If you run a French company from London, New York, Dubai or Singapore, a reform that started on 1 September 2026 changes the way your business bills and gets billed. France has generalised electronic invoicing between VAT-registered businesses: every company established in France must now be able to receive invoices in electronic form, and the obligation to send them applies already to large companies and intermediate-sized companies, before extending to small and medium-sized companies and micro-businesses on 1 September 2027. A PDF attached to an ordinary email no longer counts. Invoices must travel through an accredited platform, in a standardised format, with new mandatory details. For a founder who lives abroad, the risk is practical as much as legal: an invoice that does not comply can be rejected by the customer’s platform, your value-added tax (VAT, known in France as TVA, taxe sur la valeur ajoutée) deduction can be challenged, and administrative fines can reach hundreds of thousands of euros. This article explains, entirely from official texts and court decisions, what the mandate covers, which deadlines apply to your company, how to organise compliance from abroad, and what non-compliance costs in fines, tax reassessments and court disputes.

I. What the French e-invoicing mandate requires of your company

A. Which invoices must go electronic, and by when, including for founders who live abroad

The legal basis sits in the French Tax Code (Code général des impôts, abbreviated CGI, the statute that gathers the main French tax rules). Its Article 289 bis provides that “l’émission, la transmission et la réception des factures relatives aux opérations mentionnées aux a et d du 1 du I dudit article 289 ainsi qu’aux acomptes s’y rapportant s’opèrent sous une forme électronique, selon des normes de facturation électronique définies par arrêté du ministre chargé du budget, lorsque l’émetteur de la facture et son destinataire sont des assujettis qui sont établis ou ont leur domicile ou leur résidence habituelle en France” (Article 289 bis of the French Tax Code (CGI) on Légifrance). In plain English: where both the supplier and the customer are VAT persons (assujettis, meaning persons liable to VAT) established in France, the invoice must be issued, transmitted and received electronically, in formats set by order of the Minister for the Budget. The same article adds the operational key: “L’émission, la transmission et la réception des factures électroniques s’effectuent en recourant à une plateforme agréée” (Article 289 bis of the CGI on the accredited platform). A plateforme agréée is a private invoicing platform accredited by the State; your company must designate one to send and receive its invoices, directly or through compatible software.

The scope follows the domestic business-to-business perimeter. It covers supplies of goods and services located in France between two VAT persons that are not VAT-exempt, advance payments (acomptes, meaning deposits paid before the supply takes place) relating to those transactions, and auction sales of second-hand goods, works of art, collectables and antiques. The official page of the tax administration (Direction générale des finances publiques, DGFiP, the French tax authority) confirms that electronic invoicing is generalised between businesses from 1 September 2026 (French tax administration page: what electronic invoicing changes for you), and the official Service Public site for businesses, updated on 27 February 2026, states that the obligation concerns all transactions between VAT-registered businesses established in France (Service Public: electronic invoicing is coming soon).

The calendar is staggered, and this is where foreign founders often misunderstand their position. The obligation to receive electronic invoices applies to every business from 1 September 2026, whatever its size. The obligation to issue them takes effect on 1 September 2026 for large companies and intermediate-sized companies (ETI, entreprises de taille intermédiaire, the French category between large groups and SMEs) and on 1 September 2027 for small and medium-sized companies and micro-businesses. Most companies created by foreign founders are SMEs, so their issuing obligation starts in September 2027 — but their receiving obligation started in September 2026, which means they already need a designated platform that can accept supplier invoices, or those invoices will not reach them. Your residence abroad changes nothing: what counts is that the company is established in France, identified by its SIREN number (the nine-digit identifier issued by the French business register, INSEE, to every legal entity), and liable to French VAT.

One common cross-border situation deserves attention. Where the supplier is established outside France and the customer is your French VAT-registered company, Article 283 of the CGI organises the reverse charge: where a supply falling under Article 259 A is made by a supplier established outside France, “la taxe est acquittée par l’acquéreur, le destinataire ou le preneur qui agit en tant qu’assujetti et qui dispose d’un numéro d’identification à la taxe sur la valeur ajoutée en France” (Article 283 of the CGI on reverse charge). The same article specifies that “Le montant dû est identifié sur la déclaration mentionnée à l’ article 287” (Article 283 of the CGI on declaring reverse-charge VAT). If your French subsidiary buys services from your foreign parent company, it is normally the French company that accounts for the French VAT on its own VAT return (the CA3, the standard French VAT return form, explained in our guide to registering for French VAT and filing CA3 returns from abroad). The e-invoicing mandate does not remove that mechanism, but the related reporting changes: alongside invoices, businesses must transmit transaction data to the administration (e-reporting of transactions from 1 September 2026) and later payment data (e-reporting of payments from 1 September 2027), according to the tax administration’s timetable. Cross-border flows that sit outside invoicing proper therefore remain visible to the administration through reporting.

