You live in London, New York, Dubai or Singapore, and your French company bills French clients. Since 1 September 2026, France has generalised electronic invoicing between businesses, and this reform changes how your company must send and receive every domestic business-to-business invoice. Every French company, whatever its size, must already be able to receive electronic invoices. Whether it must already issue them depends on its size: large companies and intermediate-sized companies have been required to issue electronic invoices since 1 September 2026, while small and micro-enterprises have until 1 September 2027. Missing these duties exposes the company to specific tax fines, calculated per invoice, on top of the long-standing commercial fines for defective invoices. This guide explains the calendar that applies to a company run from abroad, how an electronic invoice actually travels from supplier to customer, what e-reporting means for cross-border situations, and the concrete steps to put your invoicing in order without bringing your billing to a halt. It is written for a business reader: every French acronym is explained, from the Kbis (the official registration certificate of a French company, issued by the court clerk, called the greffe) to the DGFiP (the French tax authority, Direction generale des Finances publiques), the SIREN (the unique identification number of a French company), URSSAF (the body collecting social contributions), and BODACC (the official bulletin publishing company registrations and insolvencies).

Two points matter immediately for founders living outside France. First, a French subsidiary in the form of a SAS (societe par actions simplifiee, the flexible joint-stock company most foreign founders choose) or a SARL (societe a responsabilite limitee, the limited liability company with stricter statutory rules) is a taxable person established in France, so it falls fully within the reform. If you are still hesitating between these vehicles, our comparison of choosing between a SAS, a SARL, a branch and a subsidiary in France sets out the criteria. Second, the administration announced that the launch phase would be handled with benevolence and tolerance toward companies facing difficulties, but tolerance is not an exemption: the obligations apply, and only the penalty practice is softened at the start. The official page of the Ministry of the Economy states that the reform entered into force on 1 September 2026 and concerns more than ten million economic actors, which gives the scale of the change: your suppliers and customers are switching at the same time, so a company that cannot receive electronic invoices already creates friction for its partners.

I. What the reform requires from your French company now

A. Who must receive, who must already issue, and by when

The calendar is the same whether the founder lives in Paris or abroad, because it attaches to the company, not to the residence of its director. Since 1 September 2026, all companies without exception must be able to receive electronic invoices. Since the same date, large companies and intermediate-sized companies, known in French as ETI (entreprises de taille intermediaire), must also issue all their invoices in electronic form and transmit their transaction and payment data to the administration, a second duty called e-reporting. Small and micro-enterprises must be able to issue electronically and to transmit their e-reporting data from 1 September 2027. In practice, this means every foreign-held French company has at least one immediate duty today, which is reception, and possibly two more already, which are issuance and e-reporting, if it belongs to the first wave. Confirming your wave with your accountant is therefore the first question, because the commercial size categories are assessed at company level and a fast-growing subsidiary can cross a threshold without its foreign parent noticing.

The basic duty to invoice between taxable persons did not change: French tax law provides that “Tout assujetti est tenu de s’assurer qu’une facture est émise, par lui-même, ou en son nom et pour son compte, par son client ou par un tiers”, which means that every taxable person must ensure that an invoice is issued, by itself, or in its name and on its behalf, by its customer or by a third party. What the reform changes is the channel: for domestic transactions between established taxable persons, that invoice must now travel electronically through the approved circuit described below, and the data must reach the tax authority. The VAT itself remains due from the persons carrying out the taxable transactions, since “La taxe sur la valeur ajoutée doit être acquittée par les personnes qui réalisent les opérations imposables”, meaning that value added tax must be paid by the persons carrying out the taxable operations. E-invoicing does not create a new tax; it creates a new traceability of the tax, which is why the tax authority receives the data.

A frequent question from groups is what happens when the foreign parent has no French company at all but only a French VAT number. French law distinguishes establishment from mere VAT registration. Companies that are established in France, or have their domicile or habitual residence there, must transmit data electronically to the administration under the e-reporting rule, since “Les assujettis qui sont établis ou ont leur domicile ou leur résidence habituelle en France communiquent à l’administration sous forme électronique, selon des normes de transmission définies par arrêté du ministre chargé du budget, les données relatives aux opérations suivantes”, which means that taxable persons established in France, or having their domicile or habitual residence there, communicate to the administration in electronic form, under transmission standards set by order of the budget minister, the data relating to the listed operations. That article then lists cross-border cases in detail: exempt intra-Community deliveries, supplies to non-established taxable customers, services not located in France, distance sales, and purchases from non-established suppliers. If your structure combines a French subsidiary and direct sales from the foreign parent, map each flow separately: the subsidiary follows the full domestic e-invoicing circuit, while the parent’s cross-border flows fall into e-reporting categories that your adviser must qualify operation by operation. Our guide to VAT registration, thresholds, returns and penalties for foreign companies in France completes this picture for the registration side.

