Definition
A graphic designer based in Lyon receives three orders in the same week: an agency in Berlin, a firm in Geneva, and a private individual in Seville buying a product from her online shop.
She issues three identical invoices, with no VAT, exactly as she has done for her French clients for two years.
Yet no two of them fall under the same rules: the Berlin one is incomplete, and that single order triggers a monthly declaration she does not know exists.
Invoicing abroad does not mean issuing a different kind of invoice: it means answering three questions before issuing it. Is the client a business or a private individual?
Are they established inside the European Union or outside it? Are you selling goods or services?
The answers do not change the price you quote, they change the wording your invoice must carry and the declarations you must file. Nothing else moves: you remain under the VAT exemption scheme as long as you stay below the thresholds, and your French invoices keep carrying the Article 293 B notice.
A worked example: €3,000 invoiced to a German agency
Take the Berlin order: a service sold for €3,000 by a micro-entrepreneur with a liberal activity, under the French VAT exemption.
No French VAT appears on the document, and the amount claimed stays €3,000, exactly what the agency will pay.
The invoice nevertheless carries two pieces of information a French invoice does not: your EU VAT number and the client's, then the wording that names who actually owes the tax.
This is the VAT reverse charge, under which the agency declares and pays the German VAT on that service itself.
For services exchanged between businesses inside the European Union, this number is mandatory from the very first euro, with no threshold and no grace period, as the DGFiP fact sheet on micro-entrepreneur obligations states for 2026.
The number is not issued automatically: while you are under the exemption, you request it from your service des impôts des entreprises (your local business tax office) through the secure messaging in your professional account, and it is issued entirely free of charge.
Letters offering to obtain it for a fee are commercial offers.
Then comes a formality the invoice says nothing about: a European services declaration for every month in which a service of this kind has been invoiced.
And those €3,000 remain Turnover like any other.
Received in 2026 by a non-regulated liberal activity attached to the régime général (the general social security scheme) rather than to the Cipav pension fund, they carry 25.6% of social contributions, that is €768.
This rate covers neither the vocational training contribution nor income tax: both come on top of it.
The most widespread belief fits in one sentence: "my client is abroad, so there is nothing for me to do."
It is contradicted in all three European situations listed by the DGFiP in 2026. The first is purchases of goods from a supplier in the Union above €10,000 a year.
The second is services between businesses, from the very first euro.
The third is the case almost every page forgets, distance sales of goods to private individuals in another member state above €10,000 a year.
Online sellers whose customers are private individuals assume the rule cannot reach them: they are exactly who it targets.
No VAT, but not for the same reason
Two invoices can carry no VAT for two entirely unrelated reasons, and mixing them up produces incomplete documents.
In the first case, it is your own scheme that forbids you to charge it, and the wording "TVA non applicable, article 293 B du CGI" (VAT not applicable under article 293 B of the French tax code) says so, a formulation that applies until 31 December 2026, replaced on 1 January 2027 by "TVA non applicable, article L. 233-3 du CIBS".
The published tax doctrine in fact allows several others: presenting this one as the only acceptable wording is a common approximation.
In the second case, the tax really is due, but in the client's country, and the client pays it, which calls for its own wording.
An invoice sent to a German agency falls under both reasons at once and must therefore carry both.
The second confusion concerns the word "abroad" itself.
A Swiss, British or Canadian client is not a European client. The EU VAT number and the European services declaration do not concern them.
The applicable rules are checked case by case with your service des impôts des entreprises, your local business tax office, before the invoice goes out rather than after.
The third is the costliest: assuming that foreign clients keep your counters clear.
On the URSSAF side there is no ambiguity, everything you receive is declared whatever country the payer is in, at the same rate and on the same schedule.
On the VAT side, the VAT threshold set by article 293 B of the French tax code is measured in 2026 against total national turnover: €85,000 received in the previous year, or €93,500 during the current one, with a sub-threshold of €37,500 and €41,250 for services and liberal activities.
That sub-threshold does not replace the overall ceiling, it comes on top of it.
As for where your foreign invoices sit inside that national turnover, do not assume: have your situation confirmed by your business tax office before you believe yourself out of reach.
This page is up to date as of 5 September 2026.
Frequently asked questions
Do I have to charge VAT to a business client established in another EU country?
No. Under the French VAT exemption you charge no VAT at all, and for services between businesses the tax is due in the client's country anyway, where the client reverse-charges it.
Your invoice then carries two pieces of wording instead of one: the one for your exemption scheme, and the one shifting the tax to the client.
Is a client outside the European Union the same thing?
No, and the two are often merged. The EU VAT number and the European services declaration only cover transactions with member states.
A Swiss, British or American client falls under other rules, which vary with the nature of the transaction: have your case checked by your business tax office before the invoice is issued.
Does an invoice sent abroad count towards my turnover?
Yes, in full.
What you receive from a foreign client is declared to URSSAF like everything else and carries the same social contributions, that is 25.6% in 2026 for a liberal activity attached to the general scheme.
The payer's country changes neither how often you declare nor the rate applied.
I sell products to European consumers through my online shop: does this concern me?
Yes, above €10,000 of distance sales a year to private individuals in other member states in 2026, an EU VAT number becomes necessary, and the reporting can go through the VAT one-stop shop.
This is the situation most often missing from pages on the subject, even though it describes a great many online shops.