The VAT applicable to imports must now be declared to the General Management of Public Finance (Direction générale des Finances publiques – DGFiP) on the VAT return, not to the General Management of Customs and Indirect Taxation (Direction Générale des Douanes et Droits Indirects – DGDDI) during customs clearance.
Several information, in order to facilitate your VAT return:
- the online declaration is pre-filled with the amount of import VAT to be collected (excluding suspensive tax regimes – RFS), based on the elements that you or your registered customs representatives (RDE) have previously declared to the DGDDI.
The pre-filling is effective from the 14th day of each month for operations carried out during the previous month;
- the details of the pre-filled amount are accessible in the “DONEES ATVAI” tab of your professional account on the douane.gouv.fr website; in addition to the declaration numbers and, for each of them, the taxable base by rate and nomenclature, it also includes information identifying the RDEs (Name and EORI number); and
- for all import VAT payers, the deadline for filing the VAT return is the 24th of each month.
The pre-filled VAT amounts must be checked by you and corrected if necessary.
To do this, you should ensure that you have the necessary information, especially if you use a registered customs representative (RDE) to validate the import VAT amount.
If there is a discrepancy between the pre-filled amount and the amount you believe you should declare, you will need to correct the pre-filled output VAT amount and you could contact the RDE to keep him informed.
Before validating your VAT return, it is also your responsibility to complete it with the data not pre-filled such as the taxable import VAT bases when you use an RFS, the non-taxable bases and the related input VAT amount.
Clarification of the importer population
The collection of import VAT on the VAT return concerns all taxable persons and non-taxable persons who have a valid intra-European VAT number in France.
We remind you that the intra-European VAT number must now be entered on your customs declarations.
There are several details depending on your situation:
- If you are placed under the simplified taxation regime (RSI) for VAT and you intend to carry out imports, you will no longer be able to benefit from the RSI and will have to file a VAT return according to the normal taxation regime after having informed your tax department.
- If you are under a basic VAT exemption scheme, you will have to declare the VAT relating to the imports on the VAT return n° 3310-CA3 for the month in which the VAT became payable.
If you do not have a French intra-European VAT number even though you are importing goods into France, we invite you to contact your Tax office to obtain one.
Cabinet Nicolas BRAHIN
Advokatfirma i NICE, Lawyers in NICE
Email : contact@brahin-avocats.com
1, Rue Louis Gassin – 06300 NICE (FRANCE)
Tel : +33 493 830 876 / Fax : +33 493 181 437
