Home / VAT Rates / France

France VAT Rates 2026

France levies Value Added Tax as TVA (Taxe sur la Valeur Ajoutée). The standard rate is 20%, applied to most goods and services. Reduced rates of 10% and 5.5% apply to hotel accommodation, restaurant services, passenger transport, building renovation.

Registration and filing

Access rates via API

The TaxID API returns current VAT and GST rates for 200+ countries and territories. Use the /api/v1/rates/FR endpoint to get France data programmatically. Responses are cached for 24 hours.

curl http://localhost:3000/api/v1/rates/FR
# No authentication required for rate lookups

# Response:
# { "country_code": "FR", "tax_type": "vat",
#   "standard_rate": 20, "reduced_rates": [10, 5.5],
#   "currency": "EUR", "last_updated": "2026-01-01" }

Applying the correct rate in code

For B2B intra-EU sales, validate the customer's VAT number first. A valid registration means reverse charge applies — you charge 0% and the customer self-accounts. For B2C, charge the France standard rate.

// 1. Validate the customer's France VAT number
const vatCheck = await fetch(
  'http://localhost:3000/api/v1/validate/FR/CUSTOMER_VAT',
  { headers: { Authorization: 'Bearer YOUR_API_KEY' } }
).then(r => r.json());

// 2. Fetch current France VAT rates (no auth required)
const rates = await fetch('http://localhost:3000/api/v1/rates/FR').then(r => r.json());
// → { standard_rate: 20, reduced_rates: [10, 5.5] }

// 3. Apply the correct VAT treatment
if (vatCheck.valid) {
  // B2B intra-EU: reverse charge — you invoice 0%, customer self-accounts
  applyRate(0, 'reverse_charge');
} else {
  // B2C: charge the France standard rate
  applyRate(rates.standard_rate, 'standard');
}

About France VAT

France invented VAT in 1954, and its four-rate structure (20/10/5.5/2.1) remains one of the most layered in Europe — the 2.1% super-reduced rate for press and reimbursable medicines survives as a grandfathered exception. Corsica and the overseas departments apply their own lower rate schedules. A controversial plan to collapse the small-business thresholds into a single €25,000 limit was definitively repealed in November 2025 after protests from micro-entrepreneurs.

VAT in France is administered by the Direction générale des Finances publiques (DGFiP). France VAT registrations are validated through the EU VIES system — validate a customer's VAT number before applying any zero-rate or reverse-charge treatment.

Sources: European Commission — Taxes in Europe Database (TEDB) · impots.gouv.fr — TVA (accessed Jun 2026)

Rate history

• 2014Standard rate raised from 19.6% to 20%

Frequently asked questions

VAT & GST rates in other EU countries