Consultants working abroad: VAT and invoicing outside France

Quick answer. A consultant invoicing a taxable client in another Member State issues an invoice without French VAT: the customer self-assesses the VAT in their own country (art. 259-1 of the French Tax Code), with the wording « Autoliquidation ». A European Services Declaration (DES) is due from the very first euro. For a non-EU client, the service is outside the scope of French VAT.

You win a first client in Belgium, then a mandate for a US company, and the question lands: should you charge VAT, and which one? For a consultant, a VAT error on a cross-border invoice cannot always be fixed afterwards. VAT wrongly omitted is an audit risk; VAT wrongly charged to an EU client means a rejected invoice and an unhappy customer.

The good news: the mechanics are logical once you set them out in the right order. It all starts with the nature of the client. At Hayot Expertise, a firm registered with the Ordre des experts-comptables of Île-de-France, we regularly support consultants whose client base is going global, and it is almost always the qualification of the client that determines everything.

For the supply of services, the reflex « I am in France, so I charge French VAT » is wrong as soon as a client is abroad. The French Tax Code reasons about the place of taxation, and that place depends first on two questions.

1. Is the client a taxable person (a business, VAT-registered) or a non-taxable individual?
2. Is the client established inside the European Union or outside the EU?

These two axes cross into four situations, each with its own rule. Until you have answered both questions, you cannot know whether VAT applies. Our support for consultants and freelancers always starts with this grid.

For a B2B service, the place of taxation is the taxable customer's place of establishment (art. 259-1 of the French Tax Code). In practice, if you advise a German company holding an intra-EU VAT number, the service is taxable in Germany, not in France.

You therefore issue an invoice without French VAT, and your client self-assesses the VAT in their own country (art. 196 of Directive 2006/112/EC). You collect nothing; they declare the VAT and deduct it at the same time.

Two conditions are essential. First, the client must be a taxable person with a valid intra-EU VAT number: check it on the European Commission's VIES database before invoicing, and keep proof of that check. Second, your invoice must bear the wording « Autoliquidation » (reverse charge) together with both VAT numbers. We detail this in our article on VAT for intra-community services.

The underestimated risk: the unverified VAT number#

In consultants' files, the most common error is not in the invoice wording but upstream: invoicing an EU client without VAT when their number is invalid, expired or non-existent. If the number does not come back valid on VIES, the reverse-charge regime no longer holds, and the tax authorities may claim French VAT. The VIES check is not a formality; it is the document that justifies invoicing without VAT.

If your client is a taxable person established outside the EU (the United States, the United Kingdom or Switzerland, for example), the service is out of scope of French VAT: it is simply not taxable in France.

A point of vocabulary that matters: we say « out of scope », not « exempt ». The nuance is not cosmetic; the two notions do not carry the same reporting consequences. On the invoice, the expected wording is « TVA non applicable, art. 259-1 du CGI ».

Contrary to a widespread belief, no DES is due for a non-EU client. The European Services Declaration only covers intra-EU flows. This is a point we regularly see misunderstood in early export invoicing.

As soon as you invoice a reverse-charged B2B service to a taxable customer in another Member State, you must file a European Services Declaration. It is due from the very first euro, with no tolerance threshold (in force since 1 January 2010).

The DES is filed online on the customs service, no later than the 10th working day of the month following the invoicing. A missing DES exposes you to a flat-rate fine per missing return (in the order of 750 EUR per return, an amount to be confirmed against the applicable text). Some very specific services (services connected to immovable property, passenger transport, travel agencies, for instance) follow distinct rules and do not fit this scheme: do not generalise the reverse charge and the DES to these cases.

The B2C case is trickier than it looks, because everything depends on the exact nature of the service.

• « Classic » advice to an EU individual (a non-automated intellectual assignment): the service in principle remains taxable at the supplier's place, so French VAT applies (general B2C rule, art. 259-2 of the French Tax Code).
• Electronically supplied service (online software, application, downloadable content): the service is taxable at the customer's place. Above a threshold of 10,000 EUR per year (cumulated B2C distance sales and intra-EU electronic services), the VAT is that of the client's country, declared through the OSS single window.

An electronic service meets four cumulative criteria: supplied over the internet, largely automated, minimal human intervention, impossible without information technology. A simple exchange of deliverables by e-mail is not enough to qualify an electronic service: an advisory assignment remains an intellectual service. If your activity shifts towards a software product, the topic connects to the invoicing of SaaS subscriptions, a familiar field for our startups and software publishers.

Here is the sequence we apply to every cross-border consultant invoice.

1. Qualify the client: taxable person or individual, EU or non-EU. Check the intra-EU VAT number on VIES.
2. Determine the place of taxation: for B2B, the customer's place (art. 259-1 of the French Tax Code); for B2C advisory, the supplier's place.
3. Apply the reverse charge or not: no VAT and reverse charge for EU B2B; out of scope for non-EU B2B; French VAT for B2C advisory.
4. Enter the wording: « Autoliquidation » and both VAT numbers for the EU; « TVA non applicable, art. 259-1 du CGI » for non-EU.
5. File the DES if the client is a taxable person in another Member State, every month, by the 10th working day.
6. Keep the evidence: validated VIES number, contract, proof of location, and report non-taxable transactions on line E2 of form 3310-CA3-SD.

This is exactly the kind of setup we make reliable as part of our business tax support, so that the invoice, the VAT return and the DES are consistent from day one.

Recently, an independent consultant came to us after invoicing an Irish company « with French VAT » for six months, out of caution. The client had refused to pay the VAT, rightly so: the service fell under the reverse charge. Each invoice had to be reworked, credit notes issued, invoices re-issued without VAT and with the correct wording, and the missing DES filed for the months concerned. Everything was recoverable, but at the cost of a remediation effort that a correct qualification at the outset would have avoided.

During an audit, three elements are systematically examined on VAT-free invoices: the validity of the EU client's VAT number (with VIES proof), the presence of the correct wording on the invoice, and the consistency between the CA3 return and the DES filed. An invoice without VAT correctly worded but without proof of the client's status remains fragile: the wording alone is not enough; the evidence secures it.

• « Out of scope » is not « exempt »: for non-EU clients, use the right qualification and the wording « TVA non applicable, art. 259-1 du CGI ».
• The DES is due from the first euro: even a single small intra-EU B2B service triggers the monthly obligation.
• The 10,000 EUR threshold only concerns B2C intra-EU electronic services, not your business clients.
• The VIES number must be checked on the invoice date: a number valid yesterday may no longer be valid today.
• The e-invoicing reform (mandatory receipt for all businesses on 1 September 2026) targets domestic operations between taxable persons established in France; your EU and export flows fall under e-reporting, to be anticipated with your adviser.