# E-invoicing in France: rules, deadlines, and penalties > E-invoicing and e-reporting are mandatory in France from 1 September 2026. Scope, deadlines, accepted formats, and penalties. Type: Blog post Published: 2026-08-31 Author: Luis Coll Author role: VP of eInvoicing Compliance Topic: regulation Country: France --- Starting on 1 September 2026, every business in France must be able to receive e-invoices, and large and mid-sized companies must also start e-invoicing or e-reporting sales. SMEs and micro-enterprises will follow on 1 September 2027. The reform has two parts: e-invoicing for domestic B2B transactions, and e-reporting for B2C and cross-border transactions. PDFs sent by email and paper invoices are no longer valid, and noncompliance may result in fines. Three formats are accepted: Factur-X, UBL, and CII. Invoices flow through a government-approved private platform, a plateforme agréée (PA), and every business has to appoint one. --- ## France e-invoicing and e-reporting mandate Governments across Europe are moving to electronic invoicing, with mandates emerging and changing in [Germany](https://invopop.com/coverage/germany), [Spain](https://invopop.com/coverage/spain), [Poland](https://invopop.com/coverage/poland), [Slovenia](https://invopop.com/coverage/slovenia), and other countries. Each country has its own goals, but these reforms generally aim to close the VAT gap, give tax authorities a near-real-time view of transactions, and digitize the economy by saving thousands of hours of manual data entry. France's reform is now in the spotlight, and it is one of the largest in Europe. France's e-invoicing mandate ([facturation électronique](https://www.impots.gouv.fr/professionnel/je-passe-la-facturation-electronique)) has two components: - **E-invoicing** covers domestic B2B transactions, where both the supplier and the buyer are established in France. The invoice must travel as structured data through an accredited platform. - **E-reporting** covers everything outside that scope, mainly B2C sales and cross-border B2B sales. The invoice does not travel. Instead, you report the data to the tax authority: B2C transactions as daily totals and cross-border B2B transactions invoice by invoice, on a schedule set by your VAT regime. France runs this on a decentralized model. Invoices and reports alike go through a private platform called a [plateforme agréée (PA)](https://www.impots.gouv.fr/facturation-electronique-et-plateformes-agreees), a company the DGFiP approves to handle e-invoicing and e-reporting. Every business established in France must appoint one. You can also build your own internal platform and register as your own PA, but that means passing the DGFiP's interoperability tests and a compliance audit, and then keeping the connection current as the rules change. From there, two things move in two directions. Your PA sends the invoice sideways to your customer's PA, and they send a copy of the regulatory data up to the PPF (Portail Public de Facturation), the government portal that runs the national directory, known as the annuaire, and collects the tax data. France calls this shape the Y-scheme. E-reporting is only the second direction, so the data goes through your PA to the PPF. `France B2B e-invoicing Y-Scheme` ![Yscheme flow.gif](https://assets.invopop.com/web/2026/08/b719b982cc643a1d11d765d9.gif) For domestic B2B sales, that annuaire is what makes the sideways step work. Every French business has a SIREN, a 9-digit identifier. The annuaire maps that SIREN to the platform receiving the business's invoices. Your supplier's PA looks you up there, finds your platform, and forwards the invoice. It is the address book for the whole system: no entry, no delivery. Platforms also have to be able to reach each other. When two have no direct agreement, they can connect over Peppol, the international e-invoicing network. B2G invoicing works differently and is already mandatory. Invoices to French public bodies have gone through [Chorus Pro](https://invopop.com/coverage/france) since 2020. ## **Scope and deadlines for e-invoicing in France** Every company established in France and registered for VAT is in scope, including micro-enterprises and those under the franchise en base, France's VAT exemption for small businesses. **1 September 2026:** Every company must be able to receive e-invoices. That puts accounts payable (AP) in scope for everyone from day one. Large companies (grandes entreprises, GE) and mid-size companies (entreprises de taille intermédiaire, ETI) must also issue them and start e-reporting, which brings accounts receivable (AR) in too. **1 September 2027:** SMEs and micro-enterprises must issue and e-report, so accounts receivable (AR) follows for everyone else. E-reporting starts on the same date as issuing. So an SME that has to receive from September 2026 does not begin reporting until September 2027, when it starts issuing. What separates the two waves is size. A company is part of the 2027 wave if it has fewer than 250 employees, and either turnover of €50 million or less or a balance sheet of €43 million or less. Every other company is in the 2026 wave. Size is assessed per legal entity on the last financial year closed before 1 January 2025, so your wave is already fixed. For example, a company with 100 employees, €80 million in turnover, and a €20 million balance sheet is in the 2027 wave because the balance sheet is under the limit. It does not issue or e-report until September 2027, but it still has to receive e-invoices from 1 September 2026. ### **What if your business is registered for VAT in France but not established there?** If you're VAT-registered in France but not established there, e-invoicing doesn't apply to you, but e-reporting does, and you still need a PA to transmit the data. You report the sales where you're liable for French VAT, not those subject to the reverse charge, on the normal calendar: 1 September 2026 for large and mid-size companies and 1 September 2027 for smaller ones, with size measured by worldwide turnover rather than French sales. Your purchases, including intra-EU acquisitions, are reported from 1 September 2027 regardless of size. ## **Requirements for e-invoicing in France** Once you have chosen your PA, no matter which wave you are in, three elements make a domestic B2B invoice compliant: a line in the annuaire, a valid format, and the right content; a fourth obligation starts once invoices begin moving. **A line in the annuaire:** You sign an agreement designating your PA, and the PA registers your SIREN in the directory. Until that line exists, your suppliers have nowhere to send an invoice. **A valid format:** France accepts three formats — Factur-X, UBL, and CII. All three are aligned to the European standard EN 16931, which defines the information contained on an invoice. They are simply different technical *syntaxes* for the same information. Much like the same picture can be saved as JPEG or PNG, the same invoice in France can be encoded in Factur-X, UBL, or CII.