E-Invoicing France 2026: What German Suppliers Need to Know

E-invoicing in France has been mandatory since 1 September 2026: every business in scope must be able to receive e-invoices, and large and mid-sized companies must also issue them. Smaller companies follow by 1 September 2027. A German supplier without a French establishment issues no French e-invoice, but may be subject to e-reporting.

This guide is for finance and ERP teams in German companies that sell to France, buy from French suppliers or hold a French VAT registration. It separates what applies to you from what your French business partner now does differently. For the German side of the rules, see our guide to Germany's e-invoicing mandate.

What changed in France on 1 September 2026?

The French e-invoicing reform (facturation électronique) went live on 1 September 2026. The French tax administration, the Direction générale des Finances publiques (DGFiP), published a practical start-up guide for that date on impots.gouv.fr. The main points:

• Receiving: from 1 September 2026, every business covered by the reform must be able to receive e-invoices.
• Issuing: businesses that must issue e-invoices send them through an approved platform (plateforme agréée, PA), a service provider registered by the DGFiP. The list of approved platforms is on impots.gouv.fr.
• E-reporting: data on supplies that do not run as an e-invoice between two businesses established in France is reported to the administration separately, on the same timeline.
• Formats: platforms exchange invoices in one of three formats: UBL, CII or Factur-X.

The legal basis for e-invoicing is Article 289 bis of the French tax code (Code général des impôts, CGI). It covers supplies between taxable persons established in France. For a German supplier, almost everything depends on that sentence.

Germany and France side by side

Both countries now have a B2B e-invoicing mandate, but the mechanics differ. The table compares the points that matter to a company active in both markets.

The German dates come from § 27(38) UStG and the BMF letter of 15 October 2024; our Germany e-invoicing 2027 guide covers the EUR 800,000 rule in detail.

Who is affected by French e-invoicing?

What matters is whether you are established in France (registered office or a permanent establishment, établissement stable) and whether you owe French VAT yourself.

The DGFiP describes the second row on a dedicated page for foreign companies without a permanent establishment in France (entreprises étrangères sans établissement stable). They are outside e-invoicing, but they must e-report supplies deemed to take place in France on which they owe French VAT. If your French business customer accounts for the VAT under the reverse charge, the tax is not yours.

What stays the same for German suppliers?

• Your invoice follows German law. An intra-EU supply or a B2B service to a French customer is invoiced under § 14 and § 14a UStG, including both parties' VAT ID numbers.
• The German mandate does not apply. It covers only supplier and customer both established in Germany (§ 14(2) UStG). A PDF invoice to a customer in Lyon is still allowed if the customer agrees. Our Germany e-invoicing exemptions checklist walks through this case.
• Your German inbox has had to accept e-invoices from German suppliers since 1 January 2025. The French reform does not change that.

What changes is the customer side. French businesses now receive invoices through their platform, and many will ask foreign suppliers for structured data because it saves them manual entry. That creates a contractual request, not a legal obligation for you.

Timeline of the French reform

The size category follows French criteria. If a customer asks which category you fall into, refer to the DGFiP documents and your fiscal representative in France.

Factur-X and ZUGFeRD: one format, two names

The German Forum elektronische Rechnung Deutschland (FeRD) has developed ZUGFeRD together with the French forum FNFE-MPE since 2014. FeRD states that Factur-X and ZUGFeRD have been identical since version 2.0 of 24 March 2020. Both are a PDF/A-3 file with an embedded XML in the CII syntax, usually named factur-x.xml.

The current release is ZUGFeRD 2.5.2, which is also Factur-X 1.09.2, published on 4 August 2026. According to FeRD, release 2.5 already added a function from the upcoming standard EN 16931-1:2026 to the EXTENDED profile, to support the requirements of the French B2B reform early. FeRD expects the next release in autumn 2026. Which profiles count as an e-invoice in Germany is covered in our guide to ZUGFeRD profiles and versions.

Same format does not mean every platform accepts every file. The French reform sets its own requirements for mandatory data and profiles, and the customer's platform checks against them. Agree the format and profile before the first delivery.

Action items for the next invoice run

1. Document your establishment status. Record whether your company has a permanent establishment, a subsidiary or only a VAT registration in France. That decides between e-invoicing, e-reporting or neither.
2. Identify who owes the VAT per supply type. For each type of French supply, check whether you or the customer owe French VAT. Only the first case can bring you into e-reporting.
3. Ask your French customers. Request their preferred format (Factur-X, UBL or CII), profile, receiving address and the purchase order references they need.
4. Check your invoicing software. Ask your vendor whether it produces Factur-X or ZUGFeRD in the required profile, and which version.
5. Prepare your inbox. French suppliers will send more Factur-X files. Check whether your accounts payable process reads the embedded XML or only files the PDF. Our guide on how to receive e-invoices in Germany lists what an inbox needs.

Open questions (as of October 2026)

• Profile details: the extra French requirements a platform applies to Factur-X files are set in the reform's technical specifications. We did not review them for this article, so we name no profile identifiers.
• Penalties: different figures circulate. We did not review an official source on penalties for this article, so we quote no amounts.
• Later changes: France has moved the timeline several times before. The current state on impots.gouv.fr is what counts.

How to check Factur-X invoices with docutools.pro

1. Open a Factur-X invoice from a French supplier in the ZUGFeRD extractor with "Choose PDF". It runs in your browser, so the file does not leave your computer. "Invoice summary" shows number, parties and totals; "XML source" shows the embedded factur-x.xml, which you save with "Download XML".
2. Upload the XML to the ZUGFeRD validator. Files with the identifier urn:cen.eu:en16931:2017 (profile EN 16931) run through the "KoSIT validation" against the EN 16931 rules, without the German BR-DE rules. Other identifiers, such as EXTENDED or French profiles, are rejected before any rule runs because no validation scenario matches. The file is sent to our server for the check. The free plan includes two uploads per day; more come with the Pro plan.
3. For your German customers, the ZUGFeRD invoice generator creates a "ZUGFeRD PDF" under "Generate & download". It does not suit French customers: the seller and buyer country is fixed to DE in the wizard.

More guides on deadlines and legal rules are in our e-invoicing mandate section.

Sources

• DGFiP: Facturation électronique : guide pratique de démarrage au 1er septembre 2026 (opens in a new tab) (impots.gouv.fr)
• DGFiP: E-reporting for foreign companies without a permanent establishment in France (opens in a new tab) (impots.gouv.fr, in French)
• DGFiP: Facturation électronique et plateformes agréées (opens in a new tab) (impots.gouv.fr)
• FeRD: ZUGFeRD/Factur-X FAQs (opens in a new tab) and ZUGFeRD 2.5.2 release note (opens in a new tab) (4 August 2026, in German)
• Section 14 of the German VAT Act (§ 14 UStG) (opens in a new tab) (Gesetze im Internet)

Last reviewed: October 2026

This article is general information, not tax or legal advice.