UK based company wants to provide services in France: any tax or other issues?

[discover]

Hi Folks,
My apologise is there is similar threat but I can't find one which will answer to my questions.
A French company wants to use our services. We provide services in UK up to now but we are able to do it in other EU country. We are registered in England.

When should we take into account when etablishing a contract with the French company?
I was thinking about the currency of the payment, the national law for the contract. Is it best to be paid in euros or GBP?
Should tax be included? Should we send invoice without VAT? I know they are liable to "TVA" in France.

If you have any other comment/advise you need to add, please advice as this will be the first time we are going abroad to provide services.

 

[Mitchells Bristol]

Hi Folks,
My apologise is there is similar threat but I can't find one which will answer to my questions.
A French company wants to use our services. We provide services in UK up to now but we are able to do it in other EU country. We are registered in England.

When should we take into account when etablishing a contract with the French company?
I was thinking about the currency of the payment, the national law for the contract. Is it best to be paid in euros or GBP?
Should tax be included? Should we send invoice without VAT? I know they are liable to "TVA" in France.

If you have any other comment/advise you need to add, please advice as this will be the first time we are going abroad to provide services.

Hello there

Lots of things to think about:

1) VAT - it depends what you are selling, typically for services the VAT point is now where the customer is based and therefore your customer will have to account for VAt under the reverse charge mechanism;

2) Corporation tax - depending upon what you are doing in France, your activity may give rise to a permanent establishment there, in which case you will be liable to French corporation tax on a proportion of your profits - again it depends what you are doing;

3) PAYE - if you are using French staff then you may need a local PAYE registration to deduct French tax and Social Security;

4) Applicable law - you can state in the contract that any dispute will be handles under UK legislation;

5) Exchange risk - I would get them to pay you in sterling so that you do not have any uncertainty around exchange rate fluctuations

Hope this helps

 

[OldWelshGuy]

France is a nightmare, I know a few guys who do work there and it is a PITA.

 

[discover]

Hello there

Lots of things to think about:

1) VAT - it depends what you are selling, typically for services the VAT point is now where the customer is based and therefore your customer will have to account for VAt under the reverse charge mechanism;

2) Corporation tax - depending upon what you are doing in France, your activity may give rise to a permanent establishment there, in which case you will be liable to French corporation tax on a proportion of your profits - again it depends what you are doing;

3) PAYE - if you are using French staff then you may need a local PAYE registration to deduct French tax and Social Security;

Thanks for your reply.
"depends on what you are doing there": please clarify on how VAT can change depends on type of services.
Our service is clinical trial services. We wont have any French employee. Our "UK" employee remain here in UK, and will travel times to times to hospitals in France. Lots of correspondence by email, phone, fax. We will not have any official physical presence in France except to provide our services.
Please clarify if we will be reliable to any VAT or corporation TAX.

The point 3), I would assume will be not applicable.

Many thanks again for your comments

 

[discover]

France is a nightmare, I know a few guys who do work there and it is a PITA.

Thanks for the comments. Maybe depends on the industry?

 

[KennyO2E]

Hi,

If you are still looking for information, we have various guides & articles covering France, EU VAT, contracts & trading in services on Open to Export. These are provided by a variety of public & private sector organisations active in export.

If you don't find the information you need, you can register (free) and ask your own question on the site. Questions are answered by our community, including UK Trade & Investment advisors and export service providers.

Hope this helps.

Kind regards,
Kenny.

 

[ICE-PACC]

There is also credit vetting the company making sure they can pay you if you rpovide any sort of credit