Persons who can claim residence outside the European Union, who are 18 years of age or older, and have had a valid, non-provisional driver license for at least one year qualify for a tax-free short-term auto lease, which France designates with a "TT" (Transit Temporaire) registration. No maximum age limit applies. Tourists qualify for up to 170 days. Students and educators typically qualify for up to 355 days, as do certain employees undertaking a limited engagement in Europe. (Click here to learn more about this longer-duration, so-called TT Special registration.) Simply put, the lease plan is designed for visitors.

The pick-up date for one of these French "TT" (Transit Temporaire) tax-free short-term auto leases should be such that no one-year time-window involving that date — whether terminally, initially or otherwise — also contains more than 185 days during which the client (i.e. you, the customer) was/is/will be in the European Union — the notable exception being TT Special registration, in which case the one year duration involving the pick-up date as its initial day may contain up to 365 days (366 if a leap day is involved) that the client expects to spend in the European Union. … In terms of the lease booking process the 185-day constraint is effectively an “on your honor” thing unless there is an ineluctable record — i.e. another such lease or leases in the client's own full name (in contrast to, say, the client's spouse's name) and effective within the one year duration immediately prior to the pick-up date — which particular record would during said process seem to contradict a client’s statement in this respect. A client’s passport will of course bear a unique stamp for each day s/he enters or exits the European Union, but the inner pages on which these stamps are placed are not viewed as part of the lease booking process. Only French Customs officials in France might view those pages with regard to the lease. Such officials are no longer typically stationed at major or minor roadway entry/exit points to/from France. They are mostly stationed at airports and seaports, although to some small degree they do patrol the roads of France. If French Customs actually encounters in France a TT- or TT Special-registered vehicle and discovers that it is being leased by a client who does not qualify for such registration, French Customs (alone) is empowered to confiscate the vehicle for this reason, in which case no refund would be given to the client.

By the way, a client may not have two or more TT or TT Special leases in his or her own name the durations of which leases overlap.

who can drive the vehicle?

Although motor travel in Europe is not generally considered prohibitively dangerous, there are, of course, associated risks — including death. For quantitative measures of these risks, please see the Association for Safe International Road Travel (ASIRT) http://www.asirt.org.