Shopify Payments for France
Businesses based in France can use Shopify Payments to accept Visa, Mastercard, American Express, and Cartes Bancaires.
Google Pay isn't available to merchants located in France.
Requirements for Shopify Payments
To use Shopify Payments, ensure that you can meet the following requirements.
Prohibited businesses
Some types of businesses and services are not permitted to use Shopify Payments. To see whether you can use Shopify Payments, check the list of prohibited business types for France.
More details can be found in the Shopify Payments Terms of Service (TOS).
Bank account requirements for Shopify Payments
Make sure that your bank account meets the following requirements before you connect it to Shopify Payments:
- The bank account is in EUR currency.
- The bank account is eligible for SEPA transfers.
- The bank account has an IBAN that starts with the following letters: AT, BE, DE, DK, EE, ES, FI, FR, GI, IE, IT, LT, LU, NL, NO, PT, or SE.
There are no restrictions on the type of bank account. You can use a checking, savings, or virtual account.
Personal information requirements for Shopify Payments
In response to regulations in different countries, you're required to provide information about you and your business. The information is collected to help identify merchants using Shopify Payments, including the beneficial owners of a particular corporate entity. The purpose of collecting this information is to comply with regulatory requirements designed to prevent money laundering, terrorist financing, and other financial crimes.
As local rules and regulations evolve, Shopify and its partners might reach out to collect additional information about you and your business. These standard reviews can occur at anytime during the lifespan of your Shopify account.
The information that Shopify is required to collect differs from country to country, but typically includes documentation about the following:
- the individual creating the Shopify Payments account
- the business associated with the Shopify Payments account.
- the individuals who ultimately own or control the business, which includes the business owner or a senior executive with legal signing authority for the business
Acceptable document types for individuals and businesses in France include the following.
Identity documents:
- Passport
- Driver license: scans of front and back are required
- National Identity card: scans of front and back are required
- Official government-issued photo ID (Military, police, diplomatic, tax office)
- Residence permit: scans of front and back are required
Address documents:
- Driver’s license
- Utility or cell phone bill
- National ID card
- Financial Statement (bank statement, CC statement, or mortgage statement)
- Government-issued documents such as a tax bill
- Insurance bill
- Proof of residency
Company/entity documents:
- Certificate of incorporation
- Articles of Association
Accepting payments
In most countries, when your business is a sole proprietorship you're automatically set up to accept all major payment methods as soon as you create your Shopify store with Shopify Payments activated. Your card rate is based on your store's Shopify subscription plan, and you can change plans whenever you want.
Businesses in France can accept Visa, Mastercard, American Express, and Cartes Bancaires.
Local payment methods are not available to merchants in France.
Pay periods
Your pay period refers to the amount of time between the date that a customer's payment is captured and the date that those funds are sent to your bank account. The date and time that a customer's payment is captured is recorded in UTC time. Funds from payments that are captured on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday are grouped and sent together as one payment.
In France, the pay period is 3 calendar days, and your payment schedule can't be changed. If the payout falls on a weekend or holiday, then the funds won't be accessible until after the weekend or holiday.
The minimum amount that can be paid out for Shopify Payments accounts in France is 10 EUR. If there is a payout for less than this amount, then the payout stays in pending state until more funds are available to pay out.
Learn more about getting paid with Shopify Payments.
Testing Shopify Payments
Test mode is not supported for merchants in France.
Tax reporting
As a merchant, you are required to abide by all applicable regulations, including tax reporting. Depending on your jurisdiction, Shopify Payments might also be required to report your sales to the local tax authorities.
Shopify Payments fees don't include Value-Added Tax (VAT) for stores in Europe with the exception of Ireland. You may need to account for VAT at the local applicable tax rate on your VAT return. To get this information, you can either download a generated invoice, or export a file with your transaction information.
For stores in Ireland, 23% VAT is charged in addition to the Shopify Payments fees.
Download a generated invoice
You can download monthly invoices to submit with your tax claim. Each invoice includes the total VAT paid on transaction fees for all orders made in your store that month. This feature uses the UTC time zone, which might be different from your store's time zone. If you want a report that uses your store's time zone, then you can export a list of your store's transactions as a CSV file.
The invoice for each month is generated on the 5th of the following month. For example, the invoice for June is generated on July 5th. If you had no transactions with Shopify Payments for a certain month, then no invoice is generated for that month.
Steps:
- From your Shopify admin, go to Settings > Payments.
- In the Shopify Payments section, click View payouts.
- Click Documents.
- On the Tax documents dialog box, click Download PDF next to the invoice that you want to download.
You can now submit this invoice with your tax claims.
Export transactions
You can export a list of your store's transactions as a CSV file. The CSV file includes a VAT column for European merchants.
Steps:
To export your transactions:
- From your Shopify admin, go to Settings > Payments.
- In the Shopify Payments section, click View payouts.
- Click Transactions.
- Click Export. A CSV file downloads in your browser.
- Open the CSV file in a spreadsheet editor.
- The last column of the CSV file displays the amount of VAT collected on each transaction.
- Use the SUM tool to calculate the total amount of VAT that you've collected.