France · VAT

France e-Invoicing Mandate September 2026: Is Your Business Ready?

France's mandatory B2B e-invoicing launches in September 2026. With most businesses still unprepared, here is exactly what you need to do before the deadline.

What is changing for French VAT in September 2026?

France is rolling out one of the most significant tax reforms in a generation: mandatory business-to-business (B2B) electronic invoicing. From September 2026, French companies will no longer be able to exchange paper or simple PDF invoices for domestic B2B transactions. Instead, every invoice must pass through an approved digital channel.

The reform is driven by the Direction Générale des Finances Publiques (DGFiP) and aims to combat VAT fraud, simplify reporting, and give the tax authority near real-time visibility of transactions. Despite the scale of the change, surveys suggest the majority of French businesses are still not ready.

1. What the mandate requires

All domestic B2B transactions between VAT-registered businesses established in France must use approved e-invoicing infrastructure. There are two routes:

• PPF (Portail Public de Facturation) — the public portal, which no longer serves as a free exchange platform but maintains the central directory and acts as the data hub feeding the tax authority
• PDP (Plateforme de Dématérialisation Partenaire, now formally “Plateforme Agréée”) — private certified platforms registered with the DGFiP that handle issuing, transmitting, and receiving compliant e-invoices

In practice, most businesses will connect through a PDP, which sends invoice data to the buyer and reports the required information to the tax authority on your behalf.

2. The DGFiP list of approved platforms is now live

The DGFiP has published its official register of certified platforms — 101 PDPs have now been approved — and a voluntary pilot phase runs from late February to the end of August 2026, letting businesses test live flows before the mandate bites. Choosing a platform early matters because onboarding, integration with your accounting or ERP system, and supplier coordination all take time. When evaluating a PDP, check that it:

• Holds valid DGFiP registration as a Plateforme de Dématérialisation Partenaire
• Supports the required structured formats (Factur-X, UBL, and CII)
• Integrates with your existing accounting or ERP software
• Handles both e-invoicing and the related e-reporting obligations

3. The phased timeline

After repeated delays, the calendar is now fixed — the National Assembly rejected a further one-year deferral in April 2025. The obligation is being introduced in stages based on company size:

• September 2026: all businesses must be able to receive e-invoices, and large companies and mid-size enterprises must begin issuing them
• September 2027: the issuing obligation extends to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and micro-businesses

Crucially, even if your issuing deadline is 2027, you must be able to receive compliant e-invoices from September 2026 — because your larger suppliers will already be sending them.

4. What happens if you miss the deadline

Non-compliance carries financial penalties. A non-compliant invoice attracts a fine of €15 per invoice, capped at €15,000 per year, and each missing e-reporting transmission €250, under the same annual cap. Invoices issued in the wrong format can also be challenged in a tax audit, putting input VAT deductions at risk — and compliant archiving obligations run to ten years. Beyond the direct penalties, businesses risk:

• Invoices being rejected by customers who can only accept compliant e-invoices
• Delays to payment and cash-flow disruption
• Increased audit exposure due to reporting gaps

5. Cross-border sellers: e-reporting deferred to 2027

The domestic e-invoicing mandate applies to transactions where both parties are established in France. Foreign businesses holding a French VAT registration without an establishment are not required to issue domestic e-invoices — but they do fall within the separate e-reporting obligation for transactions taxable in France.

Two pieces of good news came out of the government's simplification package of 29 August 2025: e-reporting obligations for non-established taxpayers were deferred to September 2027, aligning them with the SME wave, and the requirement for line-item e-reporting of incoming international invoices was dropped. If you sell into France under a foreign VAT registration, 2027 — not 2026 — is your deadline, but the systems groundwork is the same.

Conclusion

France's September 2026 e-invoicing mandate is not optional, and the lead time to implement it properly is short. Businesses that act now — selecting a PDP, cleaning their data, and testing their workflow — will move into the new regime smoothly, while those who wait risk rejected invoices, payment delays, and penalties.