French CA3 VAT Return: Lines, Records and Deadlines

Form 3310-CA3-SD is the periodic return for businesses under the French normal or mini-real VAT regime. It records taxable bases, gross VAT, deductible VAT, adjustments and the net amount due or credit for the period. The 2026 form is number 10963*31 and its notice is number 50449#29. The notice expressly covers foreign businesses carrying out taxable transactions in France.

A French VAT number does not tell you which transactions belong on the return. Start with the exact legal entity and the period, then determine which supplies, acquisitions, imports and deductions are French. Our French VAT return service turns that classification into workpapers, a reviewed CA3 and a filing evidence pack.

Use the live DGFiP form and notice for the filing year. Line labels and administrative practice can change, so a spreadsheet designed for a previous form should be checked before it is reused.

Lock the source-data cut-off and preserve the original files. Create separate schedules for French domestic sales, exports, intra-Community supplies and acquisitions, imports, purchases subject to reverse charge, deductible purchases, capital goods, credit notes and prior-period corrections. Every schedule should identify the invoice or customs entry, tax point, taxable base, VAT rate, VAT amount and evidence reference.

Do not net unlike transactions. A refund is not simply negative current turnover if it corrects an earlier period; import VAT is not ordinary supplier VAT; and marketplace-collected VAT is not automatically the seller's output VAT. Classification comes before line mapping.

Reconcile the transaction schedules back to the general ledger, sales platform, purchase ledger, bank and inventory system. The final bridge should explain every difference between source totals and the return, including rounding and manual adjustments.

The following map groups the lines most likely to matter to a cross-border business. It is a preparation aid, not a universal instruction: the transaction facts and the current notice determine the correct treatment.

Sales should reconcile to invoices, order data, refunds and the general ledger. Purchases should reconcile to valid supplier invoices and the deduction schedule. Intra-EU transactions need VAT-number and movement evidence. Imports need customs entries and ATVAI detail. Stock transfers need inventory and transport records even when no customer invoice exists.

Keep a correction register. For every credit note or prior-period adjustment, record the original period, reason, supporting document, CA3 line, sign, amount and reviewer. This prevents the same correction from being taken twice or silently disappearing from the audit trail.

A reviewable return has a two-way bridge: every CA3 amount can be traced to a schedule, and every in-scope schedule amount can be traced to a CA3 line or a documented exclusion.

Marketplace reports are evidence, not the legal return. A platform may be deemed supplier and collect VAT on selected sales, while the seller still reports imports, stock movements, direct sales, B2B transactions or other flows. Do not assume that a marketplace's tax column is either entirely included or entirely excluded.

Reconcile by transaction ID and legal role. Identify the seller of record, dispatch country, arrival country, customer status, marketplace VAT treatment and the entity that imported or owned the stock. The guide on marketplace-collected VAT and seller registrations explains why platform collection does not remove every French filing obligation.

The deadline is not the same in every situation. DGFiP's foreign-business guidance gives the 19th for the SIEE monthly and quarterly regimes. French Customs gives the 24th for all import VAT declarants. Use the deadline shown in the professional tax account or assigned by the authority where it differs, and schedule internal approval before that date.

No sales does not always mean no return. DGFiP states that monthly and quarterly foreign businesses submit a nil return when they have no taxable operation for the period. Before marking a period nil, check imports, intra-EU acquisitions, reverse-charge purchases, stock movements, deductible invoices and corrections as well as sales.

Seasonal taxpayers are treated differently under the published foreign-business guidance: they file after a taxable operation and do not submit nil returns for inactive periods. Confirm that the entity is actually registered as seasonal rather than applying the exception informally.

Foreign businesses file and pay electronically. EFI means using the professional account directly; EDI means transmitting through an authorised EDI partner. The route should be configured before the deadline, with the correct access rights, bank account and SEPA B2B mandate where required.

Approval should cover both the return and the payment. Record the approved amount, filing operator, filing timestamp, acknowledgement, payment order and bank debit. If the CA3 produces a credit, record whether it is carried forward on line 27 or a refund is requested on line 26 with the required form and evidence.

A German company imports goods in its own name into France, holds them in a French warehouse and sells to French consumers. It also receives one French supplier invoice and issues a credit note correcting the previous month's sale. The company has no French fixed establishment and files monthly through SIEE.

The preparer keeps imports separate from domestic sales. Customs bases and gross import VAT are reconciled to ATVAI and mapped to A4 and I1 to I6; the supported deductible import VAT goes to line 24. French sales feed A1 and the applicable rate line. The supplier invoice is reviewed for line 20. The credit note is recorded as a visible correction rather than being hidden in current sales.

Because the company is an import VAT declarant, the team uses the 24th deadline rather than the general SIEE 19th. It checks the customs prefill after the 14th, approves the return and payment, files through the selected electronic route and retains the complete evidence pack. This is an illustration, not a client case or a treatment for every seller.

Complete the review before the internal approval cut-off. An unexplained difference should be resolved or documented; it should not be forced into a convenient line to make the ledger balance.