Quitus fiscal: the tax certificate standing between your car and French plates
The quitus fiscal is the certificate the French tax office issues to confirm that a car brought in from another EU country is square on VAT. It costs nothing, it comes back in a day or two, and it holds up more import applications than any other single document, not because it is hard to obtain but because people go about it the wrong way.
What a quitus fiscal actually is
The quitus fiscal is a certificate issued by the service des impôts, the French tax office. It states that the vehicle's position on VAT is in order: either the tax has been paid, or none is due. Its formal name is the certificat fiscal, and a private buyer applies for it on form n° 1993-PART-D-SD.
Without it, the ANTS (Agence nationale des titres sécurisés, the state agency whose portal now handles French vehicle registration) will not process a registration application for a vehicle coming from another member state of the European Union. You are left owning a car you cannot legally put on the road, because the carte grise, the French registration document, cannot be issued until the certificate is in.
No quitus, no carte grise.
Do not confuse it with certificate 846 A
This is the most common confusion in the trade, and professionals make it too. These are two different documents and they never apply together: where the vehicle comes from decides which one you need.
- A vehicle from an EU member state needs the quitus fiscal, issued by the French tax office.
- A vehicle from outside the EU, whether the United States, Japan, Switzerland or the United Kingdom, needs certificate 846 A, the customs clearance certificate, issued by French customs once duty and import VAT have been paid.
If you hold a certificate 846 A you do not need a quitus fiscal, and the reverse is equally true. Asking the wrong authority for the wrong document is the single most common cause of a delayed file.
What it costs: nothing
Nothing, where no VAT is due. This is a certificate, not a tax, and the tax office does not charge for issuing it.
Where VAT is due, it is paid to the tax office at the point of application and the certificate follows once that payment has cleared. In most of the country the payment is made exclusively by bank transfer. In Nord, Pas-de-Calais, Moselle and Bas-Rhin, where the registration application and the certificate application have been merged into a single online procedure, it is taken by card or direct debit.
Treat any quote that carries a price for the certificate itself as a warning sign. An agent may legitimately charge you for handling the application, which takes time and depends on getting the paperwork right. What is not legitimate is invoicing the certificate itself, which costs nothing.
The four papers you need
- The purchase invoice, or the deed of sale, made out to the person who will be registering the car.
- The foreign registration certificate.
- Proof of identity and proof of a French address.
- The European certificate of conformity, or failing that any document that establishes the vehicle's characteristics.
The invoice is the piece that gets read closely, and the tax office expects it to carry a specific set of details:
| Seller | Name or company name, address, and VAT number where the seller is a business |
| Buyer | Name or company name and address, matching the identity document supplied |
| Transaction | Invoice number, invoice date, date of delivery, sale price |
| Vehicle | Make, type, chassis number, foreign registration number, date of first registration, actual mileage |
Two further points catch people out. Where somebody applies on your behalf, the written mandate and a copy of that person's identity document go in with the application. And where the invoice or the foreign registration certificate is not written in French, the tax office may ask for a certified translation, which is worth allowing a few days for.
The line on the invoice that gets applications refused
The invoice has to state which VAT regime the seller applied. An invoice showing no VAT and no explanation of why is read by the tax office as an exempt intra-EU supply, which makes the purchase taxable in France. French VAT at 20% is then claimed from you before the certificate is issued.
The alternative reading is the margin scheme, and it is the one that costs you nothing. The same mechanism exists across the European Union: article 297 A of the code général des impôts in France, and each member state's own transposition of the VAT Directive, such as paragraph 25a of the Umsatzsteuergesetz in Germany. Under it, a dealer reselling a used car he bought from a private individual charges VAT on his margin alone rather than on the whole price. His invoice shows no VAT either, but it carries special-scheme wording that says so.
What separates the two comes down to two lines of small print. On a €40,000 car those two lines are worth €8,000, which is why we read the invoice before anything is signed rather than after. We go into this in more detail on our French-language page on when French VAT is due on an imported vehicle.
How long it takes
Twenty-four to forty-eight hours in practice, where the application is complete. It is the quickest step in the whole import, which is exactly why it should never be the step that delays a delivery.
One point of sequence matters: the certificate is applied for once the vehicle has been delivered, not before. It certifies a completed transaction, so there is nothing to be gained by trying to get it early.
For comparison, the certificate of conformity is the slow piece, at one to three weeks and sometimes a month, and nobody can speed it up. When an import runs late, that is almost always where the delay sits.
When you do not need one
For a vehicle coming from outside the European Union, the quitus is not what is asked for. Duty and import VAT are settled at a customs office, and once the vehicle has been cleared, customs hand over the certificat de dédouanement n° 846 A. That is the document the registration application calls for instead of the quitus.
The number is worth fixing in your mind, because it is the most muddled point on the whole subject: 846 A is the customs certificate for a vehicle from outside the EU. It is not another name for the quitus fiscal, whatever a good deal of what is written online suggests. The two documents occupy the same place in the registration application, but they come from two different arms of the state and are not obtained in the same way.
