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France – initiative to tackle VAT fraud on e-commerce

By February 19, 2020July 10th, 2021No Comments

The French tax authorities published further information about…

The French tax authorities published further information about the obligation of online selling platforms to provide details of sales made by selling businesses on these platforms.

Last 7 January 2020 the authorities published guidelines on the legislative changes introduced in article 10 of the Law 2018-898 to tackle VAT fraud. According to this article, online platforms should provide each seller with information about their tax obligations on each activity carried out in France. These platforms should also provide links where the sellers can access information from official websites of the French tax authorities.

Additionally, online selling platforms like Amazon, eBay or Alibaba will also be required to provide once a year and no later than 31 January of the following year, a report with all sales made in the country by each seller, including the sales value, all identification details of the seller and the customer and, if available, the bank details where the funds are transferred for each sale. This information must be sent to both the tax authorities (about all sellers) and the seller (about all sales made in the country).

In practice, this means that the French tax authorities will have a full view of the online selling activity of those businesses selling in France via an online selling platform, irrespective of these businesses being based in the EU or outside the EU. More details will be provided shortly in administrative guidelines and there will be a public consultation on the matter.

The above information was kindly provided by Marosa (Spain). If you have any questions or need any clarifications, please contact: [email protected]. Comments in italics from Stephen at Hedeos.