E-invoicing in France from 2026: what changes for small businesses
Since September 2026 every business in France must be able to receive electronic invoices, and all of them will have to issue them by September 2027. Here is the timetable, what an e-invoice is, and what to do now.
France is replacing PDF and paper invoices between businesses with structured electronic invoices, exchanged through approved platforms. The reform also asks businesses to report data on sales that are not covered by e-invoices. For a small company it changes how invoices are sent and received, not what they are for.
The timetable
- 1 September 2026: every VAT-registered business established in France must be able to receive electronic invoices. Large and mid-sized companies must also issue them from this date.
- 1 September 2027: small and medium-sized businesses and micro-enterprises must issue electronic invoices too.
- The same dates apply to e-reporting: the transmission to the tax authority of data on sales to private customers and on cross-border transactions.
What counts as an e-invoice
A PDF sent by e-mail is not an electronic invoice in the sense of the reform. An e-invoice is a structured file that software can read: Factur-X (a PDF with the data embedded), UBL or CII. It travels from the seller’s approved platform to the buyer’s, and the invoice data is passed on to the tax authority.
Approved platforms
Each business chooses an approved platform (“plateforme agréée”, previously called PDP) to send and receive its invoices. The public portal does not exchange invoices itself: it keeps the directory that tells each platform where to deliver an invoice. Many invoicing and accounting tools connect to one or more approved platforms; check which ones yours supports before September 2027.
New mentions on invoices
- The customer’s SIREN number.
- The delivery address of the goods when it differs from the customer’s address.
- The type of operation: goods, services or both.
- Where it applies, the mention that VAT is paid on debits.
You are outside France and invoice French customers
The obligation to issue e-invoices concerns businesses established in France. A company in Luxembourg, Belgium or Spain without an establishment in France can keep sending its usual invoices to French customers; the French customer reports the purchase to the tax authority through e-reporting. Your French customers may still ask for structured invoices, because they are easier to process, and an EU-wide system for cross-border B2B sales is planned from 2030.
What to do now
- Check from which date your company must issue e-invoices: September 2026 or September 2027.
- Choose an approved platform, or check which one your invoicing tool connects to.
- Clean your customer data: SIREN, VAT number, billing and delivery addresses.
- Make sure your invoices already carry every mandatory mention, with gap-free numbering and credit notes for corrections.
- Talk to your accountant about e-reporting for your sales to private customers and abroad.
And Tavalle?
Tavalle is not an approved platform. It prepares your invoices: VAT rate and legal mention from the customer’s data, gap-free numbering, credit notes, the PDF in the customer’s language, payment follow-up and an accounting export for your accountant. For a French company subject to the reform, the connection between Tavalle and the approved platform of your choice can be added as implementation work. See invoicing and VAT.
This guide is general information, not tax advice. Dates and details of the reform have changed several times: check the latest rules on impots.gouv.fr and with your accountant.
