Deposits are outside the scope of VAT, e-invoicing, and e-reporting.

Article 1590 of the Civil Code defines deposits (arrhes) as sums paid as a penalty. The buyer may cancel the sale and renounce their purchase by forfeiting this sum. If the deposit constitutes compensation and not payment for a service (no consideration), it is not included in the VAT taxable base.

In commercial matters, sums paid in advance are more often in the nature of a deposit on the sale price, from which the parties cannot withdraw.

Deposits constitute compensation intended to repair commercial damage. They are outside the scope of VAT, so they are not covered by e-invoicing or e-reporting. You should specify the nature of this sum in the contract or receipt given to the buyer.

Use case 24 is fundamentally different from use cases 20 and 21, which refer to advance payments (acomptes). An advance payment represents a binding commitment to a transaction and requires an invoice (BT-3 set to 386). A deposit (arrhes), by contrast, is a non-binding commitment with no invoice obligation. Despite both involving sums paid before the final delivery, they have entirely different legal, VAT, and e-invoicing treatments.