Definition
On 3 February, Marc opens his professional account on impots.gouv.fr for the first time in months. A banner is waiting for him: a VAT return is due.
He is a freelance developer, he crossed a threshold last year without paying attention, and he is discovering a monthly obligation that nobody announced to him by post.
The VAT return is the form on which you tell the tax administration how much VAT you collected on its behalf, and how much you paid on your own purchases.
You subtract the second from the first and hand over the difference. That tax was never your money: Output VAT merely passes through your account.
As long as you come under the VAT exemption scheme, you file none.
The exact wording used by the DGFiP (the French tax administration) is that an exempt micro-entrepreneur has "as a general rule" no VAT return to file.
That reservation is not decorative: it carries real exceptions, set out below, plus import VAT, which is due even while you are exempt.
Who files one, and from which day
Back to Marc, with round numbers. He collected €39,000 in 2025: above the €37,500 basic VAT threshold that applies to service providers, but below the €41,250 higher one.
Those two amounts, like the overall €85,000 ceiling and its €93,500 higher counterpart, have been unchanged since 1 January 2025.
The services sub-threshold does not decide on its own: someone selling €80,000 of goods and invoicing €10,000 of services stays under €37,500 and still loses the exemption, because total turnover goes past €85,000.
Nothing changes during 2025 for Marc, and he becomes liable on 1 January 2026. From that day his invoices carry the tax and a return is due at every deadline.
His first month comes down to one subtraction. €1,400 of tax collected on his invoices, €260 of Input VAT on his software subscription and his equipment: €1,400 minus €260, he hands over €1,140.
In a month when he buys a computer, the deductible side can exceed the collected side, and the difference becomes a VAT credit, carried forward or refunded on request.
The amount to pay is a difference, never a percentage of your turnover. The switch is far more abrupt when it is the higher threshold that goes during the year: VAT is due on the very day it is crossed, not on the first day of the following month as is often written.
Invoices already issued that day, deposits included, have to be corrected, and the returns start immediately.
"I am exempt, so VAT does not concern me" is false in three situations, and they are exactly the ones freelancers in tech run into.
The first is buying goods within the European Union above €10,000 a year in 2026. The second is distance selling to European consumers above that same €10,000 threshold.
The third is invoicing a service to a business in another member state, a case that starts from the very first euro.
An EU VAT number then becomes mandatory.
It is not issued automatically while you are exempt, you request it from your business tax office through the secure messaging of your professional account, and issuing it is entirely free: letters offering to obtain one for a fee are commercial offers.
CA3 or CA12: the form is not yours to pick
Two filing regimes coexist. Under the régime réel normal (standard actual regime) you file a CA3, in principle every month.
Under the régime réel simplifié (simplified actual regime) you file a single annual CA12 summary, preceded by instalments calculated on the previous year's tax.
The regime applied to you appears in your professional account, and it decides both the form and the calendar.
The amounts separating those two regimes belong to rules outside the micro scheme and moved in 2026: read the schedule displayed for your own file rather than copying a threshold found elsewhere.
Everything is filed and paid online, there is no paper form to post.
The transfer of VAT rules into a new code is also planned for 1 January 2027: this page is up to date as of 5 September 2026 and will be revised then.
This is not the turnover declaration
Both carry the word declaration and have nothing else in common.
The Turnover declaration goes to URSSAF (the body collecting social contributions), funds your social protection, and is filed even when the amount is zero.
The VAT return goes to the tax administration and only concerns those who are liable.
A VAT-registered micro-entrepreneur therefore files two of them, in two places, on two calendars that do not line up.
One practical consequence usually goes unnoticed: once you are liable, turnover is declared to URSSAF net of VAT.
The tax you collect is not turnover, it does not inflate your contributions, and it does not eat into your Turnover threshold, set net of tax at €83,600 for a service provider over the 2026 to 2028 period.
Declaring VAT-inclusive amounts to URSSAF means paying social contributions on the Treasury's money.
Frequently asked questions
I charged VAT while I was exempt, what happens now?
You become liable for it purely because you wrote it on the invoice, and you will have to hand it over.
Worse for the commercial relationship: your client cannot deduct that tax and simply loses it. The invoice has to be corrected, and this is the most expensive mistake on the subject.
How often does a VAT return have to be filed?
It depends on the regime applied to you, not on your preference.
The standard actual regime works with a CA3 filed in principle every month, the simplified regime with instalments during the year and then an annual CA12 that settles the balance.
The schedule in your professional account is what counts.
Does becoming liable for VAT cost me the micro-enterprise scheme?
No, and this worry comes up constantly. VAT thresholds and micro-scheme ceilings are two separate sets of rules that happen to look at the same turnover.
A service provider becomes liable at €37,500 and remains a micro-entrepreneur up to €83,600 in 2026: in between, he charges the tax, files returns, and changes nothing else.
Can I reclaim VAT on my purchases before becoming liable?
No. The basic exemption spares you from charging the tax, but in exchange it removes any right to deduct it on your business expenses.
No return lets you recover it while you remain exempt, and that is the real price of the simplicity.