E-invoicing calendar 2026 2027: all the key dates

Quick answer. France's electronic invoicing reform rolls out in two stages. From 1 September 2026, every VAT-registered business must be able to receive electronic invoices, and large companies and ETIs (intermediate-sized enterprises) must start issuing them. SMEs and micro-enterprises will issue from 1 September 2027. E-reporting follows the same schedule.

You run an SME, a single-shareholder company, a property holding structure or a liberal profession, and you keep hearing about stages, certified platforms and e-reporting without knowing which ones apply to you and on what date. The real problem is not the definition of an electronic invoice: it is knowing what you must have ready, and when, so you are never unable to invoice or get paid. This article isolates the calendar dimension of the reform and turns it into actionable deadlines, company size by company size.

The reform rests on two distinct obligations that do not share the same start date: the obligation to receive electronic invoices, and the obligation to issue them. On top of this comes e-reporting, the transmission to the tax authority of transaction and payment data.

The key takeaway is the asymmetry of the first deadline. From 1 September 2026, every VAT-registered business must be able to receive an invoice in structured electronic format, regardless of size. A very small business that does not yet issue can therefore become the recipient of an electronic invoice from a large-account supplier as early as autumn 2026.

This is the decisive question, because it sets your issuance date. The reform relies on the company categories defined by article 3 of decree no. 2008-1354 of 18 December 2008.

One legal point that matters: for the ETI category, the financial criterion is alternative. A company is an ETI as soon as it employs fewer than 5,000 people and its annual turnover does not exceed 1,500 million euros or its balance sheet total does not exceed 2,000 million euros (i.e. 2 billion euros). The balance sheet total is counted in millions of euros, not in billions of times that figure: we stress this because the order-of-magnitude error is common in documentation circulating online.

In practice, the vast majority of the business owners we support fall within SMEs and micro-enterprises: their issuance date is therefore 1 September 2027, but their reception date remains 1 September 2026.

These three obligations follow different logics. Distinguishing them avoids organisational misunderstandings.

1. Reception means being able to accept an invoice issued by a supplier in structured electronic format, through a platform. It applies to all VAT-registered businesses from 1 September 2026. This is the deadline that concerns the largest number, including the smallest structures.
2. Issuance means producing and sending your own invoices to your business clients established in France in electronic format. It applies to large companies and ETIs from 1 September 2026, then to SMEs and micro-enterprises from 1 September 2027.
3. E-reporting means transmitting to the tax authority the transaction data not covered by business-to-business electronic invoicing within France: sales to private individuals, transactions with clients or suppliers established outside France, and payment data for services. It follows the same schedule as issuance.

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Reception is no minor matter, because it comes first and concerns everyone. Many business owners focus on the day they will have to issue, in 2027, and overlook the fact that they will be recipients of electronic invoices from 2026. Yet receiving an invoice in the correct format conditions VAT deduction and proper recording of the expense. Preparing reception first means securing your accounts payable before worrying about your own issuance.

Electronic invoice exchanges pass through certified partner dematerialisation platforms (PDP), that is, operators registered by the tax authority. According to economie.gouv.fr, the first official list published on 16 January 2026 included more than 100 certified platforms (101 platforms on that date), a list set to grow. Since this figure is evolving, check the up-to-date list on impots.gouv.fr when you make your choice.

In practice, each company will need to connect to at least one platform to issue, receive and, where applicable, transmit its e-reporting data. The choice of platform is not neutral: it depends on your invoice volume, your current accounting software and the connection with your chartered accountant.

In the files we handle, the most frequent sticking point is not the date itself, it is the state of the client and supplier database. Electronic invoicing requires reliable identifiers: up-to-date SIREN numbers, complete mandatory mentions, correct billing addresses. An incomplete or erroneous database causes invoice rejections, and therefore payment delays. The underestimated risk is not regulatory, it is operational: an invoice rejected by the platform is an unpaid invoice. We recommend cleaning up third-party data well before the reception deadline.

Here is the approach we apply in our files, regardless of size.

1. Identify your company category under decree no. 2008-1354, to fix your issuance date (2026 for large companies and ETIs, 2027 for SMEs and micro-enterprises).
2. Check that your invoicing or accounting software can receive invoices in structured format from 1 September 2026.
3. Clean up your third-party database: SIREN, mandatory mentions, addresses, payment terms.
4. Choose and test a certified partner dematerialisation platform together with your chartered accountant.
5. Map your flows not covered by business-to-business invoicing within France (sales to individuals, international) to anticipate e-reporting.
6. Train the people who issue and validate invoices, and document the internal workflow.

A few situations deserve specific attention. Businesses not registered for VAT, for example certain structures under the basic exemption regime or certain exempt activities, must check their position regarding reception case by case. Property and holding structures have particular flows depending on whether they invoice rents subject to VAT. Liberal professions reporting non-commercial profits, often under the exemption or actual regime, must confirm their category and their schedule. When in doubt, the position should be verified against your actual situation and the texts in force.

The reform pursues an objective of fighting VAT fraud and modernising collection. Through the platforms and e-reporting, the tax authority will gain greater visibility over invoicing and payment flows. In practice, this means that discrepancies between data declared for VAT and data transmitted by platforms may be detected more easily. Consistency between your invoicing, your returns and your collections therefore becomes a compliance issue, not just a management one.

• Reception is mandatory for all VAT-registered businesses from 1 September 2026.
• Issuance is mandatory from 1 September 2026 for large companies and ETIs.
• Issuance is mandatory from 1 September 2027 for SMEs and micro-enterprises.
• E-reporting follows the same schedule as issuance, depending on your size.
• Under decree no. 2008-1354, an ETI employs fewer than 5,000 people and has an annual turnover not exceeding 1,500 million euros or a balance sheet total not exceeding 2,000 million euros (i.e. 2 billion euros).
• The first official list included more than 100 certified platforms on 16 January 2026, an evolving list to check on impots.gouv.fr.