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France  ·  read from the statute, not from a summary of it

Which currency, and which exchange rate, a French invoice has to use.

France restates the Directive almost word for word in the General Tax Code: any currency, the tax determined in euros.

The short answer

France (FR). National currency: euro. Each answer cites the provision it comes from.

Currency of the document Any currency art. 289 CGI
Currency of the VAT amount Euro the same provision
Which rate Any rate French rules allow; the ECB rate must be accepted art. 91(2) of the Directive
Which day's rate The latest rate when the tax becomes chargeable art. 91(2) of the Directive

The provision

The Directive, in the Act itself.

Where Ireland uses a regulation and Italy a rounding rule, France puts article 230 into the General Tax Code nearly verbatim.

«Les montants figurant sur la facture peuvent être exprimés dans toute monnaie, pour autant que le montant de taxe à payer ou à régulariser soit déterminé en euros.»

The amounts on the invoice may be expressed in any currency, provided the amount of tax to pay or to adjust is determined in euros.

Art. 289, Code général des impôts

Why the ECB rate is safe in every member state. The second subparagraph of article 91(2) of the VAT Directive, inserted by Directive 2010/45/EU, says member states shall accept the use of the latest exchange rate published by the European Central Bank at the time the tax becomes chargeable, and that conversion between two currencies other than the euro goes through the euro rate of each. It is an obligation on the state, not an option for the taxpayer. The same sentence lets a member state require you to notify it that you use the ECB rate; ask your accountant whether France does.

When it reaches you

If you sell through the stores, this bites in one case.

Article 230 constrains the amount of VAT payable or to be adjusted. An app developer's ordinary invoice to a store or an ad network carries no VAT amount at all: it is a reverse-charge supply to another member state, or a supply outside the scope entirely. Where there is no tax line, there is nothing for the currency rule to bind. The rule reaches you on a supply that actually charges France VAT.

What Ureta does about it

The rate is pinned when the month is, and it is kept with the document.

  • The ECB reference rate, for every EU tenant. It is the rate article 91(2) obliges every member state to accept. A currency other than the euro is converted through the euro, as the same article says.
  • The rate is pinned per month and stored, so a document issued last March still reports the rate it carried in March rather than a number recomputed today.
  • Nothing is guessed. Where no rate from a defensible authority is available for a currency, the engine refuses to issue rather than putting a plausible wrong number on a legal document.

How this page was read

Every sentence above came from the text, and here is which text and when.

The Code Art. 289 CGI (version in force since 31 December 2023), read 25 August 2026 on Légifrance. Source.
The Directive Directive 2006/112/EC arts. 91 and 230, consolidated to 1 January 2025, read 25 August 2026 from the Publications Office. Source.

You sold. The rest is handled.

Ureta is income-reporting software for app creators. It fetches every store and ad network, converts at a rate your own authority must accept, and has the month's documents ready before the deadline.

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