# VAT Compliance for Digital Sales in France > Rules for VAT in France: rates, thresholds, registration, filing expectations, and Dodo Merchant of Record handling. - **Jurisdiction**: France - **Tax Type**: VAT - **Standard Rate**: 20% - **URL**: https://dodopayments.com/tax/vat-france --- ## How VAT Applies to Digital Goods The **standard VAT rate** in France is **20%**. The registration threshold for non-resident digital sellers is **EUR 0 (non-EU)** (EUR). France treats electronically supplied services broadly: SaaS subscriptions, downloadable software, in-app digital upgrades, paid newsletters, cloud storage, video and audio streaming, and API access are all typically taxable at the standard rate when sold to consumers in France. Physical books and shipping are outside this page's scope, and some cultural products can have reduced rates in specific circumstances, but most cross-border digital services are charged at 20%. For B2B, a valid customer VAT number usually shifts liability under reverse charge, so onboarding flows need robust VAT number capture and validation. Evidence quality matters in French audits. Merchants should keep consistent location indicators (billing address, card country, IP-derived location, or similar signals) and ensure invoice logic follows the tax treatment chosen at checkout. France is a major Carte Bancaire card market, so payment method data can also help reconciliation when finance teams investigate tax mismatches between authorization, invoicing, and final settlement. ## Registration Requirements For non-EU sellers, the practical threshold is immediate: once you make a taxable B2C digital sale to France, registration must already be planned. You can register through the non-Union OSS scheme in one EU member state and report French VAT there, or register locally in France when there is a business reason to do so (for example, mixed supplies requiring domestic handling). Local registration and tax administration are handled under **DGFiP (Direction générale des Finances publiques)**. The business identifier used for VAT is the French **numéro de TVA intracommunautaire** (commonly called a TVA number, formatted with FR prefix plus digits/characters). Timeline expectations vary by route, but teams typically allow several weeks for application, identity checks, and internal invoicing readiness before go-live. ## Filing and Compliance If you file locally, French VAT returns are commonly monthly, with quarterly treatment possible in limited cases depending on profile and turnover. OSS filers submit quarterly OSS returns through their member-state portal but still need country-level detail for France. France does **not** use Spain's SII framework; filings are made through French tax channels under DGFiP processes. Compliance teams should reconcile VAT by tax point date, not only by payment date, because subscription renewals and retries can cross reporting periods. Keep invoice and credit-note numbering consistent, map refunds to original tax lines, and maintain a defensible audit trail for currency conversion when non-EUR pricing is used. A conservative retention policy is to keep VAT evidence for at least **6 years** so historical returns can be reproduced with source-level transaction records. ## How Dodo Payments Handles This Dodo Payments, as Merchant of Record, calculates the correct French VAT at checkout, collects it, issues compliant transaction documentation, and remits taxes through its tax operations stack. That means your team does not need to run a separate French VAT engine, invoicing workflow, and remittance process for each billing event. You get one operational flow from payment through filing-ready reporting. ## Related Pages **Section:** [All Tax Guides](https://dodopayments.com/tax) **See also:** [France](https://dodopayments.com/payments-in/france) | [EUR](https://dodopayments.com/currency/eur) --- ## About Dodo Payments Dodo Payments is the billing & payments platform for AI-first and SaaS companies, operating as a Merchant of Record in 220+ countries. - [Payments](https://dodopayments.com/payments) | [Billing](https://dodopayments.com/billing) | [Distribution](https://dodopayments.com/distribution) - [Pricing](https://dodopayments.com/pricing) | [Documentation](https://docs.dodopayments.com) | [Dashboard](https://app.dodopayments.com)