Setting up a training organisation in French overseas territories: NDA, DEETS and territorial VAT

Setting up a training organisation in Guadeloupe, Martinique, French Guiana, Réunion or Mayotte follows the same overall path as in mainland France: obtain an NDA (training activity declaration number), apply for VAT exemption where relevant, then prepare for Qualiopi certification if you are targeting public or pooled funding. But two things genuinely differ, and rarely get sorted correctly on the first try for lack of clear information: which authority processes your activity declaration, and which VAT regime applies. Here is what actually changes.

The competent authority: DEETS, not DREETS

In mainland France, the activity declaration is filed with the DREETS (Regional Directorate for the Economy, Employment, Labour and Solidarity) covering the organisation’s registered office. This administrative structure does not exist in the same form in the five overseas departments and regions: decree n° 2020-1545 of 9 December 2020 created, in Guadeloupe, Martinique, French Guiana, Réunion and Mayotte, a DEETS (Directorate for the Economy, Employment, Labour and Solidarity) that merges into a single office the functions handled in mainland France by both the regional DREETS and the departmental unit.

In practice, for someone setting up a training organisation based in Pointe-à-Pitre, Fort-de-France, Cayenne, Saint-Denis or Mamoudzou, this means:

• Cerfa form 10782 remains the same form, filled in the same way as in mainland France;
• the filing goes to the territory’s DEETS, not to a regional DREETS;
• the statutory processing deadlines and grounds for refusal remain identical to those applicable in mainland France;
• in case of refusal, the appeal procedure follows the same pattern, with the DEETS standing in for the DREETS as the receiving authority.

This point may look minor but is not, in practice: many letter templates, guidance notes and online form generators mention only the DREETS, which leads some founders to send their file to the wrong administration or to search for a local DREETS that does not exist as such on these territories. Always check the exact name of the receiving office on your territory’s prefecture website before sending your file.

The VAT regime: three situations, not one

This is the second, and least understood, point of divergence. In mainland France, a training provider that does not benefit from the exemption under article 261-4-4°a of the Tax Code charges the standard rate of 20%. Overseas, the answer depends on the territory.

French Guiana and Mayotte: no VAT, ever

French Guiana and Mayotte are not part of the territory where French VAT applies. Article 294 of the French Tax Code treats them as export territories for this tax: no VAT is collected on services performed and consumed locally there, whatever their nature. A training provider based in French Guiana or Mayotte therefore never charges VAT to its local clients — the question of the continuing vocational training exemption does not even arise, since there is no VAT to exempt in the first place. This does not exempt the provider from checking the rules that apply when billing clients located outside its own territory (mainland France, another DROM, abroad): those flows follow specific territoriality rules that need to be examined case by case.

Guadeloupe, Martinique, Réunion: reduced rates, not an absence of VAT

In these three territories, VAT exists but at rates lower than in mainland France: 8.5% for the standard rate and 2.1% for the reduced rate, versus 20% and 5.5% in mainland France. A training provider there follows the same logic as in mainland France — exemption possible for continuing vocational training within the meaning of article L. 6313-1 of the Labour Code, upon voluntary request — but if it bills a non-exempt service (consulting, sale of teaching materials outside of a training action, etc.), it is the reduced territorial rate that applies, not the mainland rate.

A quick reference table

Territory	VAT if not exempt	Training exemption (art. 261-4-4°a Tax Code)
Mainland France	20%	Yes, upon request
Guadeloupe, Martinique, Réunion	8.5% (reduced rate 2.1%)	Yes, upon request
French Guiana, Mayotte	No VAT	Moot (no VAT to exempt)

Why this specific administrative setup exists

This structure is not unique to vocational training: it reflects the specific fiscal and administrative status of the DROMs within the French Republic, partly inherited from their history as isolated territories with a distinct cost structure. A 2004 study by Winters and Martins, published in World Trade Review, documents, across a panel of small remote economies, structural cost premiums linked to isolation and narrow local markets (see the study) — a phenomenon also studied for the French DROMs by Hoarau (2021), who links these cost premiums to the structural vulnerability of these territories. The differentiated VAT regimes are part of this same effort to adapt national tax rules to economies with distinct characteristics.

What about Qualiopi certification?

On this point, there is no territorial difference: Qualiopi certification and the French National Quality Framework apply identically overseas and in mainland France, with the same 32 indicators, the same certification bodies accredited by COFRAC (which can audit remotely or travel on site), and the same funding requirements (CPF, OPCO) for which certification is a prerequisite. The NDA and VAT exemption are handled upstream, with the competent territorial administration; Qualiopi preparation is then managed exactly as anywhere else in France.

To check that an organisation is properly registered, the public list of training providers on data.gouv.fr covers overseas organisations just as it does mainland ones, whether registered by a DEETS or a DREETS.

Take action

Whether you set up your organisation in mainland France or overseas, the core steps — NDA, VAT, audit preparation — stay the same once you have correctly identified the right authority and tax regime. The ebook Créer son organisme de formation en 30 jours (€67, documents in French) walks through the activity declaration and VAT exemption step by step, and the Complete Kit Certif (€297, documents in French) covers the 32 indicators to prepare your Qualiopi audit once the NDA is obtained. The complete pack (€347) combines both with a 14-day guarantee.