DAC 7 (EU directive 2021/514 on digital platform reporting) 2026: practical guide for e-commerce, marketplaces and SaaS in France

Updated on 14 May 2026.

Since 1 January 2023, a low-profile but high-impact EU directive applies to every digital platform connecting sellers and buyers across the Union: DAC 7 (Directive 2021/514/EU), transposed into French law via Article 134 of the 2022 Finance Act and codified at article 1649 ter A of the French General Tax Code (CGI). By 2026, the regime enters its fourth operational year — and the French tax authority (DGFiP) has started to enforce it forcefully against platforms that assumed they were outside the scope.

DAC 7 is not just an Amazon, Vinted or Airbnb problem. Every B2C or C2C marketplace, every SaaS (software-as-a-service) connecting clients with independent providers, every site that charges a fee on third-party transactions must annually report the income of its reportable sellers to the DGFiP (the French tax authority). The penalty for non-compliance: €50,000 per missing return — and a creeping joint-liability exposure for non-compliant sellers that the administration is now actively pursuing.

This operational guide breaks down the exact scope, the thresholds, the data to be reported, and the coordination with the other 2026 obligations (VAT OSS — One-Stop Shop, IOSS, French e-invoicing reform from 1 September 2026).

• Who reports: a platform operator (resident or not) connecting third-party sellers with EU-resident users or with operations carried out in the EU.
• What to report: seller identity, TIN, VAT number, quarterly amounts, payout bank account.
• Exemption thresholds for goods sellers: fewer than 30 transactions AND less than €2,000 per calendar year — both conditions cumulative.
• Services / immovable property sellers: reportable from the very first transaction.
• Deadline: 31 January of year N+1 for the operations of year N. The next deadline for the 2026 operations is therefore 31 January 2027.
• Penalties: €50,000 per missing return, €5 per missing data point capped at €50,000 per return.

Definition of a "platform operator"#

Under Decree no. 2022-1661 of 26 December 2022 and Article 1649 ter A CGI, a platform operator is any entity, resident or not, that enters into a contract with sellers to make available all or part of a platform (website, mobile application, software) enabling a connection with other users to perform, directly or indirectly, a "relevant activity" listed by the directive.

The four covered activities#

What is outside the scope#

Explicitly out of scope:

• e-commerce platforms selling only their own products (single-brand Shopify, in-house Prestashop, brand-owned WooCommerce);
• purely advertising platforms (directories, price comparators without payment handling);
• payment processors (Stripe, Mollie, PayPal) that do not organise the underlying connection between sellers and buyers;
• closed B2B marketplaces restricted to a known circle, subject to strict conditions.

Our chartered accountant view#

The classic trap is the "marketplace-embedded SaaS". A SaaS adding a connection feature between its clients (for example, HR software matching employers with freelancers, or a room-booking platform letting outside providers offer services) falls within DAC 7 without realising it. The decisive test: does the platform directly connect third parties AND retain information on the payment flow (commission, escrow, hold)? If yes, DAC 7 applies. We see several French B2B SaaS each year discovering their obligation in year 3 or 4, with painful arrears of reporting and corresponding fines.

For each reportable seller, the platform must transmit to the DGFiP through the dedicated online service:

Information on the seller (legal entity)#

• Legal name, registered office, state of tax residence.
• Tax identification number (TIN / SIREN) and intra-EU VAT number where applicable.
• Place of establishment and commercial-register number for EU entities.

Information on the seller (individual)#

• First and last name, date of birth.
• Main address, state of tax residence.
• French tax reference number (NIF — numéro fiscal de référence).
• VAT number where applicable (typically a micro-entrepreneur having opted into VAT).

Information on the operations#

• Gross amount received quarter by quarter (Q1, Q2, Q3, Q4) — distinct quarterly figures are mandatory, an annual aggregate is not sufficient.
• Number of transactions per quarter.
• Fees withheld by the platform (commissions, service charges, fixed listing fees).
• Payout bank account identifier (IBAN or wallet ID) — a data point frequently overlooked and heavily fined when missing.

Specific data for property rental#

• Exact property address.
• Local registration number (furnished tourism number, city declaration for Paris, Lyon, Bordeaux, etc.).
• Property type (primary residence, secondary residence, parking space, office).
• Number of rented days in the year.

Technical format: XML compliant with the DGFiP schema DPI 1.6, transmitted through the professional account on impots.gouv.fr or via an EDI partner. The schema is published by the DGFiP and updated periodically — the platform's IT team must monitor every version change to avoid filing rejections.

Financial penalties (Article 1736 CGI)#

Operational sanctions#

The administration may judicially require the removal of a non-compliant seller's account from the platform — the platform itself becomes jointly liable if it does not execute the removal. A foreign platform that refuses to appoint a representative in France may also be removed from the European market through coordinated EU enforcement.

