E-invoicing in France 2026–2027: who is affected, when, auto-entrepreneurs too

France is replacing paper and PDF invoices between businesses with structured electronic invoices exchanged through accredited platforms, in two steps in 2026 and 2027. The legal basis is article 91 of the finance act for 2024 (loi n° 2023-1322 of 29 December 2023), which rescheduled the reform first enacted in 2021 and 2022. This guide gives the calendar, the mechanics and the position of the smallest businesses. It is not legal advice; the DGFiP's own pages are the reference.

Who is affected

The obligation concerns every business subject to VAT and established in France (assujetti établi en France) for its domestic B2B transactions: sales of goods and services to another business subject to VAT in France. Three things fall outside the e-invoicing obligation itself: sales to consumers, cross-border transactions and certain exempt operations. Those are instead covered by e-reporting, the transmission of transaction data to the tax administration on the same calendar.

The calendar

Date	Obligation	Who
1 September 2026	Receive e-invoices through an accredited platform	every business subject to VAT, whatever its size
1 September 2026	Issue e-invoices and transmit e-reporting data	large companies (grandes entreprises) and mid-sized companies (ETI)
1 September 2027	Issue e-invoices and transmit e-reporting data	small and medium-sized companies (PME) and micro-enterprises

The size categories are those of the LME act (staff, turnover and balance sheet thresholds), assessed at the level of the legal entity or, for groups, per the DGFiP rules. From 1 September 2026 a small business may already receive e-invoices from its large suppliers, so the receiving side is everybody's first deadline.

How it works

Invoices do not travel directly from seller to buyer. Each business chooses an accredited platform (plateforme agréée, PA, formerly called PDP), which sends the invoice to the buyer's platform and forwards the data the tax administration needs. The public portal (portail public de facturation, PPF) no longer offers a free exchange service: since the decision of October 2024 it acts as the directory of businesses and their platforms and as the concentrator that receives the data for the DGFiP. Choosing a platform is therefore mandatory, for sending and for receiving.

The invoice itself must be in one of the three formats of the socle minimal: Factur-X (a PDF/A-3 with embedded XML), UBL or CII, all conforming to EN 16931 with the French usage rules. Factur-X is the natural choice for businesses that still want a readable document; its profiles are explained here. The Factur-X validator checks a file against the FNFE-MPE rules profile by profile, and the EN 16931 validator checks a plain UBL or CII invoice.

The auto-entrepreneur

A micro-entrepreneur (the status usually called auto-entrepreneur) is a business subject to VAT even when it benefits from the VAT exemption for small businesses (franchise en base): being exempt from charging VAT is not the same as being outside VAT. The DGFiP therefore confirms that micro-entrepreneurs are covered by the reform:

• from 1 September 2026 they must be able to receive e-invoices from their business customers and suppliers, which means being registered with an accredited platform;
• from 1 September 2027 they must issue e-invoices for their sales to businesses in France, and transmit e-reporting data for their sales to consumers.

A micro-entrepreneur who only sells to consumers has no e-invoice to issue, but still has e-reporting to do, and still needs a platform to receive supplier invoices. Several platforms announce free offers for the smallest businesses; the DGFiP publishes the list of accredited platforms.

What to do now

1. Choose a platform before September 2026, for receiving first. Check that it handles the format your software produces.
2. Check your invoicing software: it must produce Factur-X, UBL or CII with the mandatory data of the reform (the buyer's SIREN, the type of transaction, the delivery address where relevant, the option for VAT on debits, among others).
3. Validate what your software produces before the deadline: open a Factur-X in the Factur-X viewer to see the embedded XML, and run it through the validator. A rule id in the report, such as BR-CO-10 on the sum of line amounts, links to its explanation on this site.

The France country page keeps the calendar and its sources up to date.

Sources

• DGFiP, the reform's official pages: impots.gouv.fr, facturation électronique
• Loi n° 2023-1322 du 29 décembre 2023 de finances pour 2024, article 91 (calendar): legifrance.gouv.fr
• Ordonnance n° 2021-1190 du 15 septembre 2021 (framework): legifrance.gouv.fr
• FNFE-MPE, Factur-X specification and French usage rules: fnfe-mpe.org
• CEN, EN 16931 core invoice model: cen.eu