French e-invoicing from 1 September 2026: what a self-employed professional must have done before the deadline

The confusion to clear up straight away: two obligations, two dates

The reform is routinely boiled down to a single date, 1 September 2026, and many professionals conclude from this that they will have to invoice differently by then. For the vast majority of them, that is simply not the case.

This category-by-category timetable is set out in article 3 of decree no. 2022-1299 of 7 October 2022. The obligation to receive invoices, on the other hand, is universal and admits of no exception: it applies to all businesses established in France and registered for VAT, under article 289 bis of the French Tax Code (« Code général des impôts »).

In other words: on 1 September 2026 you do not change the way you invoice, but you must be able to receive your suppliers' invoices electronically.

The timetable is confirmed — there has been no postponement

This reform has been postponed often enough (the move from 2024 to 2026, the narrowing of the public invoicing portal's role in October 2024) for many professionals to expect, out of habit, yet another delay.

There has not been one. In the summer of 2026, the DGFiP (the French tax administration) clarified its position on tolerance for technical start-up difficulties, without postponing or suspending the obligation. The statutory timetable remains unchanged.

The tolerance announced concerns implementation difficulties, not the principle itself. A business that runs into a technical problem must neither suspend its activity nor interrupt its operations: it must identify the source of the difficulty, contact its platform or service provider, and be in a position to demonstrate that it is on a path to compliance. Doing nothing at all does not fall within that framework.

In practical terms, what must you do before 1 September?

1. Choose an accredited platform

This is the mandatory step, and it cannot be put off. Electronic invoices must travel through an accredited platform (« plateforme agréée », or PA), registered by the tax administration. More than 150 platforms are registered today; the official list is published by the DGFiP.

There are three possible routes:

• your invoicing or accounting software already has an accredited platform built in — this is the simplest case, so check with your software provider;
• your chartered accountant (« expert-comptable ») connects you to the platform it uses for its clients;
• you sign up directly with an accredited platform.

2. Check that your business is correctly identified in the directory

This is the point most often overlooked, and it bears directly on your address.

Invoice routing relies on a national directory (« annuaire »), which channels an invoice towards the receiving platform of its addressee. That directory draws on your company's identification data: SIREN (nine-digit company identifier), SIRET (establishment identifier), and the declared address of your establishment.

If your registered office is wrongly recorded, if you have moved without updating your entry in the register, or if your company is domiciled at an address that is no longer the right one, your supplier invoices may never reach you. And it is you who will be in breach of the receiving obligation, not your supplier.

The habit to adopt: check that your Kbis (the official company registration extract), your actual business address and the details shown on your commercial documents all match. It is a ten-minute check that saves several months of malfunction.

3. Prepare the update of your invoice particulars

Even though your obligation to issue does not arrive until 2027, the electronic invoice requires additional particulars compared with a traditional paper or PDF invoice: the customer's SIREN number, the delivery address where it differs from the billing address, the precise nature of the transactions (supply of goods, supply of services, or both), and, where applicable, the option to account for VAT on an invoice basis (« paiement de la taxe sur les débits »).

You may as well build them into your invoice templates now: nothing prevents you from being ahead of schedule, and voluntary early entry into the scheme is expressly provided for businesses whose obligation to issue only takes effect in 2027.

What about healthcare professionals who are exempt from VAT?

This is the question that comes up most often in practice, and it deserves a nuanced answer.

Regulated medical and paramedical procedures are exempt from VAT under article 261, 4-1° of the French Tax Code. That exemption does not automatically relieve you of every obligation: the exact scope depends on your position with regard to VAT, and a practitioner may perfectly well carry out some exempt transactions and others that are not (training, expert reports, product sales, an ancillary wellbeing activity).

Other activities in the wellbeing field that are not regulated — naturopaths or sophrologists, for instance — do not benefit from this exemption and fall squarely within scope.

The habit to adopt: do not assume that the exemption applying to your procedures places you outside the reform. Have your position assessed precisely — it is a matter to settle in a single conversation with your chartered accountant.

The penalties provided for

They will not apply from day one, but they exist and they are quantified:

• Failure to receive: a prior formal notice frames the mechanism, under article 1737, IV bis of the French Tax Code.
• Failure to issue in electronic format: a fine per invoice is provided for at article 1737 of the French Tax Code, subject to an annual cap.
• Failure to comply with e-reporting: a specific penalty is provided for at article 1788 D of the French Tax Code.

In the short term, the real issue is not so much the fine as the operational blockage: a supplier who cannot send you its invoice electronically means an unrecorded expense, VAT not reclaimed where applicable, and a dispute to sort out.

Article written by Épiphyse Conseil, chartered accountants specialising in support for the liberal professions and healthcare professionals. Last updated: August 2026.