Guide · €19

Clients in the EU, and everywhere else

Twelve pages for a micro-entrepreneur in France with a client in Dublin, Berlin, Cairo or Chicago: the two questions that sort every foreign client, the VAT number and the DES for an EU business, the W-8BEN, withholding taxes, and two model invoices.

28 Oct 2026 · 4 min read · By Sophie Kazandjian

The rules for a foreign client do not follow countries. They follow two questions: is the client a business or a private individual, and is it inside the EU or outside? Those two answers put every client you will ever have into one of four boxes, and only one of the four is any trouble.

Three boxes are easy. A business anywhere outside the EU, in Cairo, Chicago, Geneva or Sydney, is treated like a UK client: no French VAT, one line on the invoice, nothing to register. A private individual outside the EU is nearly as simple. A private individual inside the EU is the same as a French one, unless you sell them something automated online. The fourth box, a business client in another member state, is the one to read slowly: a French intra-community VAT number before the first invoice, even under the franchise; the single word "Autoliquidation" with both VAT numbers on the invoice; and a monthly return to French customs, the DES, with a deadline and a fine behind it. None of it is hard, and the first invoice cannot be issued until the number arrives.

What is in it

Which box is your client in: the VAT-number test for business or individual inside the EU, what counts as evidence outside it, which territories are in and out (Monaco in, Northern Ireland out for services), and why it is where the client is established that counts, not where the work is done.

Business clients in another EU country: getting the intra-community VAT number from your espace professionnel and what having one changes (one side effect catches people), the three mandatory mentions, whether to keep the 293 B line as well, checking the client's number on VIES and keeping the proof, and the DES: who files it, from the first euro, when, where, what it lists, the fines, and the nil-return question nobody has answered officially.

Private individuals in another EU country: the general rule, the digital exception and the €10,000 line, the trap where a franchise business ends up owing German VAT without ever charging French VAT, the one-stop shop, the EU small-business scheme that has existed since January 2025 and its EX number, and the 2025 rule on live online classes that has no official commentary yet.

Business clients outside the EU: the French side in a paragraph, then what reaches you from the client's end. The W-8BEN, line by line, for a US client, including which French number goes on line 6a and which treaty article to cite. The certificate of residence other countries ask for and where to get it. The countries that withhold tax at source, Egypt, India, Brazil and Turkey among them, what to ask before you quote, and why the withheld amount is still your turnover for URSSAF.

Private individuals outside the EU: the list of services treated as supplied outside France, and the 259 B line. Two model invoices: a German company with both VAT numbers and the reverse-charge mention, and an American company in dollars. And where the facts come from, every source with the date it was read.

Is it for you?

Yes, if you are a micro-entrepreneur in France, you sell services rather than goods, and at least one client is a business or a private individual outside France and the UK. No, if you run a société, or you already pay an accountant to do all of this. The UK is its own case and has its own guide; everything on the French side that the two share, the nineteen mentions, EI, the payment lines, pounds and Wise, is in that one, and this guide covers only what changes. The guide is general information checked on a stated date; I am a British micro-entrepreneur, not an accountant, and I do not know your circumstances.

Questions

Do I really need a French VAT number for one German client, under the franchise?

Yes, before the first invoice, whatever the amount. The tax administration's answer for micro-entrepreneurs is unambiguous on this. Having the number does not take you out of the franchise. The guide walks through the request, which is free and done from your espace professionnel.

Is the UK covered?

No, deliberately. The UK left the EU and is a separate case with its own traps; it has its own guide. This one covers every other country.

My American client wants a W-8BEN. Is that a tax?

No. For work performed in France nothing is withheld; the client wants the form to document that you are not a US person. The guide fills it in line by line, including the French number that goes on line 6a.

Is this the same as Guide 3 inside Micro Admin 2026/27?

Yes, the same file. Micro Admin is the three guides with the URSSAF declaration tracker and the deadlines calendar, for €49. If you want this guide and the UK one, the kit is the cheaper way to have both.

What arrives, and how?

One PDF. It appears on the confirmation page the moment you pay, and the same link comes by email so you can find it again in six months.

What if it is not what I expected?

Email me within fourteen days and I will refund you. Tell me in a line what you were looking for and did not find; it goes into the January update.

Checkout is through Stripe, in euros, VAT included: €19, which is €15.83 plus €3.17 TVA. You have fourteen days from purchase to email me for a full refund, and that stands even though the legal withdrawal right for digital content ends the moment a download starts. If the file does not arrive or will not open, write to [email protected] and I will send it again. Your email address is used to send you the guide and its January update, and for nothing else. Website terms.

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