French Finance Bill to confirm VAT rate rises and changes

The 2014 French Finance Bill has been announced this week, confirming a number of already announced French VAT rate changes, including:

• The standard French VAT rate is to rise from 19.6% to 20% on 1 January 2014.  This was originally announced in November 2012. The average EU VAT rate is now over 21%.
• The French VAT rate applicable to restaurant food and related services will rise from 7% to 10%
• Electricity, gas and related domestic power will fall from 5.5% to 5% VAT
• Social housing will now be subject to the reduced 5% French VAT rate