France VAT invoice requirements

French VAT obligations for the layout and disclosures to be made on invoices conforms with the EU VAT Directive and its VAT invoice requirements.

French VAT invoices must be issued at the time of the taxable supply.  Invoices must be stored for six years.  France now permits the use of electronic invoices under certain conditions.

Invoices must contain at least the following basic information:

• Date of issuance
• A unique, sequential number
• VAT number of the supplier
• Full address of the supplier and customer
• Full description of the goods or services provided
• Details of quantities of goods, if applicable
• Unit prices, if applicable
• A date of the supply if different from the invoice date
• The net, taxable value of the supply
• The VAT rate(s) applied, and the amount of VAT broken out by rate
• The gross, total amount of the invoice

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