You live in London, Dubai, New York or Singapore and you run a French company — usually a SAS (société par actions simplifiée, the flexible French corporation foreign founders prefer) or a SARL (société à responsabilité limitée, the French limited-liability company). Your accountant in Paris sends you PDFs, you forward them to clients, everybody pays, and you assume invoicing is settled. That assumption expires on 1 September 2026. On that date France switches domestic business-to-business invoicing to a fully electronic circuit: invoices must travel through an accredited platform, the data must reach the tax administration, and every company — including yours, managed from a laptop thousands of kilometres away — must at least be able to receive invoices in the new format. Large companies must also issue them electronically from September 2026, and smaller ones follow in September 2027. Miss the switch and each paper invoice can cost 50 euros in tax fines, capped at 15,000 euros per calendar year, on top of older commercial fines that reach 375,000 euros for a company. This guide explains, for a non-French reader, which of your sales fall inside the mandate and from which date, how to issue a compliant electronic invoice while living abroad, and how controls and penalties work — including how to challenge them from outside France. It builds on our walk-through of setting up a company in France as a foreign founder and complements our analysis of invoicing French clients and reverse-charge VAT rules.
I. Which of your French sales fall inside the mandate, and from which date
The reform looks technical, but its logic is simple: the French tax administration (the DGFiP, Direction générale des finances publiques) wants to see every domestic business-to-business invoice in real time. To decide what you must do and when, work through two questions in order — are your transactions covered, and which deadline applies to a company of your size.
A. Are your transactions covered by electronic invoicing or by the parallel data duty?
The core duty sits in the French Tax Code (the CGI, Code général des impôts). Article 289 bis of the CGI 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.” In plain English: where both the supplier and the customer are VAT-taxable persons (assujettis) established, domiciled or habitually resident in France, and the sale is one of the standard taxable supplies of goods or services listed in Article 289 — plus related advance payments — the invoice must be issued, sent and received electronically, in formats set by order of the Budget Minister. The same article adds the sentence that governs your practical organisation: “L’émission, la transmission et la réception des factures électroniques s’effectuent en recourant à une plateforme agréée.” You cannot simply email a PDF and call it electronic invoicing; the invoice must pass through an accredited platform (a PDP, plateforme de dématérialisation partenaire, registered with the administration), which forwards the data to the tax office.
Three boundaries matter for a foreign-managed company. First, the mandate covers domestic B2B sales: both parties taxable and established in France. Sales to private consumers, sales to customers established outside France, and transactions that are exempt from VAT sit outside the issuing duty — but they remain subject to paperwork duties. For those flows France imposes a parallel duty called e-reporting: the company transmits its transaction and payment data electronically to the administration even though no electronic invoice is issued to the customer. The Ministry for the Economy describes e-reporting as the transmission of transaction and payment data to the tax administration for business-to-consumer sales and cross-border flows (explanatory page of the Ministry for the Economy). If your French SAS sells to French individuals online, or bills clients in the United States or the Gulf, expect an e-reporting duty alongside — or instead of — the e-invoicing duty, and ask your platform how it handles both channels. Second, the general VAT invoicing duty already exists underneath the reform: 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”, and that “La facture est, en principe, émise dès la réalisation de la livraison ou de la prestation de services.” The reform changes the channel, not the principle: if you had to invoice before, you still have to invoice — now electronically and through the platform. Third, intra-European Union sales keep their own reporting: Article 289 B of the CGI requires that “Tout assujetti identifié à la taxe sur la valeur ajoutée doit déposer, dans un délai et selon des modalités fixés par décret, un état récapitulatif des clients, avec leur numéro d’identification à la taxe sur la valeur ajoutée”, the recapitulative statement (déclaration d’échanges de biens et état récapitulatif) that accompanies intra-EU supplies of goods and services. E-invoicing does not replace that statement; the two circuit run side by side.
A common question from founders abroad is whether a small company under the VAT franchise escapes the reform. The franchise (franchise en base de TVA) exempts small businesses below certain turnover ceilings from charging VAT, and Article 293 B of the CGI warns that “Lorsque l’un des plafonds de chiffre d’affaires prévus aux I ou I bis du présent article pour les opérations de l’année en cours est dépassé, la franchise cesse de s’appliquer pour les opérations intervenant à compter de la date du dépassement.” Franchise or not, your company remains a taxable person, and the receiving side of the reform applies to every company: from 1 September 2026 all companies must be capable of receiving electronic invoices through an accredited platform, as the Ministry for the Economy confirms (Ministry for the Economy, timetable of the reform). A franchisee that buys from French suppliers will receive its suppliers’ invoices through the platform whether it charges VAT or not, so even the smallest structure managed from abroad must choose a reception channel before the deadline.
