French new VAT software obligations Jan 2018

France has introduced anti-VAT fraud software requirements which are to be implemented from January 2018.  This includes using certified, secure software for recording all customer payments – including cash registers.

VAT registered businesses selling B2B and B2C will need to track cash, cheque, credit and transfer payments.  The requirements apply to bought-in software and in-house developed platforms.

Certification can be provided by any accredited software house, including a bespoke certificate from the provider certifying compliance with the French tax authorities' data security and retention obligations.  Such a certificate should confirm the requirements of the French tax office.  To date, this is providing some varying responses from software houses which are not yet fully prepared with their solutions. No in-house development certification process has been detailed so far.

Failure to comply with the rules may result in fines of up to €7,500 per software or cash register unit.  This will present the largest financial risks to major retailers or groups of companies using the same software platforms.

Basic software requirements include:

• The tax authorities must be able to access individual transaction data
• Data must be stored online or in a method approved by the tax authorities
• The process and access around the integrity of the data must be clearly demonstrated and applied
• Cash registers should provide daily and monthly closes
• Accounting software should have at least annual closes

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