The underestimated risk#

Many platforms believe they are protected by their "mere technical intermediary" status. They are not. The DGFiP has expressly confirmed in the BOFiP that the tax liability of the platform is autonomous from that of the sellers: even if every individual seller is compliant with their own VAT and income tax obligations, the platform can still be fined for a missing or incomplete DAC 7 return. And vice versa, a compliant platform does not absolve the sellers from their own personal VAT and income tax obligations.

DAC 7 is only one layer of a regulatory stack that keeps densifying. The three obligations to coordinate:

Layer 1 — VAT OSS / IOSS#

• VAT OSS (One-Stop Shop): a single quarterly return covering intra-EU B2C sales above the €10,000 annual threshold.
• IOSS (Import One-Stop Shop): covers B2C imported goods with a value ≤ €150.
• See our guides on e-commerce VAT and VAT and IOSS obligations.

Layer 2 — DAC 7#

• Annual DPI-DAC7 return on third-party sellers.

Layer 3 — French 2026 e-invoicing reform#

• From 1 September 2026 large companies must receive structured e-invoices through a Plateforme de Dématérialisation Partenaire (PDP) or the Portail Public de Facturation (PPF); from 1 September 2027 SMEs must also issue them.
• For a marketplace, this concerns its own commission invoices issued to third-party sellers — not the underlying B2C or C2C sales between third parties.
• See our guide 2026 e-invoicing: obligations and deadlines.

Founder decision checklist#

• DAC 7 qualification audit: am I a platform operator? (decisive test: connection + payment flow)
• Tooling decision: native marketplace ERP (Mirakl, Izberg) or DAC 7 middleware (Sumeria, Klever Tax)?
• Seller KYC procedure: collect TIN, VAT number and IBAN at onboarding, never afterwards.
• Quarterly reconciliation: aggregate commissions, gross sales and withheld amounts every quarter.
• Internal pre-filing test: generate a test XML file in September of year N for the year-to-date operations.
• Fiscal representative in France if the operator is non-resident (mandatory since 2023).

• DAC 8 (crypto-assets) enters into force on 1 January 2026: crypto exchange platforms face a regime analogous to DAC 7. A combined NFT + marketplace platform triggers a double obligation.
• Targeted DGFiP audits in 2026: the National Platform Audit Brigade (BNVCI — Brigade Nationale de Vérification et de Contrôle des plateformes) has publicly announced an audit plan focused on platforms below €1 M turnover that assumed they were under the radar.
• Corrective decree expected end-2026: alignment with the OECD DPI 2.0 framework (enhanced bank account data, reinforced cross-border exchanges).
• Possible removal of the "occasional seller" exemption under study for the 2027 Finance Act — the 30 transactions / €2,000 thresholds for goods sellers may disappear.

The fastest way to derail a DAC 7 project is to treat it as a year-end accounting exercise rather than a continuous data-collection process. Reportable information must be captured at the point of seller onboarding and refreshed every quarter — retrofitting a year of past transactions in January is far more expensive than embedding the workflow upstream.

Step 1 — Mapping the seller base#

Segment your sellers into four DAC 7 categories: goods, personal services, transport rental, immovable property rental. A single seller may fall into several categories simultaneously (an Airbnb host who also resells cleaning products, for example), in which case each category is tested separately against its own threshold. Maintain a flag in your CRM or marketplace back office.

Step 2 — Collecting the seller TIN, VAT number and IBAN#

For French individual sellers, the TIN is the numéro fiscal de référence (13 digits) visible on the personal income tax notice. For foreign sellers, the TIN format varies — the EU TIN-on-Europa portal provides a validation tool that should be wired into your onboarding form. Reject any seller record that lacks a validated TIN before activating their payout flow.

Step 3 — Quarterly reconciliation and pre-filing dry runs#

Generate a test XML file every quarter, not only in January. The DGFiP technical schema (DPI 1.6) is strict on field length, character encoding and enumerated values. Running an internal dry run in April, July and October catches data quality issues months before the official deadline and avoids the year-end firefight.

Step 4 — Annual statement to sellers (30 June)#

Each reportable seller must receive a written statement summarising the data the platform intends to transmit to the DGFiP. Best practice: push the statement into the seller's account dashboard rather than relying solely on email, and log the acknowledgement. This is a useful defensive evidence in case a seller later disputes the figures.

Step 5 — Documentation of due diligence procedures#

Article 1736 CGI penalises not only late filings but also missing due diligence procedures. Maintain a written DAC 7 compliance manual covering onboarding KYC, TIN validation, quarterly reconciliation, annual statement and escalation in case of seller refusal to provide data. This manual is the first document the DGFiP auditors will request during a control.

DAC 7 is not "one more accounting filing": it is a paradigm shift that transfers to the platforms the burden of fiscal traceability of third-party sellers. The €50,000 fines per missing return and the looming joint-liability exposure make compliance non-negotiable.

Our firm advises French and European marketplaces — from B2B SaaS to consumer marketplaces — on the qualification audit, the implementation of due diligence procedures and the annual DPI-DAC7 filing. Get in touch for a DAC 7 exposure audit.