B. How an electronic invoice travels from your company to its customer

An electronic invoice is not a PDF attached to an email. It is structured data that travels from platform to platform. Once issued, the supplier sends its electronic invoice through the approved platform it has chosen beforehand, or through a compatible solution connected to such a platform, and the invoice is routed to the customer’s approved platform. Certain data from the invoice are then transmitted to the tax authority. The approved platform is called in French a plateforme agreee, often shortened to PA. A central directory, the annuaire, routes each invoice to the right recipient platform using the company’s identification data, starting with the SIREN. Some providers act as dematerialisation operators, or operateurs de dematerialisation, often shortened to OD: they are software solutions compatible with the circuit but they pass through an approved platform for the actual exchange and reporting. For public-sector customers, the dedicated portal remains Chorus Pro, the long-standing platform for invoices addressed to the State, local authorities and public bodies. From the founder’s point of view, the practical consequence is simple: you must choose an approved platform listed by the administration, your customers and suppliers must each have one, and the directory connects them. A supplier who sends a simple PDF by email after the applicable deadline has not issued an electronic invoice within the meaning of the reform.

The law allows you to organise this circuit through a third party, which matters when you run the company from abroad and your French accountant or invoicing provider operates the tools. Tax law provides that “Les factures peuvent être matériellement émises par le client ou par un tiers lorsque l’assujetti leur donne mandat à cet effet”, which means that invoices may be physically issued by the customer or by a third party where the taxable person gives them a mandate for that purpose. This covers self-billing by the customer and outsourcing to a provider, provided the mandate exists and each invoice is issued in the taxable person’s name and on its behalf. Keep that mandate in writing, define who validates the content before sending, and make sure the platform account is opened in the company’s name with access rights for the director, even if daily operation is delegated. A platform administered only through the personal account of a departed bookkeeper, with no access left to the company, is a recurring source of blockage in companies run from abroad.

Three substantive rules of the invoice itself deserve attention from English-speaking founders. First, language and currency. Amounts may be expressed in any currency, provided the VAT amount is determined in euros, and where the invoice is written in a foreign language the tax office may require a French translation for control purposes, since the law states that “Les montants figurant sur la facture peuvent être exprimés dans toute monnaie, pour autant que le montant de taxe à payer ou à régulariser soit déterminé en euros”, which means that the amounts on the invoice may be expressed in any currency as long as the tax amount payable or adjustable is determined in euros, and that “Lorsqu’elle est rédigée dans une langue étrangère, le service des impôts peut, à des fins de contrôle, exiger une traduction en français”, which means that where the invoice is drawn up in a foreign language, the tax department may require a French translation for control purposes. Billing your French customers entirely in English is therefore possible, but organise from the start who produces a French version on request, because a tax audit from abroad with untranslated invoices slows everything down. Second, authenticity and readability. The law requires that “L’authenticité de l’origine, l’intégrité du contenu et la lisibilité de la facture doivent être assurées à compter de son émission et jusqu’à la fin de sa période de conservation”, which means that the authenticity of origin, the integrity of content and the readability of the invoice must be ensured from issuance until the end of its retention period. The approved-platform circuit structurally answers this requirement, which is one reason the administration pushes all domestic flows through it. Third, retention. Commercial law provides that “Les documents comptables sont établis en euros et en langue française. Les documents comptables et les pièces justificatives sont conservés pendant dix ans”, which means that accounting documents are drawn up in euros and in the French language, and that accounting documents and supporting records are kept for ten years. Your platform archives the invoices, but verify contractually where the archive sits, for how long, in what format, and how you recover it if you change provider, because switching platforms mid-year without migrating the archive is a classic trap.

II. How to comply from abroad without blocking your business

A. Five steps that put a foreign-run company in order

First, confirm your wave and your flows. Ask your accountant to state in writing whether the French company belongs to the large-or-ETI wave already subject to issuance and e-reporting, or to the small-and-micro wave whose issuance duty starts on 1 September 2027, and to list every billing flow: domestic B2B invoices issued, domestic B2B invoices received, invoices to consumers, invoices to or from abroad, and invoices to public bodies through Chorus Pro. Reception is mandatory for all waves already, so a company that still receives supplier invoices only as email PDFs has a gap to close immediately, even if it only issues a handful of invoices per year. Keep that written qualification with the company’s records: it is the document that justifies the pace of your project if the administration ever asks why issuance was scheduled for a given date.

