Réglementation
Construction subcontracting: VAT reverse charge and e-invoicing
If you subcontract in construction in France, you know the rule by heart: you invoice the main contractor without VAT, with a "reverse charge" note, and they declare it.
What almost nobody explains is what happens to that mechanism once the invoice goes electronic. Yet that is where the fate of your invoices is decided: filled in wrongly, a reverse-charge invoice is rejected before it ever reaches your client.
This article covers the French regime. It concerns you if you work as a subcontractor in France.
Who is concerned, exactly
The reverse charge applies when three conditions are met at once:
- you carry out construction work — building, repair, maintenance, renovation, related cleaning;
- you act as a subcontractor, for a main contractor, not for the end client;
- your main contractor is VAT-registered in France.
This is the case set out in article 283, 2 nonies of the French tax code. If any one of the three is missing — you invoice the property owner directly, or your contractor isn't VAT-registered — you charge VAT as normal.
One point that often surprises: supplying materials alone is not covered. Deliver equipment without fitting it and it's a sale, with VAT. Fit it, and it's construction work, and the reverse charge applies. Installation is where the line falls.
What your invoice must show today
Three things, no more:
- the net amount;
- no VAT — no line, no total;
- the words "Autoliquidation" (reverse charge), citing article 283, 2 nonies.
Your contractor declares the VAT in your place and deducts it in the same movement. For them the operation is cash-neutral. For you it avoids fronting VAT you'd only recover months later.
The trap: "0% VAT" is not the same thing
Here is the most common mistake, and it becomes far more serious in electronic format.
On paper, a 0% VAT invoice and a reverse-charge invoice look alike: neither shows any VAT. It's tempting to treat them as equivalent. They are not.
These are three legally distinct regimes:
| What you enter | What it means |
|---|---|
| Reverse charge | VAT exists and is due — by your client, not you |
| Exemption | The transaction falls outside VAT |
| 0% rate | A genuinely nil rate, rare and tightly framed |
While the invoice is a PDF, the tax authorities read your written note and understand. Once it becomes a structured file, a code is transmitted, not your sentence. If your software sends "0% rate" where "reverse charge" was required, you are declaring something other than what you did — and nobody will spot it visually, since the invoice will still display the right wording on screen.
That is the kind of discrepancy that only surfaces during an audit.
What e-invoicing actually changes
Good news first: the regime does not change. Reverse charge remains reverse charge, on the same conditions, with the same effects. The reform doesn't touch the substance.
What changes is the container.
The note becomes data, not a sentence. Today "Autoliquidation" is text your client reads. Tomorrow it's coded information their software uses to complete their return automatically. The text is still displayed — but it is no longer what counts.
A miscoded invoice is blocked, not corrected. That's the real novelty. Today an ambiguous invoice gets through: your client handles it manually and rings you if needed. Tomorrow the platform checks consistency before transmitting. An invoice that announces one regime and applies another is refused — and a refused invoice is never paid.
Invoices to private individuals stay separate. If you also work directly for homeowners, those invoices don't take the same route: they fall under e-reporting, which is lighter. One tradesperson can therefore have two different flows. Your software must tell them apart on its own.
If you are the main contractor
The reasoning reverses, with one point to watch.
You will receive subcontractor invoices without VAT. You must declare that VAT and deduct it. Nothing new so far.
What changes: those invoices will arrive through the platform, not by email. With no receiving point in place, they arrive nowhere. Your subcontractors will consider themselves to have invoiced. The misunderstanding can run for weeks — and end in chasing, or late-payment penalties you owe.
That is precisely the obligation that lands first: be able to receive, from 1 September 2026.
What to check in your software
Four questions, to put to your vendor as they are:
- Is reverse charge a dedicated setting, or must I zero the rates by hand? (If it's the second, be wary — that's the mistake described above.)
- Is the legal wording added automatically when I switch it on?
- Does the regime travel in the structured file, not just the displayed text?
- Can I receive my subcontractors' invoices in the same place?
With Aidifis, reverse charge is a switch on the quote or invoice: turn it on, VAT disappears from every line, the legal wording is added, and the regime is transmitted correctly in the file. No rates to enter.
To work through a specific case before invoicing, our construction VAT calculator is free and needs no account. And if you're still wondering whether any of this concerns you, start with the page explaining the reform.
This article describes a general tax regime. Mixed cases — work and supplies on one invoice, sites abroad, a non-registered contractor — deserve your accountant's opinion before you invoice.