E-Invoicing in France 2026: Obligations and Deadlines Explained

France's B2B e-invoicing reform is the most significant change to business administration since the payroll reporting reform (DSN). Every VAT-registered business established in France is in scope — regardless of sector, size, or whether it is a subsidiary of a foreign group. With the first deadline less than four months away, a substantial number of small and medium-sized businesses have not yet begun their compliance project.

This article sets out the legal framework, the timetable by company size, accepted formats, the role of the PPF (the original public portal, now cancelled as an issuance tool), the scope of e-reporting, and the revised penalties introduced by the 2026 Finance Act. It is written from the primary legal sources and updated to the date shown at the foot of the page.

Quick answer: Receiving e-invoices becomes mandatory for all VAT-registered businesses in France on 1 September 2026, with no deferral. Issuing e-invoices is required from 1 September 2026 for large companies and mid-sized enterprises (ETI), and from 1 September 2027 for SMEs, small businesses, and sole traders. Every business must use an accredited private platform (PDP — Plateforme de Dématérialisation Partenaire) registered by the French tax authority (DGFiP). There is no longer a free public platform for issuing or receiving invoices.

The legal framework is set by ordonnance n° 2021-1190 of 15 September 2021, supplemented by Article 91 of the Finance Act for 2024. These texts create two distinct obligations that are frequently conflated.

The first is the reception obligation: from 1 September 2026, any VAT-registered business established in France must be technically capable of receiving electronic invoices in a recognised structured format. This applies to all company sizes without exception — including sole traders and micro-businesses.

The second is the issuance obligation: staggered by company size (see the timetable below). Large companies and ETI must issue in structured format from 1 September 2026; SMEs, small businesses, and micro-businesses have until 1 September 2027.

These two obligations are independent. An SME can therefore be required to receive structured invoices before it is required to issue them.

A business that crosses a size threshold during the year should assess whether its new category brings a closer deadline. In compliance work carried out with clients, we regularly find intermediate holding companies that have been misclassified: their consolidated headcount places them in the ETI category even though management considers the business a small company.

The reform covers domestic B2B transactions only: invoices issued by one VAT-registered business to another, both established in France. B2C sales, intra-EU transactions, and exports fall under a separate mechanism — e-reporting — described below.

A PDF sent by email is not an electronic invoice for the purposes of this reform. A scanned document, a Word file, or a proprietary format that cannot be processed automatically are equally non-compliant. Three structured formats are recognised by the DGFiP:

• Factur-X: a hybrid format combining a human-readable PDF with an embedded XML file compliant with European standard EN 16931. This is the recommended format for SMEs because it preserves the familiar appearance of a paper invoice while being machine-readable.
• UBL 2.1 (Universal Business Language): a pure XML format widely used in European B2B exchanges and ERP systems.
• CII (UN/CEFACT Cross Industry Invoice): a pure XML format based on United Nations international trade standards.

The practical starting point is to ask your accounting software or ERP vendor which format it exports natively, then confirm that your chosen PDP accepts that format. Our guide on audit trails and accredited platforms covers format selection in more detail.

This is the most misunderstood aspect of the reform, and the misunderstanding has real financial consequences.

The Portail Public de Facturation (PPF) — the planned free government portal for issuing and receiving invoices — was officially cancelled on 15 October 2024. The DGFiP announced that it would not develop a public tool for businesses to send or receive e-invoices. There is no free default solution provided by the French state.

The PPF continues to exist in a reduced form with two specific functions: (1) hosting the central directory (annuaire) that links each business to its chosen PDP for routing purposes; and (2) acting as a fiscal data concentrator that aggregates VAT data sent to the DGFiP by all PDPs. It is infrastructure for the system, not a business-facing portal.

Every business in scope must therefore select a PDP registered on the DGFiP's official list. Using an unregistered platform, or continuing to send plain PDFs, does not constitute compliance. The DGFiP publishes and updates the list of registered PDPs on its website.

