Restaurant VAT in France 2026: rates, certified POS and e-reporting

VAT in the catering sector is one of the most scrutinised topics in French tax audits. Three different rates coexist (5.5%, 10% and 20%), and the rate that applies depends not only on what is sold, but on how it is sold and consumed. In 2026, two additional deadlines come into play: the e-reporting obligation, which starts for in-scope businesses on 1 September 2026, and the gradual rollout of mandatory electronic invoicing. This guide explains what these rules mean in practice for restaurant operators in France.

In France, the catering sector is subject to three distinct VAT rates. The standard 20% rate applies to alcoholic beverages, regardless of the sales channel (dine-in, takeaway or delivery). The intermediate 10% rate covers dine-in service, takeaway and delivery whenever the sale involves immediate consumption. The reduced 5.5% rate applies to food items sold for takeaway or delivery without immediate consumption — packaged goods meant to be eaten at home and not prepared for immediate enjoyment.

The line between 10% and 5.5% is not drawn by the type of container, but by the immediate consumption test. A baguette sold to go from a bakery falls under 5.5% if it is not meant for on-site consumption; the same baguette served with a plate and cutlery jumps to 10%.

The split between dine-in and takeaway has been the heart of catering VAT audits for years. The underlying rule is simple: as soon as the supply includes a service dimension — table, crockery, table service, restaurant atmosphere — the 10% rate applies. A takeaway sale of hot or freshly-prepared food meant to be eaten immediately also stays at 10%. The 5.5% rate is reserved for raw or packaged food, with no service component.

Platform-based delivery (Uber Eats, Deliveroo and similar) is treated as takeaway for immediate consumption for prepared meals: food is taxed at 10%, alcoholic drinks ordered alongside are taxed at 20%. The commissions charged by the delivery platforms are themselves subject to 20% VAT, which is recoverable for the VAT-registered restaurant.

A recurring flag on our catering files: hybrid operators (delicatessens with a tasting counter, caterers with a snack bar) often hesitate on how to classify each sale. The rule is unambiguous — what determines the rate is the intent to consume at the moment of sale, not the physical layout of the store.

Splitting VAT by receipt or order is an obligation, not an option. Every sale must be recorded under the correct rate, line by line. This is not a bookkeeping nicety: it is a condition of validity of the VAT return.

In practice, the split happens at the cash register configuration level. Every product or product family must be mapped to the right VAT rate. A non-alcoholic cocktail consumed on site falls under 10%, a beer under 20%, a hot takeaway dish under 10%, a chocolate bar sold in the shop area under 5.5%.

The most common splitting mistakes we see:

• All takeaway sales mapped to a single rate (typically 10%), even though some items should fall under 5.5%.
• Alcoholic drinks bundled into a single "beverages" family taxed at 10% instead of 20%.
• Combo menus left undecomposed (meal + alcoholic drink) taxed at a single rate, systematically understating the 20% taxable base.

For combo menus, each component must be split at its own rate. When that is not possible, the tax authority accepts a pro-rata split based on the normal unit price of each item. In practice, a well-configured POS system handles this automatically.

Since 1 January 2018, every VAT-registered business making sales or providing services to consumers (B2C) must use a certified cash register software or one covered by an individual conformity certificate. In the catering sector, this obligation covers almost every establishment.

NF525 certification (or the manufacturer's individual attestation) confirms that the software meets the four requirements set by the order of 3 August 2016 (in force since 1 January 2018): integrity, security, retention and archiving of cash register data.

In practical terms:

• The operator must keep the conformity attestation issued by the publisher or the NF525 certification issued by an accredited body.
• This document must be produced on request during a tax audit. Failure to provide it leads to a fine of €7,500 per software (article 1770 duodecies of the French Tax Code), recoverable even when no underlying VAT shortfall is identified.
• An updated software version requires a new attestation covering the version actually used.

On our engagements, the NF525 attestation check is a systematic step when onboarding a new restaurant client. It is a document that is easy to obtain from the publisher, but one that many operators have never requested.

The French e-invoicing reform impacts the catering sector through two distinct obligations: electronic invoicing (for B2B transactions) and e-reporting (for B2C transactions, which cover most of the catering activity).

For a restaurant whose business is predominantly B2C (meals served to individuals), the main short-term obligation is e-reporting: regularly transmitting transaction data (amounts, VAT rates, payment methods) to the tax authority, without issuing a per-customer invoice. E-reporting does not replace the cash register receipt — it adds a data feed sent to the Public Invoicing Portal (PPF) or to a partner dematerialisation platform (PDP).

Restaurants with professional clients (corporate catering, event catering, deliveries to companies) are also concerned by the obligation to issue electronic invoices for those B2B transactions.