Second, choose and activate an approved platform that a non-resident director can actually operate. Consult the administration’s list of approved platforms on the impots.gouv.fr website, compare remote administration features, multi-user rights, English-language interfaces where needed, status tracking of invoices through the circuit, and archiving and export functions. Open the account in the company’s name, register the SIREN in the directory so customers can route invoices to you, and test reception before worrying about issuance: ask two suppliers to send electronic invoices through the circuit and check that they arrive, that notifications work, and that your team sees the processing statuses. Only then connect issuance, link the platform to your invoicing or accounting software, and run parallel tests with a cooperative customer before switching all billing over. Companies run from abroad should pay particular attention to signature rights and access recovery: if every validation depends on one person travelling, add a deputy with documented powers so billing never stops when the director is unreachable.

Third, bring the content of your invoices into full French compliance, because the electronic channel does not cure a defective invoice. Commercial law requires that “Tout achat de produits ou toute prestation de service pour une activité professionnelle fait l’objet d’une facturation. Le vendeur est tenu de délivrer la facture dès la réalisation de la livraison ou de la prestation de services”, which means that every purchase of products or provision of services for a professional activity must be invoiced, and that the seller must deliver the invoice upon completion of the delivery or the service, while “L’acheteur est tenu de la réclamer” means that the buyer must claim it. That article then details the mandatory mentions: names and addresses of the parties, billing address where different, date of sale or service, quantity, precise description, unit price excluding VAT, applicable price reductions, payment date, discount terms, late-penalty rate, fixed recovery indemnity, and the purchase order number where the buyer issued one. Review your templates line by line with these mentions, because foreign templates often omit the French fixed recovery indemnity or use vague descriptions that pass abroad and fail in France. Align payment terms at the same time: unless otherwise agreed, payment is due thirty days after receipt of goods or performance of the service, and agreed terms may not exceed sixty days from the invoice date, since the law states that “le délai de règlement des sommes dues ne peut dépasser trente jours après la date de réception des marchandises ou d’exécution de la prestation demandée”, which means that the period for payment of sums due may not exceed thirty days after the date of receipt of the goods or performance of the requested service, and that “Le délai convenu entre les parties pour régler les sommes dues ne peut dépasser soixante jours après la date d’émission de la facture”, which means that the period agreed between the parties for settling sums due may not exceed sixty days after the invoice date. An e-invoicing project is the right moment to fix templates that also breach payment-term rules.

Fourth, connect the reform to the company’s standing VAT and accounting duties. A company starting operations must file its initial VAT declaration within fifteen days of commencement, since tax law requires every taxable person “Dans les quinze jours du commencement de ses opérations, souscrire au bureau désigné par un arrêté une déclaration conforme au modèle fourni par l’administration”, which means within fifteen days of starting operations, to file with the office designated by order a declaration conforming to the administration’s model. Keep accounting records chronologically from day one, because commercial law provides that “Toute personne physique ou morale ayant la qualité de commerçant doit procéder à l’enregistrement comptable des mouvements affectant le patrimoine de son entreprise. Ces mouvements sont enregistrés chronologiquement”, which means that every natural or legal person with trader status must record in the accounts the movements affecting the company’s assets, and that these movements are recorded chronologically. E-invoicing feeds directly into this bookkeeping through the structured data, which reduces manual entry errors but also means that an invoice issued with the wrong VAT treatment propagates instantly into returns and e-reporting. For a company run from abroad, the practical lesson is to centralise VAT decisions: designate who chooses the VAT regime on each template, who validates exemptions and reverse-charge mentions, and who reconciles platform data with returns each month, rather than leaving these choices to whoever clicks send.