\ \ UBL and CII are pure XML and functionally equivalent for most invoices. Factur-X is a hybrid format, a PDF a person can read with the structured XML embedded inside it. Formats come in two profiles, base and extended, where the extended adds fields for cases the base cannot cover, such as more detail per line item. Which one you will use usually comes down to what your ERP or billing system already produces. Either way, your PA has to accept and convert all three, so the choice does not limit who you can invoice. **After sending or receiving:** The invoice carries a lifecycle (received, approved, disputed, refused, and paid) exchanged between sender and receiver. Most of these updates stay optional, but a receiver's refusal of an invoice and a sender's confirmation of it both get reported to the tax authority, which is why they are mandatory. **The right content, from your system:** From the date you start issuing, four mentions become mandatory — the buyer's SIREN, the category of the operation (goods, services, or mixed), the delivery address when it differs from the billing address, and the "option pour le paiement de la taxe d'après les débits" mention where the supplier has elected to account for VAT on invoicing rather than on payment. E-reporting carries its own data requirements, set out separately in the DGFiP's technical specifications. Before you settle on a PA, ask two things: First, whether it covers the B2B scenarios you actually use, since France specifies a detailed set, including self-billing and prepayments, and not every platform covers all of them. And second, how it stays registered, because the DGFiP grants registration for three years, subject to audit, and can withdraw it, leaving you to move platforms while the obligation stays yours. ## **Penalties, and how they apply** France's e-invoicing and e-reporting mandate is not optional, and penalties apply. Failure to issue an e-invoice costs €50 per invoice, capped at €15,000 per calendar year. Failure to transmit e-reporting data costs €500 per missed transmission, with the same annual cap. Not having a PA carries different penalties. You get a formal notice and three months to comply, then €500. After a second three-month notice, €1,000, renewable every three months until it is resolved. There is leniency built into the invoicing fine. If you have not committed the same infringement in the current year or the three before it, it counts as a first offence, and a first offence carries no fine as long as you correct it yourself or within 30 days of being asked. ## **How to start e-invoicing in France** Invopop is a registered Plateforme Agréée. We register your SIREN in the annuaire; generate invoices in Factur-X, UBL, and CII; send and receive domestic B2B invoices; file your e-reporting with the PPF; and handle B2G through Chorus Pro. It works the same way whether you invoice for yourself or for your customers under your own brand. [**Talk to our team**](https://invopop.com/contact/) about getting started, whether you are appointing a PA for the first time or handling a PA-to-PA migration. --- ## **Frequently asked questions about France e-invoicing** :::faq ## **Who must comply with the French e-invoicing and e-reporting mandate?** Every business established in France and registered for VAT, including micro-enterprises and those under the franchise en base, must comply with the French e-invoicing and e-reporting mandate. Businesses with a French VAT number but no permanent establishment in France fall outside domestic B2B e-invoicing, but they must still e-report the transactions for which they are liable for French VAT. ::: :::faq ## **What is e-reporting, and how is it different from e-invoicing in France?** E-reporting is the obligation to send transaction data to the French tax authority for sales that fall outside domestic B2B e-invoicing, mainly B2C and cross-border B2B. No invoice is exchanged. With e-invoicing, the invoice itself travels as structured data between the two parties' platforms. ::: :::faq ### **When does e-reporting start in France?** E-reporting in France starts on the same date as the obligation to issue e-invoices. For large and mid-size companies, it begins on 1 September 2026; for SMEs and micro-enterprises, on 1 September 2027. A business that only has to receive e-invoices in 2026 does not e-report until its issuing date. ::: :::faq ### **What is a plateforme agréée, and do I need one?** A plateforme agréée (PA) is a private platform the DGFiP has approved to send, receive, and report invoices in France. Starting on 1 September 2026, it is the only compliant channel for domestic B2B e-invoicing, so every business established in France has to appoint one, and non-established businesses need one to e-report. Invopop is a registered PA. ::: :::faq ### **Which invoice formats does France accept?** France accepts three formats, all aligned to the European standard EN 16931: Factur-X, UBL, and CII. Factur-X is a hybrid PDF with structured XML embedded inside it. A plateforme agréée must accept and convert all three, so your format choice does not limit who you can invoice. ::: :::faq ### **Does an e-invoice need any follow-up after it's sent?** Yes. Once an invoice is filed, the sender and receiver platforms exchange lifecycle updates (received, approved, disputed, and so on). Most of these stay optional, but two are mandatory and get reported to the tax authority: the receiver's refusal if they reject it, and confirmation once it's been paid by the sender. ::: --- ## Source - Canonical page (human): https://www.invopop.com/blog/e-invoicing-in-france-rules-deadlines-and-penalties - This document (markdown): https://www.invopop.com/blog/e-invoicing-in-france-rules-deadlines-and-penalties.md - Site index for LLMs: https://www.invopop.com/llms.txt - Blog index: https://www.invopop.com/blog