For more on the impact of e-reporting on VAT flows, see our piece on the VAT return and our analysis on VAT budgeting for event organisation.

The VAT return (monthly CA3 or annual CA12 depending on the regime) must reflect the actual breakdown of sales by rate. For restaurants on the normal real regime, our advice is to set up an analytical accounting layer by VAT rate from the moment of POS entry, so as to avoid retroactive reconciliations at period end.

Items to check before each filing:

• Reconciliation between POS data (daily Z reports) and amounts filed.
• Deductibility of VAT on purchases: raw materials (rate varies by product), consumables, energy, maintenance, equipment. VAT on mixed-use spend must be tracked with a deduction coefficient.
• VAT on tips: tips left voluntarily by the customer and passed in full to the staff fall outside VAT. Service charges included as a mandatory line in the bill are taxable.
• VAT on discount vouchers and complimentary items: a careful review is required depending on whether the discount is granted to the customer or whether the comp is treated as an internal cost.

The simplified VAT regime (RSI, CA12) with half-yearly instalments is possible below certain thresholds (check with your accountant), but it dampens the in-year visibility on VAT. For fast-growing or strongly seasonal operations, the normal real regime with monthly returns is usually preferable.

Alcoholic drinks are the leading cause of VAT rate errors in the catering sector. They are always taxed at 20%, without exception: dine-in, takeaway, delivery, in a combo menu, in a cocktail. Even when a beer is included in a fixed-price menu, the portion attributable to the alcoholic drink must be taxed at 20%.

The practical issue is that POS systems sometimes capture menus as a single line. If automatic decomposition is not available, you either need to configure decomposed menus, or apply a pro-rata on the normal price of each component. The tax authority may reclassify an entire menu at the rate of 10% if no breakdown evidence is available — and apply the highest rate when in doubt.

A common case: a €28 menu including a starter, a main and a drink (water, soft drink or beer). If the customer chooses the beer (normal unit price €5), the correct split is €23 at 10% and €5 at 20%. Without proper configuration, the full menu is filed at 10%, which is a systematic understatement of the taxable base — easily flagged in an audit by cross-checking purchases of alcoholic drinks.

A Paris-based operator running a takeaway business (hot meals, sandwiches, single-portion desserts in trays, beer bottles) had configured the entire takeaway operation at 10%. During the onboarding of the engagement, we identified that the beer bottles (around 12% of takeaway revenue) should have been taxed at 20%, and that some packaged desserts without immediate consumption fell under 5.5%.

Recalculation over 24 months revealed a VAT differential of around €8,000. A voluntary correction, filed before any audit notice, allowed the operator to avoid the 40% penalty for deliberate non-compliance. The POS configuration was updated and a quarterly rate-verification procedure was added to the internal control framework.

This kind of situation is not exceptional. Launching a takeaway service or expanding the menu without re-checking the POS configuration is one of the most common and mechanical risks we encounter in the catering sector.

The sanctions applicable to incorrect VAT splitting are significant and cumulative:

• Late-payment interest: 0.20% per month on undeclared VAT (i.e. 2.4% per year), with no cap.
• 40% deliberate non-compliance penalty: applied when the tax authority establishes intent — which is often retained for systematic errors involving well-known rules (such as the 20% rate on alcohol).
• 80% fraudulent practices penalty: in the most serious cases.
• POS fine: €7,500 per software in the absence of an NF525 attestation, independently of any underlying VAT reassessment.

In the catering sector, VAT audits are frequent because the tax authority has efficient cross-checks: purchases of raw materials (notably alcoholic drinks via supplier filings), banked receipts, delivery platform data. An establishment whose returns show a structurally low average collected VAT rate relative to the menu or to alcohol purchases will be flagged.

Best practice is to run an annual review of the POS configuration and a reconciliation between alcohol purchases and 20% VAT collected — a simple procedure that our team builds into the monitoring of catering files.

E-reporting: if your business qualifies as a large company or mid-cap (over 250 employees or above €50M revenue), the e-reporting obligation applies from 1 September 2026. For SMEs and micro-businesses, the effective date is 1 September 2027, but the technical preparation (selecting a PDP or connecting to the PPF, configuring the POS software) must be anticipated by at least six months.

NF525 attestation: make sure your attestation covers the current version of your POS software. Any major version upgrade requires a new attestation.

Decomposed menus: with the transmission of VAT data to the tax authority via e-reporting, the per-rate split will be directly readable. Establishments with loose POS configuration will be more easily flagged.

Updated 2 June 2026. This article presents the general VAT rules applicable to the French catering sector; it does not replace an analysis of your specific situation by an accountant. VAT rates, thresholds and the e-invoicing rollout schedule must be checked against your file and the texts in force on the date of your return. Sources: BOFiP, French Tax Code, DGFiP.