IN FRANCE, SELF-LIQUIDATED IMPORT VAT

From next January 1 in France the declaration and payment of VAT on import transactions and, in general, exit from a suspensive regime, will no longer take place on the customs declaration, but will be subject to self-liquidation; the obligation involves all taxable persons registered in that country.

On 1 January 2022, the management and collection of VAT on imports and closure operations of suspensive regimes will pass from the Directorate General of Customs and Indirect Taxes to the Directorate General of Public Finance (which is also transferred responsibility for the suspensive tax regimes applied in France and in the departments of Martinique, Guadeloupe and Réunion); this entails, as a consequence, a different method of declaration and collection of the tax, mandatory for all taxable persons in France, while those who, although not fiscally identified in that country, should find themselves importing goods into that country, would continue to liquidate the VAT on the customs declaration. The new method of collection applies to all operations, including imports, for which VAT becomes payable from 1 January; in order to facilitate business procedures, a pre-filled declaration will be available online on the 14th of each month, based on the data resulting from the customs declarations submitted the previous month; the interested parties must complete the declaration with the missing data, in particular with the amount of the tax deducted.