The general invoicing duty itself predates the reform and stays in place. Article 289 of the CGI states 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” (Article 289 of the CGI on the obligation to issue invoices), and that “La facture est, en principe, émise dès la réalisation de la livraison ou de la prestation de services” (Article 289 of the CGI on when invoices must be issued). Commercial law mirrors it: Article L. 441-9 of the Commercial Code (Code de commerce) opens with “Tout achat de produits ou toute prestation de service pour une activité professionnelle fait l’objet d’une facturation” and continues “Le vendeur est tenu de délivrer la facture dès la réalisation de la livraison ou de la prestation de services au sens du 3 du I de l’article 289 du code général des impôts” and “L’acheteur est tenu de la réclamer” (Article L. 441-9 of the Commercial Code on invoicing). Both parties keep a copy of each invoice. For a founder abroad, the consequence is direct: your French company cannot agree with a supplier or a customer to skip invoices, postpone them indefinitely, or settle on informal statements. The invoice is the document the tax authority, the commercial court and the auditor will ask for first.

B. The invoice stays a tax and commercial document with strict content, plus new mandatory details

The reform adds information that must appear on invoices, on the same staggered calendar: the customer’s SIREN number, the delivery address of goods where it differs from the billing address, a statement of whether the invoiced operations are exclusively supplies of goods, exclusively services, or both, and, where the supplier has chosen it, the note that VAT is paid on the debit (TVA sur les débits, the option for a service provider to account for VAT when the invoice is issued rather than when the price is received). These four items must appear on invoices issued from 1 September 2026 by large and intermediate-sized companies and from 1 September 2027 by SMEs and micro-businesses, according to the Service Public notice (Service Public: new mandatory invoice details). They sit on top of the long-standing list: names and addresses of the parties, billing address where different, date of sale or service, quantity, precise description, unit price excluding VAT, price reductions linked to the transaction, date by which payment must be made, discount conditions for early payment, the rate of late-payment penalties due from the day after the payment date shown on the invoice, the fixed compensation for recovery costs due for late payment, and the purchase-order number where the buyer issued one. A founder who prepares invoices from abroad with foreign accounting software must check that the template produces every French line, because a missing line is not a cosmetic defect: it is the entry point for fines and for disputes over payment.

VAT returns follow their own rhythm, and e-invoicing data must reconcile with them. Article 287 of the CGI requires that “Tout redevable de la taxe sur la valeur ajoutée identifié conformément aux dispositions combinées des articles 286 ter et 286 ter A est tenu de remettre au service des impôts dont il dépend et dans le délai fixé par arrêté une déclaration conforme au modèle prescrit par l’administration” (Article 287 of the CGI on VAT returns). Businesses under the standard real regime file monthly and pay the VAT due each month: “Les redevables soumis au régime réel normal d’imposition déposent mensuellement la déclaration visée au 1 indiquant, d’une part, le montant total des opérations réalisées, d’autre part, le détail des opérations taxables. La taxe exigible est acquittée tous les mois.” Where the annual VAT due is below 4,000 euros, quarterly filing is allowed: “Lorsque la taxe exigible annuellement est inférieure à 4 000 €, ils sont admis à déposer leurs déclarations par trimestre civil” (Article 287 of the CGI on monthly and quarterly filing). Registration itself starts at the beginning: Article 286 requires a new VAT person, within fifteen days of starting operations, to file a declaration with the office designated by order — “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” (Article 286 of the CGI on declaring the start of activity). In practice today that declaration passes through the single online business formalities portal (Guichet unique, operated from the INPI, the French intellectual-property and business-registry office), and the company’s registration produces the SIREN number and the Kbis extract (the Kbis being the official identity card of a French company, issued by the clerk of the commercial court, the greffe du tribunal de commerce). For readers creating the structure now, our guide to choosing between a SAS, a SARL, a branch and a subsidiary from abroad explains the vehicle, and the VAT guide covers the number itself. The point here is consistency: the SIREN on the invoice, the VAT number on the return, and the turnover in the accounts must tell the same story, because reconciliation gaps are exactly what audits exploit.

Payment terms printed on the invoice also carry hard legal limits. Article L. 441-10 of the Commercial Code 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” 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” (Article L. 441-10 of the Commercial Code on payment periods). A longer period of up to forty-five days end of month after issue can be agreed only where the contract expressly provides for it. Foreign founders sometimes import payment habits from home — ninety days, payment on next funding round, set-off against group balances — and print them on French invoices. Those clauses expose the company to administrative fines, and they complicate collection: a debtor who knows the clause is unlawful has one more reason not to pay on time.

