Every fuel stop in France ends the same way: the station hands over a till receipt, never an invoice, and without an invoice the fuel VAT is not deducted. With 4,482 active fuel retail businesses counted in the French Sirene register (query of 21 September 2026), that is a lot of receipts, and a lot of recoverable VAT left at the pump. Here is the grid, the document, and the mechanics.
- The recovery grid: vehicle type and fuel decide
- The invoice without which nothing happens
- Passenger cars outside the exclusion
- What e-invoicing changes for fuel
- Mini FAQ
The recovery grid: vehicle type and fuel decide
French law fixes the deductible share of fuel VAT by category, in Article 298, 4-1° a of the Tax Code (CGI), commented in the official tax doctrine BOI-TVA-DED-30-30-40. Since 1 January 2022, petrol and diesel follow the same grid. It is short and worth pinning on the finance wall:
- Petrol or diesel in a passenger car (véhicule de tourisme), owned or rented: 80 per cent of the VAT is deductible.
- LPG and natural gas in a passenger car: 50 per cent.
- Electricity for a fully electric passenger car: 100 per cent (Article 273 septies B CGI).
- Light commercial vehicles (utilitaires): 100 per cent, petrol and diesel alike. Artisans, delivery firms, maintenance fleets: this is the line most often forgotten.
The grid does not care about your intentions, only about the vehicle registration category and the fuel. A “company car” that is registered as a passenger car is a passenger car.
The invoice without which nothing happens
Whatever the grid allows, deduction only happens on a compliant invoice issued to the company: supplier identification, client identification, date, product, quantity, price excluding tax, VAT rate and amount, per Article L441-9 of the Commercial Code. The card slip never qualifies. The till receipt never qualifies.
When the invoice is missing, no VAT is deducted: it is one of the most common causes of adjustment. And asking for it is a right, including when the supplier is slow or reluctant.
Passenger cars outside the exclusion
The 80 per cent cap only applies to vehicles excluded from VAT deduction, and to cars rented when the rent itself is not deductible. Article 206, IV-2-6° of Annex II to the CGI lists the passenger cars that escape the exclusion: cars bought for resale as new, cars rented out by a rental company, vehicles of more than eight seats carrying staff, driving-school cars and public passenger transport, to which the tax doctrine attaches taxis (BOI-TVA-DED-30-30-20, § 140). For those vehicles, fuel VAT follows the general rule and is deductible in full, on an invoice.
What e-invoicing changes for fuel
The 2026 reform generalises structured electronic invoicing for B2B flows through accredited platforms. For a fleet, the direction is clear: fuel invoices that exist in structured form carry their VAT mentions by construction, and feed expense systems directly.
But a station that hands a receipt over the counter has not issued anything, structured or otherwise. Someone still has to request the invoice, chase it, receive it and match it to the expense, at the scale of hundreds of monthly fill-ups. That is the industrial work e-invoicing.fr performs under mandate, per Article 1984 of the Civil Code, described in our article on mandating a third party.
Mini FAQ
How long must fuel invoices be kept?
Ten years under French commercial law, in original form. Structured originals received through a platform belong in probative archiving, as our page on retention duties details (in French).
Can we deduct fuel used privately by an employee?
No. Only expenses incurred for the needs of taxable business operations open a deduction (Article 271 CGI). Fuel bought for private journeys stays outside it.
What if the station refuses to issue an invoice?
The seller is bound to deliver an invoice for a professional transaction, under Article L441-9 of the Commercial Code. A written demand, then a formal notice, resolves most cases; a mandated collection service industrialises the rest.