Special case — Chorus Pro: Chorus Pro remains the separate, mandatory portal for invoicing the French public sector (B2G: government bodies, local authorities, public hospitals). If your business invoices public-sector entities, Chorus Pro remains compulsory for those transactions. Our article on Chorus Pro covers this portal in detail.

For a full discussion of why the PPF was cancelled and what it means for platform selection, see our article on the public facturation portal, and our overview of the reform as a business opportunity.

E-reporting is frequently confused with e-invoicing, but covers a different scope. Where e-invoicing (structured electronic invoicing) applies to B2B transactions between VAT-registered businesses both established in France, e-reporting covers transaction data for operations not included in e-invoicing:

• B2C sales (sales to private individuals), regardless of the nature of goods or services
• Intra-EU transactions: sales and purchases with businesses in other EU member states
• Exports outside the EU
• International services: services provided to or received from non-French partners
• Payment data for retail transactions

For these flows, the business does not transmit a structured invoice but aggregated or individual transaction data to the DGFiP, via its PDP. The DGFiP has published technical specifications setting out the required fields, frequencies, and formats.

The e-reporting timetable mirrors the e-invoicing schedule: large companies and ETI are required to report from 1 September 2026; SMEs, small businesses, and micro-businesses from 1 September 2027. Our article e-reporting and e-invoicing: the key differences explains both mechanisms with worked examples by transaction type.

The Finance Act for 2026 (Article 123) significantly increased the penalties applicable to e-invoicing failures. Earlier figures — still quoted in some online articles — are no longer in force.

Failure to issue a compliant e-invoice: €50 per invoice (previously €15), capped at €15,000 per year.

Failure to transmit e-reporting data: €500 per transmission (previously €250), capped at €15,000 per year.

Failure to use an accredited PDP for reception: after formal notice and a three-month period to comply, €500, then €1,000 per repeat breach renewed each quarter.

First-offence tolerance: no penalty is applied for a first offence (covering the current year and the three preceding years) if the business regularises spontaneously or within 30 days of a request from the tax authority. This tolerance applies once only.

Worked example: an SME still non-compliant after September 2027#

An SME issuing 200 B2B invoices per month that has not switched to a structured format by October 2027 faces:

• 200 invoices × €50 = €10,000 in penalties for October alone
• The annual cap of €15,000 is reached within two months of the breach

If the same SME also has B2C sales and intra-EU transactions not transmitted via e-reporting, those penalties run on a separate €15,000 cap. Total exposure can therefore exceed €30,000 per year in administrative penalties alone, before any VAT reassessment arising from an incomplete audit trail.

In the compliance projects we run with clients, the three most common friction points are: (1) invoicing software that has not yet been updated by the publisher to support Factur-X or UBL; (2) partial or unmapped invoice flows — intercompany billing, subcontractors, refactured expenses; (3) accounting and administrative teams who have not been trained on the new formats and workflows.

The first-offence tolerance should not be read as a practical deferral. It requires prompt, documented regularisation. Starting the project in August 2027 means deploying untested systems under time pressure — a risk no finance director should take on for the sake of a delayed start.

1. Map your invoice flows: identify all domestic B2B flows, B2C sales, intra-EU transactions, and intercompany billing. Separate what falls under e-invoicing, e-reporting, and Chorus Pro.
2. Analyse edge cases: mixed operations, VAT exemptions (franchise en base), subcontractors registered as micro-entrepreneurs, expense rebillings, deposits, credit notes.
3. Select and connect a PDP: consult the DGFiP's official list, test compatibility with your ERP or invoicing software, and negotiate the service contract.
4. Train your teams: accounts payable, accounts receivable, sales administration — every person who creates, sends, or approves invoices must understand the new processes.
5. Run full tests before the deadline: issue and receive test invoices in Factur-X or UBL format with your key suppliers and customers. Do not leave testing to the final month.

For structured support on each step, see our SME guide to e-invoicing or contact our Paris 8 accounting practice.