Set up French taxes in your Shopify store

In this article, we’ll discuss:

• Tax settings
  • Display product prices including VAT
  • Display product prices excluding VAT
• Tax rates in France and the EU
  • Selling physical goods to customers in France
  • Selling physical goods to customers in other EU countries
    • Selling within the micro-business threshold
    • Surpassing the micro-business threshold
    • Selling with a country-specific registration
  • Selling digital goods
    • The VAT rules when selling digital goods
• Invoices

To charge VAT to some customers and not to others, you may choose from two possible settings, based on how you would like to display product prices in your Shopify store.

If you are selling to consumers (B2C), display your product prices including VAT. French consumer law requires prices shown to consumers to include all taxes (prix TTC).

To display your product prices with VAT included:

1. In your Shopify admin, go to the Settings → Taxes and duties page.
2. In the Additional configuration section, turn on Include sales tax in product price and shipping rate.
3. Click Save to apply the changes.

You can also enable dynamic tax inclusion, a Shopify feature that automatically includes or excludes VAT based on the customer's region and adjusts the tax rate accordingly.

Tax display is set for each market. To activate dynamic tax inclusion:

1. In your Shopify admin, go to the Markets page and click the market you want to configure.
2. In the Inherited section, click the + icon next to Taxes and duties.
3. Under Tax display, select Dynamic tax display, then click Done.
4. Click Save to apply the changes.

If your customers are only businesses (B2B), you can choose to have your product prices displayed as excluding VAT.

To display your product prices excluding VAT:

1. In your Shopify admin, go to the Settings → Taxes and duties page.
2. In the Additional configuration section, turn off Include sales tax in product price and shipping rate.
3. Click Save to apply the changes.

To disable dynamic tax inclusion in a market and show VAT as a separate line at checkout:

1. In your Shopify admin, go to the Markets page and click the market you want to configure.
2. In the Inherited section, click the + icon next to Taxes and duties.
3. Under Tax display, select Show as line item, then click Done.
4. Click Save to apply the changes.

As of 2026, the standard VAT rate (TVA, or Taxe sur la valeur ajoutée) in France remains 20%.

Reduced rates apply to specific categories: 10% (for example, restaurant services and passenger transport), 5.5% (for example, most food products and books), and 2.1% (for example, reimbursable medicines and the press).

For sales to consumers (B2C) in other EU countries, the VAT rate you charge on physical and digital goods depends on your cross-border sales, not just where the customer is located.

If you charge VAT (and don't use the franchise en base de TVA), you should always charge French VAT when selling physical goods to customers in France—whether they're VAT-registered or not.

When selling to non-VAT-registered customers outside France but still within the EU, you do charge VAT.

The rate depends on whether your sales exceed the micro-business threshold of €10,000 (excluding VAT).

If you're selling to VAT-registered businesses in other EU countries, you should not charge VAT, as long as your customer has a valid EU VAT number and the goods are shipped to another EU country.

You must also report these sales to the French tax authorities. Shopify calculates the correct rate automatically based on the registration type set in your tax settings.

If your cross-border B2C sales to other EU countries (distance sales of goods plus telecommunications, broadcasting, and electronic services) stay at or below €10,000 (excluding VAT) in both the current and the previous calendar year, you can charge French VAT on those sales.

This rule only applies if your business is established only in France and your goods are shipped from France.

No application or approval is needed—simply set up your tax settings in Shopify admin. This only needs to be done once.

To charge French VAT on eligible cross-border B2C sales:

1. In your Shopify admin, go to the Settings → Taxes and duties page.
2. In the Tax regions section, click European Union.
3. In the Collect VAT cross-border section, click Collect VAT.
4. In the Collect across the EU window, select Collect using your home country registration.
5. Select your Country of registration and enter your VAT number. Leave this field blank if you've applied for a VAT number but don't have one yet. You can update it later.
6. Click Collect VAT to save your changes.

Once your cross-border B2C sales exceed €10,000 (excluding VAT) in the current or the previous calendar year, you must charge the VAT rate of each customer's country.

In practice, this means customers in different EU countries will be charged different VAT rates, ranging from 17% to 27%.

For example, say your business is based in France and you sell to consumers in Belgium and Germany.

As long as your combined cross-border B2C sales to all other EU countries stay at or below €10,000, you simply charge the French VAT rate of 20%.