II. How to comply from abroad, and what non-compliance costs

A. How a founder living abroad organises e-invoicing, accredited platforms and reporting

The first decision is the platform. Article 289 bis requires invoices to pass through an accredited platform and creates a central directory (annuaire central) that the State places at the platforms’ disposal so they can route invoices to the recipient’s platform. In practice, your company designates its platform — directly or through accounting software that connects to one — and registers its routing details so suppliers’ platforms can find it. From September 2026, any supplier invoice sent as a simple PDF to your inbox is not a compliant electronic invoice: if your company has no designated receiving channel, compliant supplier invoices may wait on a platform nobody consults, while the supplier considers them delivered. The reverse is equally true for your customers. Organise a weekly routine, even from abroad: someone responsible — you, your French accountant (expert-comptable, the regulated French accounting professional), or an administrative manager — checks the platform, downloads received invoices, and issues yours in the standardised format.

Public-sector customers follow a specific channel. Invoices addressed to French public bodies pass through Chorus Pro, the State’s portal for public procurement billing, which predates the general reform. Article 289 bis expressly reserves that channel: “Sans préjudice de l’article L. 2392-1 du code de la commande publique, le présent article n’est pas applicable aux opérations faisant l’objet d’une mesure de classification au sens de l’article 413-9 du code pénal” (Article 289 bis of the CGI on public procurement and classified operations). If your French company sells to a municipality, a hospital or a ministry, enrol it on Chorus Pro in addition to the accredited platform, and keep both circuits separate: a public invoice sent only through the private platform is not received by the public customer, and limitation periods for payment do not run until proper submission.

Beyond invoices, the reform makes the company visible through data. The e-reporting of transaction data, in force from 1 September 2026, sends the administration data on transactions that are outside electronic invoicing — typically business with foreign or private customers — and the e-reporting of payment data follows from 1 September 2027, according to the tax administration’s timetable (French tax administration: e-reporting timetable). For a group with a foreign parent, this matters: management fees, royalties, intra-group services and cross-border supplies that never produce a French electronic invoice still feed the administration’s data. Keep transfer-pricing documentation, intercompany agreements and the corresponding VAT treatment aligned with the reported figures, because coherent data closes questions while divergent data opens audits.

A short operational checklist works well for founders abroad. First, confirm the company’s size category and therefore its issuing date: 2026 for large and intermediate-sized companies, 2027 for SMEs and micro-businesses, with reception mandatory for all from 2026. Second, select an accredited platform that handles English-language interfaces if your working language is English, and mandate in writing whoever operates it — the expert-comptable or an employee — with clear authority to issue, receive and archive. Third, update invoice templates with the four new details (customer SIREN, delivery address, nature of operations, VAT-on-debit note where applicable) and test one invoice end to end before the deadline: emission, routing through the directory, receipt by the customer’s platform, and archiving with integrity guarantees. Fourth, connect the platform to the accounting system so that turnover, VAT returns and the annual accounts draw on the same figures; the annual legal calendar of a French company shows how approval of accounts, general meetings and filings with the court clerk chain together, and e-invoicing now feeds the first link of that chain. Fifth, file the method in the company’s records: platform contract, directory registration proof, template versions, and the names of the persons authorised to invoice. When an inspector, an auditor or a judge asks how the company bills, that file answers in five minutes instead of five weeks.

B. Fines, tax consequences and courtroom lessons for invoices that do not comply

Commercial law punishes missing or defective invoices directly. Article L. 441-9 provides that “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” (Article L. 441-9 of the Commercial Code on fines). Breaches of payment periods and related mentions fall under Article L. 441-16, which targets conduct “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” (Article L. 441-16 of the Commercial Code on administrative fines). These fines are imposed by the administration (DGCCRF, the French competition, consumer-affairs and fraud-control authority) after an inspection, without going through a court, and they apply per company. A foreign founder who treats invoicing as back-office paperwork discovers here that it is a regulated act: each missing mention, each absent invoice, each unlawful payment clause is a separate exposure.

