How long does VAT recovery from France take?
According to Directive 2008/9, the French tax authority has in principle four months to assess a request, calculated from the moment the complete request is received. Upon approval, payment usually follows shortly after. In practice, however, the average processing time is often between four and eight months, and sometimes longer — not because France is slower than other countries, but because there is almost always a moment when additional information is requested.
Those four months are thus a statutory starting point, not a guarantee. As soon as the refund country asks questions about a request, the clock restarts: a new period begins, and it can be extended again if the answer raises further questions. For someone who files once a year, this can mean that the money only arrives well after the summer, even though the request was submitted in winter.
What happens within those four months
After submission, the refund country first confirms receipt. Then it is assessed whether the request is complete: does the expense category match what is stated on the invoice, is the amount substantiated, does the expense fall within what France allows for foreign business operators. For a request without special circumstances, this process continues until a decision — approval, partial approval, or rejection — and in most cases that decision falls within the set period.
If there is doubt about an item, an unclear description on a receipt, or an expense category that does not obviously match the nature of the business, the French tax authority asks for additional information. From that moment, the period restarts from the answer, not from the original submission. This is the main reason why processing times vary in practice: two requests submitted in the same month can be handled months apart.
Where processing time breaks down in practice
Most delays do not occur with France itself, but with what happened before submission.
A common cause is an expense category that does not match what is stated on the receipt. A mixed restaurant receipt with part representing and part meal expenses while travelling raises a question faster than a receipt that clearly falls into one category. A second cause is the timing of submission: if you wait until just before the annual deadline and then submit a whole year's receipts at once, you risk questions from the tax authority emerging late in the process, with less room to respond. A third cause is incomplete substantiation: a receipt without a clear VAT amount, or an invoice in the name of the wrong entity, almost always leads to an additional query.
Filing per quarter instead of once a year gives the refund country smaller, clearer requests to assess. This does not shorten the statutory period, but it does reduce the risk that one unclear item delays an entire annual request.
What you can influence yourself
The period itself is fixed in the Directive and cannot be accelerated. What does influence processing time is the quality of the request at the time of submission: a clear link between receipt and expense category, complete substantiation per item, and submission as soon as there are enough receipts rather than only at the end of the year. On the explanation per situation you can see how that process runs per expense category, and what substantiation belongs with it.
Whether a refund for your business is substantial enough to make this process worthwhile depends on how much is spent abroad. That can be seen in a few questions with the calculator that provides an immediate indication. How the submission then proceeds and where the data comes from is explained on the page that describes the entire process.
If you have questions about an ongoing request or about what realistic expectations are for your situation, check the answers to frequently asked questions. For an estimate of what specifically remains unclaimed for your business, the free quick-scan is the fastest starting point.
A concrete amount is only certain once France actually grants the request — everything before that is an indication, based on what has been submitted.