e-Invoicing mandate France 2024

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PREPARE FOR 2024 B2B E-INVOICING MANDATE IN FRANCE

  • On 1st July 2024, all companies subject to VAT (Value Added Tax) in France will be obligated to accept e-invoices.
  • Depending on company size, the sending of B2B invoices in specified electronic formats will become mandatory between 1st July 2024 and 1st January 2026. Initially, this will affect only French domestic invoices. 
  • Following the same schedule as the e-invoice sending obligation, e-reporting will become mandatory for all non-domestic B2B and B2C transactions as well as intra-community B2B invoices. 

Basware is committed to offering a compliant e-invoicing solution in France and becoming a Partner Dematerialisation Platform (PDP) that is accredited by the French General Directorate of Public Finance. Our ambition is to keep you well informed on the most important developments regarding the mandate and serve you with both expertise and solutions to be fully compliant with the France 2024 e-Invoicing mandate.

Learn more about Basware as your PDP >

This page will continuously be updated (originally published 10-2021, last updated 03-2023)

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Our experts are available to discuss how Basware can help you get compliant with the France 2024 mandate and develop your business. If you do not have a contact already, please email us at [email protected] and we will get back to you shortly. Alternatively, you can register to receive regular updates from Basware regarding the France 2024 e-invoice mandate.

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Mandatory e-Invoicing and e-Reporting in France – what changes for you?

Mandatory e-Invoicing and e-Reporting in France – what changes for you?

Over the past decade, the French government has launched strategic initiatives to increase its efficiency in collecting VAT. The technologies that have been designated to reach this goal are e-invoicing, and most recently e-reporting. Under the new mandate in France, which is specified in the legal order n°2021-1190 from September 15, 2021, VAT-liable business documents such as e-invoices generally have to be registered on and reported to the governmental platform Portail public de facturation (PPF, translates as public billing portal).

As a member of the FNFE, the official French National Forum for Electronic Invoicing, and member of the DGFIP PDP working group, Basware is closely following developments behind the mandate, and what they mean in practice, to deliver a compliant solution to customers on day one.

Learn more about Basware’s France 2024 e-invoicing mandate extension delivery and 10 steps to readiness >

Your organization needs to identify which parts of your internal invoice processes are affected by these changes mandated by the French government:

Requirements for sending e-invoices

The deadlines of the obligation to send B2B e-invoices depends on company size: 1st July 2024 for large enterprise companies, 1st January 2025 for mid-sized companies, 1st January 2026 for the medium to small companies and micro-companies (see details below).

 Invoice lifecycle management 

The mandate also requires invoice lifecycle management, which means transmitting regular invoice status updates to the government platform PPF – either directly or via a partner digitalization platform (PDP). Some statuses will be mandatory (invoice submitted, refused, rejected, received) and other will be optional (disputed, approved, etc.).

 Options for data transmission

E-Invoices and e-Reporting data can be either submitted directly into the government platform PPF (Portail public de facturation) or can be sent through a 3rd party solution of an accredited service provider (named PDP for plateforme de dématérialisation partenaire). This means companies will no longer send invoices directly to customers, but either through the PPF or the 3rd party PDP. The French government calls this approach with those two options the “Y-model.”

 Requirements for receiving e-invoices

Companies subject to VAT in France need to be able to receive e-invoices in the mandated formats UBL 2.1, UN/CEFACT CII, and Factur-X as of 1st of July 2024. Make sure your AP solution can receive and process the permitted formats.

 Requirements for e-reporting

E-invoicing will not be mandatory for B2C and cross-border invoices. However, the government will require French companies to send e-reporting files for these transactions with a similar set of data-points in specified formats to the government platform four days after the end of the week for companies subject to the standard reporting scheme (réel normal) and within seven days after the last day of the month for all other companies.

 Invoice formats

Following the deadlines specified below, only certain e-invoice formats will be accepted: UBL 2.1, UN/CEFACT CII, and Factur-X. This means that by latest 2026, paper and simple PDF invoices will no longer be valid in France for domestic B2B e-Invoicing. If you issue invoices electronically, they must also be archived electronically, so you will need to have a solution for electronic invoice archiving by latest 2026.

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What timelines do you need to keep in mind?

The mandate will affect companies or subsidiaries that are subject to VAT in France (defined as a legal unit identified by its SIREN number).
 

  1st July 2024 1st January 2025   1st January 2026
Obligation to be able to receive e-Invoices
For all companies.
Obligation to send domestic B2B e-Invoices in France
For companies larger than 5.000 employees AND larger than €1.5B revenue or €2B annual balance sheet total.
For companies between 5.000 and 250 employees AND below €1.5B revenue or €2B annual balance sheet total AND above €50M revenue or €43M balance sheet total.

For companies below 250 employees AND below €50M revenue or €43M balance sheet total.

For companies below 10 employees AND below €2M revenue/ balance sheet total.
Obligation for e-reporting for non-domestic B2B and B2C transactions as well as intra-community B2B invoices
For companies larger than 5.000 employees AND larger than €1.5B revenue or €2B annual balance sheet total.
For companies between 5.000 and 250 employees AND below €1.5B revenue or €2B annual balance sheet total AND above €50M revenue or €43M balance sheet total.

For companies below 250 employees AND below €50M revenue or €43M balance sheet total.

For companies below 10 employees AND below €2M revenue/ balance sheet total.

NOT READY TO TALK TO US JUST YET?

If you're unsure how the mandate will affect you, then take this online self-evaluation to learn how you will be affected by the mandate.