Tax law adds its own layer, heavier still. Article 1737 of the CGI punishes fictitious invoicing — “De la facture, le fait de délivrer une facture ne correspondant pas à une livraison ou à une prestation de service réelle” — and punishes missing invoices — “De la transaction, le fait de ne pas délivrer une facture” — with a fine equal to 50 percent of the amounts at stake (Article 1737 of the CGI on invoicing penalties). Crucially for business readers, the professional customer shares the risk: “Le client professionnel est solidairement tenu au paiement de cette amende, qui ne peut excéder 375 000 € par exercice” (Article 1737 of the CGI on the customer’s joint liability). Accepting accommodation invoices from a supplier, or asking a supplier not to invoice so that a payment stays invisible, can therefore cost the customer itself up to 375,000 euros per financial year. Where the transaction was at least recorded in the accounts, the fine is reduced, but the mechanism stays severe by design: the invoice is the document that makes turnover visible, and hiding turnover is treated as fraud, not informality.

The courts confirm, case after case, that invoices and accounting records decide commercial disputes. The Commercial Chamber of the Court of Cassation (Cour de cassation, France’s supreme court for civil and commercial matters) held, in a judgment of 26 February 2013 (appeal no. 12-14.771, published in the Bulletin), that the tax administration’s right to obtain documents reaches beyond strict bookkeeping: “les documents annexes concernés par ledit article L. 85 ne sont pas seulement les pièces de nature comptable au sens strict du terme, mais toutes celles qui ont une corrélation certaine avec les données de la comptabilité commerciale, ce qui inclut nécessairement les facturations et ce qui s’y rattache, y compris les commandes, contrats et avenants quand ils sont, comme en la présente cause, liés à la comptabilité” (Court of Cassation, Commercial Chamber, 26 February 2013, no. 12-14.771). In an audit, the inspector can therefore demand orders, contracts and riders linked to invoicing, not only the ledger. A founder who keeps contracts in the foreign parent’s files and invoices in the French subsidiary’s software should reunite them before the inspector asks.

The same chamber recalled, on 24 May 2018 (appeal no. 17-13.211), that judges cannot declare accounts irregular with vague reasoning: ruling on a director’s personal bankruptcy for allegedly missing accounts, it held that “Qu’en se déterminant par ces seuls motifs, impropres à caractériser le défaut de tenue d’une comptabilité régulière et complète, la cour d’appel n’a pas donné de base légale à sa décision” (Court of Cassation, Commercial Chamber, 24 May 2018, no. 17-13.211). The lesson runs both ways. A director is protected against loose findings of irregular accounting — but where tax verifications show that VAT returns were simply not filed for years, the protection evaporates, and personal bankruptcy or a management ban can follow. Regular invoicing through the platform, reconciled with filed VAT returns, is the everyday proof that the accounts are complete.

Finally, invoices win or lose payment claims. The Paris Court of Appeal (Cour d’appel de Paris, the appellate court for the Paris region), Pôle 5, Chamber 3, in a judgment of 13 November 2025 (RG no. 22/16095), decided a dispute where a contractor billed under a second quotation that the client said it had never signed. The court recalled the formation rules — the contract arises from offer and acceptance, which “peut résulter d’une déclaration ou d’un comportement non équivoque de son auteur” — and the evidential rule on silence: “si le silence ne vaut pas acceptation à lui seul, il n’en est pas de même lorsque des circonstances particulières qui l’entoure permettent de donner à ce silence la signification d’une acceptation” (Paris Court of Appeal, Pôle 5, Chamber 3, 13 November 2025, RG no. 22/16095). Work performed without protest, emails showing involvement, and invoices left unchallenged can together establish acceptance — while a quotation never signed, never followed by any unambiguous conduct, establishes nothing. For founders abroad who negotiate by video call and confirm by short messages, the message is clear: write the acceptance, sign the quotation, keep the email thread, and let the invoice mirror exactly what was agreed. Electronic invoicing makes this easier, because platforms timestamp every step, but only if the underlying agreement exists in writing.

Conclusion

France’s electronic-invoicing mandate is not a software upgrade; it is a change in the legal status of the invoice. Since 1 September 2026 every company established in France must be able to receive electronic invoices through an accredited platform, and the issuing obligation already binds large and intermediate-sized companies, reaching SMEs and micro-businesses on 1 September 2027. The invoice keeps its foundations — mandatory issue under Article 289 of the Tax Code and Article L. 441-9 of the Commercial Code, strict content, capped payment periods — and gains new details, a standardised electronic route, and systematic data reporting to the administration. The sanctions for neglecting it are measured in hundreds of thousands of euros, shared in tax matters with the professional customer, and the courts decide payment and accounting disputes on the documents the parties kept. A founder living abroad complies by designating a platform now, updating templates, separating public-sector billing through Chorus Pro, reconciling invoices with VAT returns and accounts, and filing the method where the company can show it. Done this way, e-invoicing becomes what it should be for a foreign investor: one more proof, produced automatically with each sale, that the French company is run properly.