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France – New Rules for SAD Import Documents

By February 17, 2017July 10th, 2021No Comments

Identification of the parties liable for VAT on the customs declaration (TVAI) at importation when it is different from the designated consignee in box 8 on the customs declaration…

Identification of the parties liable for VAT on the customs declaration (TVAI) at importation when it is different from the designated consignee in box 8 on the customs declaration.

These instructions were defined jointly with the French VAT Policy Directorate.

     1. Background

Customs and tax regulations both use the notion of addressee but do not have the same meaning.

  • Customs regulations consider the ‘recipient’ as being the actual recipient of the goods.
  • The French tax code (CGI), for its part, relies on the notion of “actual recipient” to determine the party liable to pay the TVAI (import VAT).. This information is crucial to track business transactions subject to VAT, including downstream imports or when a deferral of payment of VAT is requested at the time of importation.

The French Tax authority ‘DGFiP’ equates the “actual recipient” of the CGI to the Customs recipient on the customs declaration.

However, this assimilation does not always match the reality, and some operators of international trade are therefore penalized by this difference of apprehension.

Indeed, these companies in order to comply with the customs law then indicated the actual goods recipient as a recipient on the import customs declaration. This recipient was the person named on the transport or even in the bill of lading documentation.

However, this recipient wasn’t necessarily the “actual recipient” in the sense of the tax term, liable for VAT on importation. These companies then faced difficulties to justify the payment of the TVAI with the DGFiP, the entity who reported the TVAI not being the entity recovering the TVA as consignee in box 8 of the import customs declaration.

    2. Filling of the import customs declaration

In the hypothesis where the actual recipient does not correspond to the “actual recipient” as defined in the CGI – is liable to pay the TVAI, both of the ‘recipients’must appear clearly on the import customs declaration.

Customs declarations must be filled out as follows:

  • box 8: effective recipient of the goods on commercial documents or transport;
  • box 44: indebted taxpayer as to the TVAI within the meaning of article 293 of the CGI, indicating the ID of the code document 1004 French VAT.

Example: 1004 – FRXXXXXXXXXXX – 01/01/2015. The date is not a decisive factor, this data is necessary to be able to match either the date of identification number VAT or the date of the day of the transmission of the customs declaration.

On the other hand, where the actual recipient (responsible for the TVAI) is also the consignee of the goods, you should not use the code document 1004.

 

Manuel Guët