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HOW BASWARE CAN HELP

 

How Basware can help you stay compliant

Through the Basware Network, the world’s largest globally compliant open business network, your organization can ensure connectivity to the government portal PPF. While the French 2024 e-invoicing mandate is an important compliance challenge, it is only one of many. Since invoicing and tax compliance is complex, fragmented, and constantly changing, you need a seasoned partner by your side who has a deep understanding of ongoing global developments. Instead of maintaining multiple solutions at the same time, your organization can trust Basware as an all-inclusive compliance solution.

What does Basware do to help your organization with the French 2024 e-invoicing mandate in practice?

  • Basware has a deep partnership with KMPG Advocacy. Together, the compliance of Basware’s e-invoicing solutions is continuously evaluated and developed.
  • Basware is an active member of the French government’s coordination group FNFE.
  • Basware is actively participating in the PDP working group organized by the French General Directorate of Public Finance
  • Basware has committed to building an e-invoicing solution that will be fully compliant with the French 2024 mandate and we prepare to become a Partner Dematerialization Platform (PDP) that is accredited by the French General Directorate of Public Finance (accreditation opens in May 2023).
  • With 30+ years of regulatory and best practice knowledge from local markets, Basware has a deep understanding of global organizations’ unique and complex compliance requirements.

Why Basware?

We are committed to updating our France 2024 solution development, testing and delivery phases with you. The sooner you begin preparing for the mandatory reform, the better positioned you’ll be to leverage this change for future business development.

Learn more >

Our experts are available to discuss how Basware can help you get compliant with the France 2024 mandate and develop your business. If you do not have a contact already, please email us at [email protected] and we will get back to you shortly.

 

FAQS ON THE 2024 E-INVOICING MANDATE IN FRANCE

What is an “electronic invoice” according to the French B2B mandate?

Only structured formats will be considered valid e-invoices for fiscal purposes under the French B2B mandate. This means that by latest 2026, paper and simple PDF invoices will no longer be valid in France for B2B e-Invoicing.

The DGFIP (Direction générale des Finances publiques; translates as General Directorate of Public Finance) is planning to regulate the use of a number of formats, as long as they are compatible with the European Norm. The initially permitted three formats are UBL 2.1, UN/CEFACT CII and Factur-X.

What is a Plateformes de dématérialisation partenaires (PDP) and what do they do?

PDP stands for Plateformes de dématérialisation partenaires, which translates to partner digitalization/dematerialization platform. Vendor registration for becoming a PDP will open in May 2023 – no platform can pretend to be registered or accredited before then. PDPs will need to undergo a compliance audit to demonstrate to the administration its capacity to fulfil the requirements.

PDPs are required to:

  • Transmit electronic invoices, in a structured format, to the platforms of their recipients
  • Receive the invoices and make them available to their recipients
  • Extract and transmit mandatory data from invoices to the administration
  • Receive, control, and transmit to the administration the e-reporting data (transaction status and payment)
  • Perform compliance checks on invoices and transaction data before transmission
  • Manage e-invoice processing statuses
  • Provide the public billing portal with the information needed to update the directory

What is the Portail public de facturation (PPF)?

PPF stands for Portail public de facturation, which translates as public billing portal. The publicly trusted third party offers free services and concentrates on invoicing and billing data for the tax authorities. The public invoicing portal allows companies to submit invoices, created by them in a structured or mixed format:

  • By uploading the file to the portal
  • By file transfer, using one of the available protocols (SFTP, AS2, AS4)
  • By file transfer, using the available API
  • Upon receipt, the public billing portal performs a data check.

The public billing portal also allows you to enter the data online or to upload a PDF file representing the invoice. The data entered (or extracted from the PDF) is then transformed, after validation, into one of the structured formats of the platform.

The corresponding invoice is made available to the recipient without any additional action from the depositor.

What is E-Reporting under the French Mandate?

E-Invoicing will not be mandatory for B2C and cross-border invoices. However, to get a complete overview of all invoice transactions, the government will require companies to send e-Reporting files.

E-Reporting requires a specific set of data-points in a specific form and will have to be sent on a recurring basis. Companies will have to be able to produce e-Reporting and send them to the government platform, either directly or through a partner platform (PDP) which can produce these files and deliver them to the government platform. These transactions are affected by e-reporting:

  • The transmission of data concerning B2B transactions for non-French customers
  • The transmission of data concerning B2C transactions for taxable transactions in France
  • The transmission of data concerning purchases from foreign operators (excluding imports)
  • The payment status of invoices for services (for services declared on e-invoices as e-reporting)

What is Invoice Lifecycle Management under the French Mandate?

In addition to invoice data, companies will have to transmit the invoice processing statuses to the government platform - directly or via a partner platform.

The invoice lifecycle will guarantee more transparency on the status of operations to the government. Some statuses will be mandatory (invoice submitted, refused, rejected, received) and other will be optional (disputed, approved, etc.).

What impact does the 2024 B2B e-Invoicing Mandate in France have on the existing B2G e-Invoicing regulation and the use of the Chorus Pro platform?

Since 1st January 2020, e-invoicing in France has been mandatory for all transactions with the public sector (B2G, business-to-government) via the Chorus Pro portal.

Starting from 1st July 2024, the B2G invoice flows will be using the new e-invoicing system, the Portail public de facturation (PPF). This means 800,000 private entities need to anticipate the obligation to issue B2G invoices via the new e-invoicing landscape. To date, there is still no clarity about potential transition periods for existing Chorus Pro flows.

HAVE MORE QUESTIONS?

Book a consultation call with our solutions experts to discuss the impact of the mandate on your business and potential solutions.

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