SIRET, SIREN, VAT number: what are the three numbers of a French company?

What is a SIREN, and what is a SIRET?

The SIREN is the nine-digit number that identifies a company in France. The SIRET is fourteen digits long: the SIREN followed by five digits that identify one establishment of that company. Both come from the national directory kept by INSEE, the statistics institute, and both are assigned when the company is registered.

Nine digits for the company, fourteen for each place of business

Article R123-221 of the French Commercial Code (Code de commerce), checked October 2026, defines the two numbers. The identification number of a legal unit is a nine-digit serial number. The number of each establishment is made of those nine digits followed by a five-digit complement specific to the establishment, which INSEE calls the NIC.

A company with one office has one SIREN and one SIRET. A company with a registered office in Lyon and a shop in Bordeaux has one SIREN and two SIRETs. A sole trader working from home has one SIREN and one SIRET, usually at the home address.

Where do the numbers come from?

INSEE keeps a national directory of businesses and their establishments, known as SIRENE (article R123-220). Companies, sole traders, employers and most entities dealing with the tax administration are entered in it. The registration file sent through the single online window, the guichet unique, feeds both the trade and companies register and this directory (article L123-33). You do not apply for a SIREN separately: it arrives with the registration.

Where does the French VAT number come from?

The French VAT number is issued by the tax administration, not by the registry. It is built from three parts: the letters FR, a two-digit computer key and the company’s nine-digit SIREN. The official service-public.gouv.fr guide to the intra-EU VAT number, checked October 2026, describes this structure, which is specific to France.

Who issues it, and when

Every taxable person who supplies goods or services is identified by an individual number (article 286 ter of the French tax code, Code général des impôts). The tax office for businesses, the service des impôts des entreprises, issues it once the company is identified for VAT. It is mandatory for a company liable for VAT; according to the official guide, a company under the small-business exemption is not required to hold one in principle, but may have to register when it trades with businesses in other EU countries.

Légifrance shows article 286 ter and several other VAT articles with a scheduled end date, as the VAT rules move to a new code. Check the reference in force on the day you invoice.

Is the SIRET the same as the VAT number?

No, although the second contains part of the first. The SIRET is an identification number for one establishment, assigned by INSEE. The VAT number is a tax identifier for the whole company, assigned by the tax administration, and it embeds the SIREN, not the SIRET. A supplier who asks for your “tax ID” usually wants the VAT number; a client who asks for your “SIRET” wants the establishment number.

Within the European Union, a business partner can check that your VAT number is valid through the European Commission’s VIES service. The SIRET cannot be checked there: it is a French number, not a tax number.

Where must the numbers appear?

Every registered company shows its identification number on its invoices, order forms, price lists, advertising material and all correspondence and receipts relating to its activity, together with the mention RCS followed by the city of its greffe and the place of its registered office (article R123-237 of the Commercial Code). A company in liquidation says so on the same documents.

A foreign company trading through a French establishment adds its name, its legal form and its registration number in its home state, if it has one. A sole trader shows the number in the same way: the obligation attaches to the registration, not to the legal form.

How do you find or check a SIRET number?

Three official sources give the numbers of any French company at no charge, in a few seconds, checked October 2026:

• Annuaire des entreprises, the government directory at annuaire-entreprises.data.gouv.fr: search by name, SIREN or SIRET, and read the registered details and the list of establishments.
• The SIRENE notice, the avis de situation issued by INSEE at avis-situation-sirene.insee.fr: the official statement of a company’s or an establishment’s entry in the directory.
• The Kbis extract, from the court registry through infogreffe.fr, or at no charge for the company’s own director through monidenum.fr.

The first two tell you that a company and its establishments exist and what their numbers are. Only the third gives the state of the registration on the day it is issued, with the directors and the registered capital.

What a number cannot tell you

A valid SIRET does not mean that the person in front of you represents the company, that the company is still active, or that it is registered for VAT. For a contract that matters, ask for a recent Kbis and compare the names with the signatory’s identity.

What do these numbers mean for a foreign company in France?

A foreign company that opens a first establishment in France registers it with the court registry (article R123-112). The establishment is entered in the SIRENE directory and receives a SIREN for the company and a SIRET for the establishment, like any French business. Its documents then carry both the French numbers and the home registration details required by article R123-237.

If instead you create a French subsidiary, the subsidiary is a French company in its own right (article L233-1): it has its own SIREN, its own VAT number and its own Kbis, independent from the parent. The choice between the two routes is explained in the guide to starting a business in France as a foreigner, and Concord handles both set-ups.