B. Which deadline applies to a company of your size?
The rollout is staged by company size, and the dates now in force are 1 September 2026 and 1 September 2027. According to the Ministry for the Economy, from 1 September 2026 all companies must be able to receive electronic invoices, and large companies (grandes entreprises) plus intermediate-sized companies (ETI, entreprises de taille intermédiaire) must also issue their invoices electronically through an accredited platform (Ministry for the Economy, timetable of the reform). The English-language business portal confirms the same staging, stating that the issuing duty applies from 1 September 2026 to large companies and intermediate-sized companies and then from 1 September 2027 to small and medium-sized companies and micro-businesses (Service Public Entreprendre, electronic invoicing in force since 1 September 2026). The legal spine of that calendar is the e-invoicing article itself — Article 289 bis of the CGI — read together with its implementing decree (Decree No. 2022-1299 of 7 October 2022 on the generalisation of electronic invoicing) and the amending finance legislation that postponed the original 2024 dates; the administration’s timetable pages cited above give the consolidated dates founders must actually work to.
In practice, map your company onto three bands. If your French structure belongs to a large group or qualifies as an intermediate-sized company, you issue electronically from 1 September 2026 and you receive electronically from the same date. If it is an SME or micro-business — the usual case for a subsidiary or SAS created by a foreign founder with one or two employees — you must receive electronically from 1 September 2026 and issue electronically from 1 September 2027, while e-reporting of your consumer and cross-border data starts on your band’s date (Ministry for the Economy, timetable of the reform). Do not read the 2027 date as a year of rest: the receiving duty hits you in 2026, your suppliers will send platform-routed invoices from then, and a company that cannot receive them will clog its own accounts payable while its accountants chase PDFs that no longer count as originals. Founders living abroad should also diary the platform-migration point: the State provides the accredited platforms with a central directory (annuaire central) for routing invoices, since Article 289 bis of the CGI states that “Par dérogation à l’article L. 151-1 du code de commerce, l’Etat met un annuaire central à la disposition des plateformes agréées.” Your SIREN number (the nine-digit identifier the INSEE issues to every French company) and your platform choice feed that directory, so register your routing choice early and keep it updated if you change provider — an invoice routed to the wrong platform is an invoice you may never see.
II. How to issue a compliant invoice from abroad and defeat penalties
Knowing the deadline is half the job. The other half is operational: producing invoices that carry every mandatory particular, in a format the platform accepts, archived for the full retention period — all while you sign off from another time zone. Then, if the administration knocks, knowing which fine applies and how to answer it.
A. What does a compliant electronic invoice look like when you live outside France?
Start with content, because the platform does not cure a defective invoice — it transmits it. Commercial law lists the particulars every professional invoice must carry, and Article L441-9 of the Commercial Code opens with the blunt rule that “Tout achat de produits ou toute prestation de service pour une activité professionnelle fait l’objet d’une facturation.” The same article requires that “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 reminds buyers that “L’acheteur est tenu de la réclamer.” The detailed mentions follow: names and addresses of both parties (plus the billing address where different), date of the sale or service, quantity, precise description, unit price excluding VAT, any price reduction acquired at the date of sale, payment deadline, discount terms for early payment, the rate of late-payment penalties due the day after the payment date shown, the fixed recovery indemnity for collection costs, and the purchase-order number where the buyer issued one (Article L441-9 of the Commercial Code). VAT mentions sit in Article 289 of the Tax Code and its annexes — VAT rate and amount per rate, taxable base, and where relevant the customer’s EU VAT number or the “reverse charge” (autoliquidation) wording for the cross-border services analysed in our companion piece on invoicing French clients and reverse-charge VAT.
Then comes the format. A PDF attached to an email is not an electronic invoice within the reform: the invoice must be a structured file (the market standards are Factur-X, UBL and CII, which combine a readable PDF with machine-readable XML) created or converted to the Budget Ministry’s standards and routed through your accredited platform, which forwards the fiscal data to the administration — Article 289 E of the CGI provides that “Les données des factures électroniques émises en application du I de l’article 289 bis sont transmises à l’administration par la plateforme agréée choisie par l’assujetti.” Practically, a founder abroad has three setup tasks. First, appoint an accredited platform (the business portal publishes the list of registered accredited platforms: Service Public Entreprendre, list of accredited platforms) and connect it to your billing software or your accountant’s system, testing with real counterparties before August 2026 so September is not your pilot month. Second, organise reception: designate the platform address your suppliers must use, feed it to the central directory, and tell your suppliers — from 1 September 2026 their compliant invoices arrive there, not in your inbox (Ministry for the Economy, timetable of the reform). Third, secure archiving: Article L123-22 of the Commercial Code requires that “Les documents comptables sont établis en euros et en langue française. Les documents comptables et les pièces justificatives sont conservés pendant dix ans.” Keep the electronic originals — with their platform transmission proofs — for ten years, in euros and in French, in a repository your Paris accountant and, on demand, the auditor can open without your personal intervention. A founder who travels should also give a written mandate to the accountant or a local manager for platform administration (adding users, changing routing, downloading archives), because a locked account during your holiday is how deadlines get missed.
