Transposition of exemptions issued from the VAT Directive (Article 30)
The VAT exemptions for supplies made to European armed forces and European and international bodies are transposed in Articles 262-00 bis, 291, IV and 256 bis, I-1° bis of the FTC. An exemption has also been created in favor of European organizations in the context of the fight against COVID-19. Until now, only the tax guidelines provided for some of these exemptions.
Option to tax for financial services: a custom-made option (Article 30)
Since 1 January 2022, financial service providers can opt for VAT on a transaction-by-transaction basis. Therefore, the option to tax certain VAT-exempt financial services is no longer global. This flexibility allows the VAT regime to be individualized according to the client's ability to deduct or not the VAT and the stakes for the provider in terms of deductible VAT and payroll tax. The list of eligible and non-eligible financial services is however not modified.
Nevertheless, more general measures likely to interest all sectors of activity have been adopted.
The chargeability of VAT on advance payments relating to a future sale of goods is set at the time of payment as from 1 January 2023 (Article 30)
Until this date, the chargeable event and the chargeability will remain the delivery date of the goods.
The Intrastat return (DEB) concerning deliveries and acquisitions of goods to or from an EU Member State, has been repealed since 1 January 2022 (Article 30)
As a reminder, this declaration merged a statistical and a fiscal report into a single declaration. It has been replaced by two separate procedures: a statistical data return (also known as the Intrastat return) that has to be filed by any company designated by the French Customs Authorities (FCA) and the return of recapitulative statements of intra-Community trade in goods, which makes it possible to check compliance with intra-Community VAT rules (also known as the EC Sales List), which is systematically required from all taxable persons. Details are already available in various notes published by the FCA.
Limitation of the penalty for failure to invoice (Article 142)
In order to respect the principle of proportionality of penalties, the fine for failure to submit an invoice is now capped at EUR 375 thousand per fiscal year, or EUR 37,5 thousand per fiscal year when the transaction has been properly recorded (Art. 1737, I-3 of the FTC).
As a reminder, since 1 January 2022, the reverse charge of VAT on imports has become the principal rule
The management and collection of the import VAT have been transferred from the FCA to the French Tax Administration. The counterpart of this change is a cash flow gain, but the impacts of this change on the companies' internal procedures should not be underestimated (Article 181 of the Finance Act for 2020).
