Electronic invoicing is a set of procedures regulated by the tax administration that concerns all French companies subject to VAT and will gradually come into effect starting in 2026.
Electronic invoicing applies to all transactions of purchases and sales of goods and/or services carried out between companies established in France that are subject to VAT. This applies as long as these are so-called domestic operations, meaning they concern the national territory.
Furthermore, companies will need to transmit certain information to the tax administration regarding commercial transactions that are not covered by electronic invoicing. This includes companies subject to VAT in France that engage in commerce with individuals and, more broadly, with non-taxable entities or with companies not established in the national territory. Such data includes, for example, the amount of the transaction or the amount of VAT charged.
This obligation pursues several objectives:
Strengthen the competitiveness of companies by reducing administrative burdens, decreasing payment times, and achieving productivity gains resulting from dematerialization. For a company, the cost of an electronic invoice is lower than that of a postage stamp, while the cost of a paper invoice exceeds 10 euros;
Simplify, in the long term, the reporting obligations of companies regarding VAT through pre-filling of declarations;
Improve the detection of fraud, benefiting honest economic operators;
Enhance real-time knowledge of business activities to enable more informed economic policy management closely aligned with the economic realities of the actors.
For more information, see the website: "Electronic invoicing between businesses"