B. Controls, fines and how to challenge them without living in France
The administration checks invoicing during ordinary tax audits. Article L13 of the Tax Procedures Book provides that “Les agents de l’administration des impôts vérifient sur place, en suivant les règles prévues par le présent livre, la comptabilité des contribuables astreints à tenir et à présenter des documents comptables.” For a company run from abroad, “on site” means your French premises, your accountant’s office, or any place agreed with the auditor — and where accounting is computerised, the audit covers the full information system, data processing and documentation. E-invoicing makes that audit easier for the administration than ever: platform data already sits on its servers, so a missing or paper invoice is spotted without visiting anyone. That is why the reform pairs the technical duty with its own fine scale in Article 1737 of the CGI: “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 €.” Fifty euros per invoice sounds modest until you multiply it by a year of monthly subscriptions or daily deliveries — the 15,000-euro annual cap is the only ceiling. The same article punishes sloppy content: “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 €.” (Article 1737 of the CGI). Platforms face their own scale — “Toute omission ou tout manquement par une plateforme agréée aux obligations de transmission de données mentionnées à l’article 289 E donne lieu à une amende de 50 € par facture mise à la charge de cette plateforme, sans que le total des amendes appliquées au titre d’une même année civile puisse être supérieur à 45 000 €.” (Article 1737 of the CGI) — which gives you a contractual argument to demand service credits from a defaulting provider, since its failure is separately punishable.
Two procedural cushions soften the bite, and both favour founders who react fast. First, for the receiving duty, the administration must warn before fining: Article 1737 of the CGI states that “Lorsque l’administration constate une omission ou un manquement par l’assujetti à l’obligation de recourir à une plateforme agréée pour la réception de factures électroniques prévue au I de l’article 289 bis du présent code, elle le met en demeure de s’y conformer dans un délai de trois mois.” A formal notice (mise en demeure) giving three months to comply must therefore precede any sanction for failing to receive through a platform — use that window to appoint a platform, register in the directory and document the fix, because a file showing compliance within the notice period is your strongest exhibit. Second, the older commercial fine regime still applies to defective or missing invoices generally: “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 L441-9 of the Commercial Code), doubled on repeated infringements. Distance is no defence, but it is also no barrier to challenging: reply to the audit proposals within the stated deadlines by registered letter with acknowledgment or through your counsel, attach your platform transmission logs and corrected invoices, request a meeting (including by videoconference, which Paris tax offices routinely accept), and escalate through hierarchical appeal and, if needed, the administrative court. Companies domiciled in Paris deal with the Paris tax offices (the DRFiP direction régionale des finances publiques for Paris) and keep their records available at the French establishment or the accountant’s office — an auditor will not fly to your home country, but expects the file to be complete in France. Voyage and case-law databases consulted for this article return no on-point published decision on the new e-invoicing fines yet, which is unsurprising for a duty that only becomes enforceable in September 2026; the defence therefore rests on the statutory texts above, applied literally, and on proof of prompt regularisation.
Practical tip for September 2026: run a parallel circuit during August, sending every invoice both the old way and through the platform, then reconcile the platform transmission reports against your sales ledger before the receiving duty bites. Keep screenshots of your directory registration and your platform contract alongside the ten-year archive, since they prove diligence if an auditor questions your setup date.
Conclusion
For a founder living abroad, the French e-invoicing reform condenses into four moves: confirm whether your sales are domestic B2B transactions covered by Article 289 bis or consumer and cross-border flows under e-reporting; diary 1 September 2026 for receiving in all cases and for issuing if you are a large or intermediate-sized company, with 1 September 2027 for smaller companies’ issuing duty; appoint an accredited platform now, register your routing in the central directory, and produce invoices carrying every Article L441-9 and Article 289 particular in a structured format archived ten years in euros and in French; and if a control or a formal notice arrives, regularise inside the three-month window and answer with platform logs rather than silence, since the 50-euro-per-invoice fine and the older commercial fines punish inertia far more than error. Done early, the switch is an administrative project; done late, from another country and under audit pressure, it becomes a penalty file. Founders who treat the platform appointment, the directory registration and the August parallel run as corporate housekeeping — minuted, filed and retrievable in France — will face September 2026 as a routine upgrade rather than a crisis.