Changes impacting the French import VAT system from 1 January 2022
As of January 1, 2022, the management and collection of import VAT will be transferred from customs to the DGFiP, for any taxpayer identified for VAT in France.
As of January 1, 2022, the management and collection of VAT applicable to imports and exits from suspensive regimes, taxed and untaxed, will be transferred from the General Directorate of Customs and Indirect Taxes (DGDDI) to the General Directorate of Finance public (DGFiP) for any taxpayer identified for VAT in France.
The attention of operators is drawn to the publication of recent instructions drafted by the DGDDI and available for consultation from the following links :
- the official customs bulletin n ° 7440 of 23 November 2021 (text 21-051) relating to the procedures for implementing import VAT from 1 January 2022 ;
- the note from the customs clearance policy office n ° 21000196 of 23 November 2021 relating to the technical implementation of the generalization of the reverse charge of the VAT in the DELTA-G / X Import / H7 applications from January 1 , 2022.
As a reminder, in application of Articles 293 A and 277 A of the General Tax Code (CGI), the taxpayer is required to communicate to the DGDDI, in addition to the information to establish the tax base, their valid French intra-community VAT number and, the where applicable, other information useful for the settlement or control of the tax due.
This simultaneous declaration-payment mechanism on the VAT declaration becomes automatic and compulsory for any taxpayer identified for VAT in France and subject to the actual normal tax regime, without any prior authorization . As a result, companies, regardless of their place of establishment, which do not have a French intra-community VAT number or which are not subject to the actual normal regime but which wish to carry out import operations in France must at first apply to their business tax service (SIE) for the allocation of a French intra-community VAT number and opt for the actual normal regime.
In addition, from January 1, 2022 and only for taxed transactions , each taxpayer will have a VAT tax return pre-filled with certain customs data relating to his import operations, for which he will be responsible for verifying. amounts each month when the tax is due, or even to modify or complete them if necessary by the 24th of the following month.
To do this, a dedicated notice relating to the VAT tax declaration has already been made available to operators on the DGFiP site at the following link on the impots.gouv.fr portal (Professional / Manage my company / I declare and I pay the taxes of my company / Useful documentation / Import VAT).
In addition, to help taxpayers verify their pre-filled information on the VAT return, the DGDDI will make available to them, on February 14 , a dedicated space on the customs.gouv.fr site , accessible by through a personal account created on this portal. They will thus have access to a table which will include certain customs data from their customs declarations for a given reference period.
These data will include in particular, the number of the declaration and its date of " good to be removed " (BAE), the application concerned (Delta-G / XI / H7), the number of the article and the nomenclature of the goods in question. , the VAT rate applied as well as the associated tax base.
As part of this reform, operators' attention is drawn to the fact that the SIE of attachment of the liable operator becomes their interlocutor with regard to this import tax, in the same way as for the legal VAT. common tax and other professional taxes managed by the DGFiP.
Useful links and legal basis
Article 181 of the finance law for 2020
Official customs bulletin n ° 7440 of 23 November 2021 (text 21-051)
Note to operators - Generalization of reverse charge of VAT - PDF 132 KB
Source: French customs - douane.gouv.fr