Who in France must switch to electronic billing and when?

Reader question: I am self-employed in France and received an email about needing to change to electronic billing this year. I called the tax office but they said it was a general email and not everyone is impacted. What should I do? 

There are major changes for self-employed workers in France relating to electronic billing, but not all are taking place this year.

New rules will require all billing to be electronic to reduce VAT fraud in the sector. 

This applies to all business-to-business transactions in relation to goods and services between businesses established in France and ‘subject to VAT’.

However, the Economy Ministry explains that even small businesses with incomes below the VAT threshold (who therefore do not add it to bills) are still technically ‘subject’ to VAT, and are therefore affected both for sending and receiving invoices electronically.

If you only have private, rather than business, customers then you may not be concerned with sending, but all businesses are likely to at least have to receive invoices electronically. 

In addition, such businesses may be subject to a linked formality called e-reporting whereby certain transaction data must be transmitted electronically to the tax authorities, even when no electronic invoice is required. 

Businesses invoicing for activities exempt from VAT for certain public interest, financial, medical, educational or property-related reasons are not subject to the rules for sending, or to e-reporting for this. 

The government was previously set to offer a free electronic billing service via a dedicated platform, however this was later cancelled.

Instead, it has provided a list of partner platforms for self-employed people to use. The cheapest platforms start from around €10 per month. 

There are over 100 platforms and they are likely to expand as more are created providing specialised services for certain sectors or workers.

The new electronic billing rules will come into force on September 1, 2026, but they will be staggered.

They will need to be able to receive electronic invoices from September 1, 2026, but will not need to send their own invoices electronically until September 1, 2027. 

Large and medium-sized businesses must start issuing electronic invoices from September 2026.