Where the quitus sits in the rest of the application
An ANTS application for an imported vehicle is assembled from several pieces, and the quitus is only one of them:
- The European certificate of conformity, or, where none can be obtained, a réception à titre isolé, an individual approval handled by the DREAL, the regional arm of the environment and housing ministry.
- A French contrôle technique, the French roadworthiness test, for any car more than four years old.
- The quitus fiscal, or the 846 A for a vehicle from outside the EU.
- Proof of identity and of a French address.
- The registration taxes, payable when the application is submitted.
Those taxes are charged per cheval fiscal, the French unit of fiscal horsepower: €60 per cheval fiscal in the Centre-Val de Loire region, plus €13.76 of fixed charges. On top of that sit the CO2 malus and the weight malus, the second calculated on the masse en ordre de marche, the kerb weight in running order. Both are assessed on the year the car was first registered, with the reduction for age, and both are where the unpleasant surprises of importing actually happen. Our simulator applies the official rates from 2015 to 2026 rather than estimating.
Handled in the right order, the quitus is a formality. Left until the end, it turns into a car standing on the forecourt waiting for a piece of paper that takes two days.
Letting somebody else deal with the tax office
Any mandataire, an agent acting under a written mandate, may apply on your behalf. One detail decides which procedure applies: the buyer's address, not the agent's. And it is one of the steps we take on as part of our registration service, alongside the certificate of conformity, the French contrôle technique and the registration itself.
If you have a car in mind, send us the link to the listing. You get the complete price and the tax calculation before anything is committed. We buy the car, we bring it back, and you buy it from Autonero: a French invoice and the two-year legal guarantee of conformity, 40% on order and the balance on delivery. You can also ask us to price a car for you if you have not settled on one yet.
Our showroom is at 10 rue du Bois Paris, 28630 Nogent-le-Phaye, in the Eure-et-Loir, six kilometres from Chartres and two minutes from junction 2 of the A11. Call +33 9 80 80 15 10 or write to contact@autonero.fr. There is more background on our French-language page on the certificate of conformity and what to do when there is not one, and in our French-language guide to importing a car from Germany.
Read next
Does a quitus fiscal expire?
No expiry date is printed on it, but it certifies a position at a given date, so an old certificate for a car whose situation has since changed is worth nothing. In practice you apply once the car has been bought and delivered, immediately before the registration application, and the tax office expects the request to follow delivery rather than precede it.
How much does a quitus fiscal cost?
Nothing, where no VAT is due: it is a certificate, not a tax. Where VAT is due, it is paid to the tax office at the point of application and the certificate is issued once that payment has cleared. An agent may legitimately charge you for handling the application. What is not legitimate is invoicing you for the certificate itself, which costs nothing.
Can somebody apply for the quitus fiscal on my behalf?
Yes. Any mandataire holding a written mandate can do it, and the mandate goes in with a copy of that person's identity document. Which procedure applies is decided by the buyer's address, not the agent's. It is one of the steps we take on as part of our registration service.
Do I need a quitus fiscal if I bought the car from a private seller in the EU?
Yes. The certificate is required for any vehicle previously registered in another member state, whoever sold it. On a used car bought from a private individual no VAT is due, so the certificate is issued free of charge. In place of a dealer's invoice you supply the deed of sale signed by both parties, carrying the same details: the parties, the price, the date and the vehicle's identification.
What happens if my invoice does not mention a VAT regime?
An invoice showing no VAT and no special-scheme wording is read as an exempt intra-EU supply, which makes the purchase taxable in France, and 20% French VAT is then claimed from you before the certificate is issued. It is one of the most common reasons an application comes back. The remedy is to go to the seller for a corrected invoice, which is a great deal easier before you have paid than after.
Is there an English version of the quitus fiscal?
No. The document exists only in French, under the name certificat fiscal, and that is the term to use with the service des impôts, whether you send the form in by email or go in person. Supporting documents in another language are normally accepted, although the tax office can ask for a certified translation of the invoice or of the foreign registration certificate.
Is a quitus fiscal the same thing as customs clearance?
No, though the two are constantly confused. The quitus fiscal is a tax document issued by the service des impôts for a vehicle that comes from inside the European Union. Customs clearance applies to vehicles from outside it: customs collect duty and import VAT and issue the certificat de dédouanement n° 846 A. The two fill the same slot in the registration application, but they come from two different arms of the state, and the number 846 A belongs to the customs certificate, not to the quitus.
Can I drive the car while the registration is being processed?
Once the ANTS application goes through, you are issued a certificat provisoire d'immatriculation, a provisional registration document valid for one month and for use in France only. It carries the definitive registration number, so the plates can go on straight away, and the carte grise follows by post. An authorised dealer handing a car over gives you that document on the spot. Insurance has to be in place from the moment the car is yours, whatever plates it is wearing.
I live in France but I am not French. Does that change anything?
No. What counts is where you live, not your nationality: the certificate comes from the tax office covering your French address, and it is proof of a French address that is asked for. If you are staying with somebody rather than holding the bills in your own name, you supply their proof of address together with a copy of their identity document. A company applies instead through the service des impôts des entreprises covering its registered office.
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