France: Two New Declarations to Replace the DEB

As of 1 January 2022, the Declaration of Exchange Goods (DEB) will be replaced by two new declarations, a statistical survey and a VAT summary statement.

Current requirements

Currently, taxpayers must complete the DEB, which is a single declaration that merges a statistical section and a tax section. Taxpayers must fill out both sections of the DEB if their company breaches the €460,000 threshold. Companies below the collection threshold are not required to report statistical data but must still fill out the tax section of the DEB.

French companies that sell services to other EU Member States are also required to file the Declaration of Services (DES) to establish the statistics of the foreign trade of France and to control the taxation of the VAT of the provision of services. As of November 2021, France has not released a notice indicating that there will be any changes to the DES in 2022. We will continue to track any potential changes related to the DES in France.

Requirements beginning 2022

Beginning 1 January 2022, the DEB is repealed and replaced by two separate declarations: the statistical survey on trade-in intra-EU goods and a VAT summary statement for intra-EU supplies of goods.

These declarations are commonly known in the EU as “Intrastat” and “EC Sales Listing”. This change will bring France in line with the Regulation (EU) 2019/2152 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 November 2019 relating to European Business Statistics (EBS Regulation). Currently, France is one of only two EU Member States that has failed to adopt the two separate declarations required by the EBS Regulation, the other being Italy.

Intrastat declaration

• The statistical survey is meant to supply data on foreign trade to the General Directorate of Customs and Indirect taxes (DGDDI).
• To minimise the changes affecting collection, the DGDDI will define a list of companies called a “sample”. The sample should be very similar to the population of companies subject to report the DEB in 2021. These companies will receive a notice letter in December 2021 informing them of their obligation to respond to the statistical survey. Only companies included in the sample and receive a notice letter are accountable for this declaration. A company should not spontaneously report a response.
• Each company retains legal responsibility for responding to the survey even if it distributes the task to multiple correspondents or outsources it to a third party declaring.
• Every year, the DGDDI will incoporate the survey into an order relating to the annual survey program.
• Introduction of new or changing variables on the statistical survey include:
• At shipment, the variable “country of origin” of the goods is added to the declaration.
• On dispatch, the variable “customer identification VAT number” will be added for regime 29 unless specifically exempted.
• Changes to transaction codes.

EC sales

• The VAT summary report is intended for the General Directorate of Public Finances (DGFiP) and tax services of the Member States.
• Unlike the statistical survey, companies must always spontaneously declare the tax information for which they are responsible.
• The data required to be collected for the VAT summary report remains unchanged.

Other changes for businesses to note

• Only one declaration will be collected per month. Companies will no longer be allowed to submit several declarations for the same flow and period. The monthly declaration is mandatory, even if there is no flow.
• The “DEB WEB” portal has been modified to clearly show the separate entry of the “VAT summary report” and the “answer to the statistical survey.”
• To limit the response time for businesses, the VAT summary report may be pre-filled from a company’s response to the statistical survey. This option is only offered to companies who have previously completed their statistical survey obligations.