Once that combined total crosses €10,000, you charge 21% Belgian VAT on goods sold to Belgium and 19% German VAT on goods sold to Germany.

Registering for VAT separately in each EU country you sell to can quickly become time-consuming.

The One-Stop Shop (OSS) Union scheme addresses this issue: you still charge VAT at the rate of the customer's country, but you only need to file a single OSS VAT return in France for your EU B2C sales.

To set VAT rates for the OSS scheme and charge your customers' shipping-country VAT rate on all EU B2C orders:

1. In your Shopify admin, go to the Settings → Taxes and duties page.
2. In the Tax regions section, click European Union.
3. In the Collect VAT cross-border section, click Collect VAT.
4. In the Collect across the EU window, select Collect using a One Stop Shop (OSS) registration.
5. Select your Country of OSS registration and enter your VAT number. Leave this field blank if you've applied for a VAT number but don't have one yet. You can update it later.
6. Click Collect VAT to save your changes.

From now on, your customers' shipping-country VAT rate will apply automatically to all EU B2C sales.

You need a local VAT registration in another EU country if you make taxable sales there that OSS doesn't cover, for example, if you store stock in that country and ship to customers from there.

In that case, you can no longer use the €10,000 threshold.

If that's your situation, you can add a local VAT registration number for any additional country in Shopify, and the correct VAT rate will be applied automatically based on that registration.

To add a local VAT registration number:

1. In your Shopify admin, go to the Settings → Taxes and duties page.
2. In the Tax regions section, click European Union.
3. In the Collect VAT in an EU country section, click Collect VAT (or Collect in another location if you already have a registration).
4. Select the Registration country and enter your VAT number. Leave this field blank if you've applied for a VAT number but don't have one yet. You can update it later.
5. Click Collect VAT to save your changes.

If you can't select an additional country you're VAT-registered in, you may need to create a shipping zone first.

To create a shipping zone:

1. In your Shopify admin, go to the Settings → Shipping and delivery page.
2. In the Shipping profiles section, click the profile you want to add the zone to (for example, General profile).
3. In the Shipping zones section, click + Zone.
4. Name the zone, add the country (or countries) you're VAT-registered in using the search bar, and click Done.
5. Add shipping rates to make the zone available.
6. Click Save to apply the changes.

Selling digital goods from France to other EU countries follows a different set of rules.

Before anything else, it's worth understanding exactly what counts as a digital service.

Digital goods or services include radio and television broadcasting services, telecommunication services, and electronically supplied services, such as online magazines, music, films, and games.

Using the internet to facilitate a sale doesn't automatically make it a digital service.

For example, when an order is placed and processed electronically through a Shopify store but the product itself is a physical good, that's still a standard sale of goods, and the usual VAT rules described above apply.

If you supply digital services from France to consumers in other EU countries, those sales count toward the same €10,000 EU-wide threshold used for physical goods.

While your total cross-border B2C sales stay at or below €10,000, you can continue charging French VAT.

Once your combined goods-and-digital sales exceed that threshold, you must charge VAT at the rate of each customer's country for sales to non-VAT-registered customers (B2C), resulting in different VAT rates per country, ranging from 17% to 27%.

If you sell digital services to VAT-registered businesses (B2B) with a valid EU VAT number, the responsibility for VAT shifts to them.

They account for it directly with their local tax authority under the reverse charge mechanism.

Since the same €10,000 threshold and OSS registration already apply to your physical goods, you don't need a separate registration for digital services.

The Union OSS scheme covers both goods and digital services under a single registration, letting you report VAT for all your qualifying EU B2C sales through one portal in your home Member State.

Once your tax rates are set up correctly, Sufio automatically generates valid invoices with an accurate VAT breakdown for every order.

Since September 1, 2026, e-invoicing in France is mandatory: all VAT-registered businesses must be able to receive e-invoices, and small businesses must start issuing them from September 1, 2027.

Invoices can be created in multiple languages and include all the necessary details to make them compliant with invoicing legislation in the EU.

Issuing invoices with the correct tax breakdown is crucial for your bookkeeping and tax purposes.

For B2B sales, Sufio invoices automatically include all required information, along with the VAT registration number (n° TVA, or Numéro d'identification à la taxe sur la valeur ajoutée) of both your store and your business customers.