandatory, they must contact the SIE to have their number invalidated in the Community taxable persons database.