WHY IS THE FRENCH VAT NUMBER INVALID FOR CROSS-BORDER SELLERS?

Cross-border sellers have been officially notified by Amazon that their French VAT numbers are invalid, or that their French tax representatives have notified them that their VAT number is invalid. What has happened to invalidate the French tax number? Sellers need to contact with their French tax representatives to find out why.
The French VAT number is invalid for the following possible reasons:

1. Case of prolonged non-declaration of VAT
2. Longer delays in the payment of VAT
3. Failure to pay for the services fee of tax representative as agreed
4. Failure to respond in a timely manner to checks or questions from the French tax authorities.

There are 2 main ways to find out if a French VAT number is valid:

1. You can check the official French website by entering the last 9 digits of your French VAT number.
2. Through the EU’s VAT number look-up system called VIES, at the follow address: https://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/vies/?locale=fr.  on the French page, for example, you can search by selecting the EU member countries code (Etat Membre) for French (FR), then entering the French VAT number and clicking on Vérifier. If the tax number is valid, the search result will be Oui, numéro de TVA valide, otherwise, it will be Numéro de TVA non valide.

After confirming that the tax number is invalid, what to do:

Cross-border sellers need to communicate the situation with their French tax representatives, who will contact with French tax authorities to confirm whether or not to restore the validity of their tax number once the outstanding VAT have been paid and cooperation with the tax authorities to investigation has been completed.

If your VAT number has been cancelled and you need to find out why, please feel free to contact with us.