Still confused about TVA

My partner is a micro entrepreneur and will exceed the 35,200 TVA threshold this month. However all her clients are currently outside France (in the UK, USA and Switzerland), although this may change in the future.

We have applied for a numéro de TVA intracommunitaire, but we’re still unclear exactly how this works.

First, does she also need to register for French VAT (I assume not – but what if she stars to acquire French clients? At what point will she need to do that?)

For clients outside France, how is VAT invoiced for services provided? For example, A UK-based VAT registered business would not charge any VAT to a Swiss client since Switzerland doesn’t have VAT and so the services are zero-rated (so the invoice would show the VAT rate as zero). 

In recent reply you were asked; “Should I still add the 20% VAT to my invoices to UK clients?” and you replied: “No. As you are providing some services, your customers will self-clear the TVA in the UK. You have to add your TVA number, so they can arrange this.”

I’m not sure what you mean by ‘self clear’ – do you mean that you simply send an invoice without any VAT added? How exactly should invoices be worded?

You’ve also mentioned the need to establish a ProDouane account if billing overseas clients. What does that entail?

Thanks