French anti-VAT fraud measures

France has announced a range of anti-VAT fraud measures for 2020 which are aimed at helping to close its €21bn VAT gap. This is 12% of all VAT collected and the gap has widened slightly in recent years.

The measures cover:

• live e-invoice reporting for business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) invoices;
• marketplace liabilities for non-EU sellers including split payments; and
• the introduction of a fulfilment centre due diligence scheme.

The marketplace changes will be introduced one year ahead of planned EU 2021 reforms and go further by requiring marketplaces to withhold VAT from sellers.

Live VAT e-invoice reporting

France has announced a public consultation on implementing a live invoice reporting regime for B2B and B2C transactions. This would be modelled on the success of the Italian Sistema di Interscambio (SdI)pre-approval invoice real-time scheme mandated for domestic B2B and B2C transactions since the start of 2019. France is looking to reduce errors and fraud in the VAT...