Invoicing a client in France from the US or UK: what your invoice needs

You work from New York, London or Dublin and a company in France has just signed your quote. This guide explains how to invoice a French client: what the invoice should show, who deals with French VAT, which currency to use, and what French e-invoicing changes for you.

Scope: services sold by a freelancer or an agency with no establishment in France to a business established in France. If you are the one registered in France and your client is abroad, read invoicing a foreign client from France instead.

In short

• For a standard business-to-business service, you do not charge French VAT. Your French client accounts for it through the reverse charge (autoliquidation in French).
• Put your client’s French VAT number on the invoice (required if you are established in the EU, expected otherwise). If you are established in another EU country, add your own VAT number and the words “Reverse charge”.
• You can invoice in euros, dollars or pounds. Agree the currency and the bank fees in the contract.
• French e-invoicing applies between businesses established in France. With no establishment there, you are outside it.
• The French late-payment rules, including the €40 fixed sum, depend on the law that governs your contract.

What a French client expects on your invoice

Start with one distinction. Your invoice is first a document under the rules of your own country. What France adds depends on where you are established.

You are established in another EU country. For a service on which the client owes the VAT, the VAT Directive says that the invoice follows the rules of the country where the supplier is established (Article 219a). So you apply your own national invoicing rules, not the French ones. Those national rules are built on the common list in Article 226 of the directive, shown in the table below. The invoice must be issued no later than the fifteenth day of the month following the one in which the service was supplied (Article 222).

You are established outside the EU (US, UK and others). The directive’s invoicing rules are addressed to EU countries, and the French tax authorities state that businesses not established in France are not covered by French e-invoicing. This guide does not settle whether any French formal rule binds your invoice beyond that. Treat the table as what your client’s accounting team needs to record the invoice, pay it and declare the VAT. If the client asks for something more, ask which rule it relies on.

Details on an invoice sent to a business client in France, for a service under the reverse charge

Detail	Supplier in another EU country	Supplier outside the EU
Date of issue	Required (Directive, art. 226)	Needed by the client for its e-reporting
Unique sequential invoice number	Required (art. 226)	Needed by the client for its e-reporting
Your full name and address	Required (art. 226)	Expected by the client
Your VAT or tax identification number	Your VAT number is required (art. 226)	Expected: the client identifies you by a VAT number or a foreign identification number
The client's full name and address	Required (art. 226)	Expected by the client
The client's French VAT number	Required (art. 226)	Expected: it shows that the client buys as a business
Nature and extent of the services	Required (art. 226)	Expected by the client
Date of the service, if different from the invoice date	Required (art. 226)	Useful
Amount before VAT and unit price	Required (art. 226)	Needed by the client for its e-reporting
The words “Reverse charge”	Required (art. 226)	Useful: it tells the client why no VAT is shown
Currency, payment term, bank details, purchase order number	Practical	Practical

The client’s French VAT number (numéro de TVA intracommunautaire) starts with the prefix FR. You can check it in VIES, the European Commission’s search engine for VAT numbers. If VIES shows a number as invalid, ask your client to confirm it with its tax office before you invoice.

Our invoice generator creates UK and US invoices in English, in your browser. If you are curious about what a French business must print on its own invoices, see the French invoice requirements checklist. That list applies to businesses established in France, not to you.

French VAT: who charges it, who pays it

The rule for business-to-business services is in two articles of Directive 2006/112/EC.

• Article 44: a service supplied to a taxable person (a business acting as such) is treated as supplied where that business is established. For a client established in France, that is France.
• Article 196: when the supplier is not established in that country, the VAT is payable by the business that receives the service.

In plain terms: you invoice without French VAT, and your client declares and pays French VAT on its own VAT return. This is the reverse charge. The European Union’s Your Europe site says the same for both cases: services sold to a business in another EU country, and services a business in the EU buys from a supplier outside the EU.

French VAT on a standard service invoiced to a business established in France

Where you are established	French VAT on your invoice	What you do on your side
Outside the EU (US, UK and others)	None. The client accounts for it (art. 196).	Follow your own country's tax rules for a service sold abroad.
Another EU country	None. The client accounts for it (art. 196).	Show both VAT numbers and “Reverse charge”. Report the sale in your recapitulative statement (art. 262).

Two consequences follow from the directive:

• No French VAT registration for these services. Article 214 excludes supplies on which only the client owes the VAT from the obligation to register in the client’s country.
• If you invoice from the UK, HMRC’s VAT Notice 741A states the matching rule: a business-to-business service is supplied where the customer belongs, and a supply made in another country is outside the scope of UK VAT. The same notice describes a customer’s VAT registration number as the best evidence that an EU customer is in business.

This guide does not cover US tax rules.

What this section does not cover

The rule above applies to standard services sold to a business. Other rules apply to:

• goods;
• sales to private individuals and other clients that are not businesses;
• some services, such as those connected with real estate, admission to events, and electronic services sold to private individuals.

If you are in one of these cases, check the place-of-supply rules with an adviser or with the tax authorities before you invoice.

Currency and conversion: euros, dollars or pounds

You are free to agree the invoice currency with your client. EU VAT law allows the amounts on an invoice to be expressed in any currency (Directive, Article 230). What must be in the national currency is the amount of VAT. Under the reverse charge, your invoice shows no VAT amount, so that conversion falls to your client.