B. What missed duties cost, and how to fix a late start

The reform carries its own tax fines, distinct from the older fines for defective invoices. Failure to issue an invoice in electronic form where required costs fifty euros per invoice, capped per calendar year, since the law provides that “Le non-respect par l’assujetti de l’obligation d’émission d’une facture sous une forme électronique dans les conditions prévues à l’article 289 bis donne lieu à l’application d’une amende de 50 € par facture, sans que le total des amendes appliquées au titre d’une même année civile puisse être supérieur à 15 000 €”, which means that breach by a taxable person of the duty to issue an invoice in electronic form under the conditions of article 289 bis gives rise to a fine of fifty euros per invoice, capped at fifteen thousand euros per calendar year. A company issuing hundreds of paper invoices after its deadline therefore accumulates exposure quickly, even with the cap. The reception duty has its own escalating mechanism: where the administration finds that a taxable person fails to use an approved platform for receiving electronic invoices, it formally requires compliance within three months, since the law states that “elle le met en demeure de s’y conformer dans un délai de trois mois”, which means that it formally requires the person to comply within three months. Persistent breach after that period triggers a five-hundred-euro fine, then a new formal notice and a one-thousand-euro fine, since the law adds that “La persistance de la méconnaissance de l’obligation mentionnée audit premier alinéa à l’expiration du délai prévu au deuxième alinéa donne lieu à l’application d’une amende de 1 000 €”, which means that continued breach of the duty after expiry of the second three-month period gives rise to a one-thousand-euro fine, with further fines for each subsequent quarter of persistent breach. A company run from abroad should treat any formal notice from the tax authority as an absolute priority, because deadlines run regardless of travel schedules and the escalation is automatic.

These new fines sit alongside the existing sanctions that already punished invoice irregularities. Any omission or inaccuracy found in invoices triggers a fifteen-euro fine, since “Toute omission ou inexactitude constatée dans les factures ou documents en tenant lieu mentionnés aux articles 289 et 290 quinquies donne lieu à l’application d’une amende de 15 €”, which means that any omission or inaccuracy found in invoices or equivalent documents gives rise to a fifteen-euro fine. More seriously, disguising the identity of suppliers or customers, issuing invoices for fictitious transactions, or failing to issue invoices and to book transactions triggers a fine equal to fifty per cent of the amounts, with the professional customer jointly liable up to three hundred and seventy-five thousand euros per year, reduced to five per cent and thirty-seven thousand five hundred euros where the transaction was booked. On the commercial side, any breach of the invoicing mentions costs up to seventy-five thousand euros for an individual and three hundred and seventy-five thousand euros for a company, since “Tout manquement au I est passible d’une amende administrative dont le montant ne peut excéder 75 000 € pour une personne physique et 375 000 € pour une personne morale”, which means that any breach of the invoicing duties is liable to an administrative fine of up to seventy-five thousand euros for an individual and three hundred and seventy-five thousand for a legal person. Late payment breaches carry up to seventy-five thousand euros for an individual and two million euros for a company, since “Est passible d’une amende administrative dont le montant ne peut excéder 75 000 € pour une personne physique et deux millions d’euros pour une personne morale”, which means that the breach is liable to an administrative fine of up to seventy-five thousand euros for an individual and two million euros for a legal person. One safety valve exists: the fines for missing invoices, invoice inaccuracies, electronic issuance failures and platform transmission failures do not apply to a first infringement in the current and previous three calendar years where it was corrected spontaneously or within thirty days of an administration request. Combined with the tolerance approach announced for the launch, this gives late starters a narrow but real window: correct voluntarily and quickly, document the correction, and do not wait for a formal notice.

If your company is late, work in this order. Activate reception this week so no supplier invoice is lost and no formal notice can start running on that ground. Reconstruct issuance for the missing period by reissuing properly through the platform where the customer relationship allows it, or at minimum stop the bleeding by switching all new invoices to the circuit now. Reconcile platform data with VAT returns for each month concerned and correct the returns where the wrong treatment was applied. Keep evidence of every step: platform contracts, directory registration, mandate given to the provider, corrected templates, and correspondence with the accountant. A file that shows a dated, methodical return to compliance weighs heavily if fines are discussed later, while a file with nothing but email PDFs suggests the company never engaged with the reform.

Conclusion

For a founder living abroad, the French e-invoicing reform is a calendar discipline more than a technology project. Every French company must already receive electronic invoices through an approved platform, large and intermediate-sized companies must already issue them and transmit e-reporting data, and small and micro-enterprises follow on 1 September 2027. The invoice still obeys the classic French rules on mandatory mentions, payment terms, chronological accounts and ten-year retention, and the new circuit adds traceability plus per-invoice fines that accumulate fast. The companies that handle this well do four things: they qualify their wave in writing, they open a platform account in the company’s name with recoverable access, they fix their templates before connecting issuance, and they reconcile platform data with VAT returns every month. Done in that order, compliance from abroad is entirely manageable, and the billing machine keeps running while the file gets into order.