Invoicing a Canadian client from France: VAT, GST, currency

When you supply services to a Canadian business, you charge no tax at all: no French VAT, and no Canadian GSTGoods and Services TaxThe 5% federal sales tax, charged across Canada: the equivalent of French VAT, but added on top of the displayed price. either, as long as you work from France and aren’t carrying on business in Canada. The one real trap is on-site work: if you travel to Canada to do the job, your client has to withhold 15% of your fees.

What follows applies to businesses established in France (a company, a sole trader, a micro-entrepreneur) that invoice a client in Canada from France, with no office or company in Canada. If you already have an office, staff or a subsidiary there, your obligations are different: see the three ways to sell into Canada and the guide to setting up a company in Canada. If you mostly sell online to consumers, the guide to selling online in Canada is the one you need.

Do you charge French VAT to a Canadian client?

Not if your client is a business. For business-to-business services, VAT is due where the client is established (article 259-1 of the French tax code, the CGI). Your client is in Canada, outside the European Union, so French VAT doesn’t apply: you invoice without VAT and say why on the invoice.

Two situations change the rule. For a Canadian consumer, French VAT applies in principle, except for a list of intangible services (consulting, advertising, IT or electronic services, translation and so on) that fall outside its scope when the client lives outside the EU (article 259 B of the CGI). For goods shipped to Canada, the sale is exempt as an export (article 262 I of the CGI), provided you keep proof that they left the EU, meaning the export declaration from your freight forwarder or carrier.

Goods also bring Canadian customs into play: duties, GSTGoods and Services TaxThe 5% federal sales tax, charged across Canada: the equivalent of French VAT, but added on top of the displayed price. on import, and a statement of origin to benefit from the EU–Canada trade agreement. The guide to exporting to Canada under CETA explains what to add to the invoice.

What goes on the invoice?

Everything you would put on an ordinary French invoice, plus the VAT exemption wording. Your Canadian client won’t ask for a special format: the invoice you issue is governed by French law.

Any language will do. For a client in Quebec, a French invoice is perfectly normal; in Ontario or British Columbia, an English or bilingual version saves a round trip with the accounts department.

Do you charge Canadian GST?

Usually not. A non-resident business only has to register for GSTGoods and Services TaxThe 5% federal sales tax, charged across Canada: the equivalent of French VAT, but added on top of the displayed price./HSTHarmonized Sales TaxA single tax that combines the GST and the provincial tax, used in Ontario and in the Atlantic provinces, among others., Canada’s equivalent of VAT, if it’s carrying on business in Canada: employees or agents there, an office, contracts signed and work done in Canada on a regular basis. A consultant or an agency in Lyon working for a client in Montreal isn’t.

If you are, you must register once your worldwide sales pass C$30,000, and the guide to GST, HST and QST for a French business explains registration and the rates by province. The only other exception is digital services sold to Canadian consumers, which require registration under the simplified regime once you pass C$30,000 of sales in Canada over 12 monthsSource: CRA, as the guide to selling online in Canada explains.

Working on site? The 15% withholding

As soon as you deliver a service physically in Canada (a training course in Toronto, an audit at a plant in Laval, a week of workshops at the client’s offices), the income tax rules change. Your client has to withhold 15% of the gross amount of your feesSource: CRA and send it to the Canada Revenue Agency (CRACanada Revenue AgencyThe federal tax authority, the equivalent of France’s Direction générale des Finances publiques.), and Revenu Québec requires an extra 9% for work done in QuebecSource: Revenu Québec. So a job in Toronto ties up 15% of your fees, and the same job in Montreal ties up 24%.

An example, with the assumptions spelled out: a consultant based in Bordeaux, working through her own company, invoices a five-day job at a Montreal client’s premises in 2026 for C$8,000 before tax. She has no office or staff in Canada and didn’t apply for a waiver before leaving.

That money isn’t lost. Under the France–Canada tax treaty, your profits remain taxable in France as long as you have no permanent establishment in Canada, so the withholding is only a prepayment: you get it back by filing a Canadian non-resident tax return with the CRA, plus a Quebec return for the 9%. Expect to wait months, though, and a small business feels that in its cash flow.

Invoice in Canadian dollars or in euros?

Either works. Invoicing in euros puts the exchange-rate risk on your client and keeps your books simple. Invoicing in Canadian dollars often makes you more competitive against a local supplier, because clients like paying in their own currency.

If you go with dollars, your books are still kept in euros: you convert the amount at the rate on the day of the transaction (the European Central Bank rate is the usual reference), then record an exchange gain or loss when the payment arrives. With the euro at about C$1.60 (rate of October 1, 2026), a $16,000 invoice is worth roughly €10,000. If the dollar drops 3% before you’re paid, you collect €300 less.

E-invoicing: what changes for a Canadian client

France’s e-invoicing reform, in force since September 1, 2026, doesn’t change your invoice to a Canadian client: you keep sending a PDF. Your approved platform will, however, have to report the amount, date and type of transaction to the French tax authorities. That’s e-reporting, and it follows the reform’s timetable: from September 2026 for large and mid-sized companies, and from September 2027 for SMEs and micro-businesses.

Taking on more work in Canada, or thinking of opening a company there? The Canada market entry checklist tells you which steps apply to your project.