What your French client converts. The client calculates French VAT in euros. Article 91 of the directive sets the principle: the exchange rate is the one recorded when the VAT becomes chargeable, under rules laid down by each country. If you invoice in dollars or pounds, the client’s accounting team does this conversion. You do not need to print a euro amount, although the client may ask for one for its own records.

Who bears the fees. No tax rule decides this. It is a point for your contract. Settle three things in writing before the first invoice:

1. the invoice currency;
2. who pays the transfer and conversion fees, so that the amount you receive matches the amount you invoiced;
3. the bank details to use, and whether a euro account is available on your side.

Invoicing in euros puts the exchange-rate risk on you. Invoicing in your own currency puts it on the client. Neither choice changes the VAT treatment.

French e-invoicing: what changes for a supplier abroad

France is moving business invoices to structured electronic formats that travel through approved platforms (plateformes agréées). The French tax authorities give this timeline:

French e-invoicing timeline, for businesses established in France

Date	Receiving e-invoices	Issuing e-invoices and sending data
1 September 2026	All businesses, whatever their size	Large and intermediate-sized companies (ETI)
1 September 2027 at the latest	Already in force	SMEs and micro-businesses

So your French client must already be able to receive e-invoices. That obligation concerns the invoices it gets from other French businesses.

You are outside the e-invoicing obligation. The detailed FAQ of the French tax authorities is direct on this point: businesses not established in France are not concerned by e-invoicing. The obligation covers transactions between two businesses established in France. You do not have to choose a French approved platform, and you do not have to produce a Factur-X, UBL or CII file. Under the VAT Directive, the use of an electronic invoice is subject to acceptance by the recipient (Article 232): the format is something you agree with your client.

One exception to keep in mind. A foreign company that has a fixed establishment in France for VAT purposes is treated like a business established in France. If you have an office or staff in France, check this point with an adviser.

Your client reports your invoice. Purchases from a supplier not established in France fall under e-reporting: the French business sends data about the transaction to its tax authorities through its platform. Large and intermediate-sized companies have done so since 1 September 2026. Smaller businesses follow by 1 September 2027. According to the tax authorities’ fact sheet, the data includes the invoice date, the unique invoice number and the total before VAT. The supplier is identified by a VAT number or, failing that, a foreign identification number, in place of the French SIREN business number. Payment data is not expected for international transactions under the reverse charge.

In practice, this explains why a French client may now insist on clean invoice data: a number that is never reused, a clear date, your tax identification number, an amount before VAT that matches the purchase order.

Do you have to report anything in France yourself? According to the tax authorities’ FAQ, a business not established in France has an e-reporting obligation only for transactions on which it owes French VAT itself. For a service under the reverse charge, the client owes the VAT, so this does not apply.

For the French side of the reform, read our e-invoicing guide.

Late payment: what French law gives you, and when

French law has firm rules on payment between businesses. Article L441-10 of the Commercial Code (Code de commerce) sets them:

• Without an agreed term, payment is due 30 days after the goods are received or the service is performed.
• The parties can agree a longer term, up to 60 days from the invoice date, or 45 days end of month if the contract says so expressly.
• Late-payment penalties are owed without a reminder. The default rate is the European Central Bank’s refinancing rate plus 10 percentage points. The official Service-public site gives 12.40% for the second half of 2026.
• The agreed rate cannot be lower than three times the French legal interest rate. Service-public gives the resulting minimum: 8.25% for the second half of 2026.
• A fixed recovery sum (indemnité forfaitaire pour frais de recouvrement) of €40 is owed for each invoice paid late.

Does this apply to your contract? Only if French law governs it. This is where the French rules stop for a supplier abroad:

• If your contract chooses French law, you can rely on Article L441-10.
• If your contract chooses another law, that law sets the interest and the fees.
• If your contract is silent, a French court applies the Rome I Regulation. For a contract for services, it points to the law of the country where the service provider has its habitual residence (Article 4). That is your country, not France.

Courts in other countries follow their own rules to decide which law applies. A court can also give effect to mandatory rules of its own country (Rome I, Article 9). Whether that reaches the French payment rules in your case is a question for a lawyer.

If you are established in the EU, your national law already contains a minimum: Directive 2011/7/EU requires every EU country to grant interest at a reference rate plus at least eight percentage points, and a fixed sum of at least €40. In the UK, gov.uk explains the national rules on late commercial payments, including the 30-day point at which a payment becomes late when no date was agreed.

The practical answer is the same everywhere. Write the payment term, the interest rate and the recovery fee into the contract, name the governing law, and repeat the term on each invoice.

Our late-payment interest calculator works out the amounts under the French rules. For the steps that follow in France, from the first reminder to the court, see what to do about an unpaid invoice.

Checklist before you send the invoice

1. Client identity. Exact legal name and registered address, as written in the contract or the purchase order.
2. Client’s French VAT number. It starts with FR. Check it in VIES and keep a record of the check.
3. Your identity. Full name, address, and your VAT number or tax identification number.
4. Invoice number and date. A unique number in a sequence, never reused.
5. Description. What was done, for which period, with quantities and unit prices.
6. Amount before VAT. No French VAT line for a standard business-to-business service.
7. “Reverse charge”. Required if you are established in another EU country. Useful in every case.
8. Currency. The one named in the contract, with the bank details that match it.
9. Payment term. Due date, interest rate and recovery fee as agreed in the contract.
10. Client references. Purchase order number and the contact or address the accounting team asked for.
11. Delivery. Send the invoice in the format agreed with the client, and keep a copy under your own country’s record-keeping rules.

Common questions