France's Minister in charge of Public Actions and Accounts and the Minister Delegate for Trade, Crafts, and Small and Medium Enterprises, on 29 August 2025, announced several simplification measures regarding electronic invoicing and e-reporting obligations.

The recently announced simplification measures had been requested by businesses and tax professionals, including EY, and thus were expected. These changes aim to streamline processes, reduce administrative burdens and align with international business practices. The French e-invoicing and e-reporting mandate is still scheduled to begin in September 2026.

This Tax Alert highlights the key points of the announcement.

Main simplifications

Removal of obligation to e-report international incoming invoices at line-item level

This simplification will apply to purchases of services from both non-European Union (EU) suppliers and EU suppliers.

This change reduces reporting requirements and should reduce costs for businesses; it is expected that companies will continue to receive PDF or paper invoices for purchases from suppliers who are not subject to e-invoicing mandates in their home countries.

For EU purchases, this exemption will remain in effect until the Value-Added Tax (VAT) in the Digital Age (VIDA) Directive enters into force, requiring full e-reporting as of 1 July 2030.

Non-EU purchases that concern goods (i.e., importations) are not affected by this simplification because importations were initially excluded from the e-reporting obligation.

No "blank e-reporting" required

Businesses are not required to submit blank e-reports if no taxable transactions have occurred, reducing unnecessary administrative tasks.

As a reminder, e-reporting in France involves the transmission of e-invoicing data of international (i.e., EU and non-EU) purchases and sales (with the exception of importations) and business to consumer (B2C) sales. Domestic supplies are not affected (and are still to be e-reported each time a domestic business to business (B2B) or business to government (B2G) invoice is issued).

The frequency of e-reporting is normally once every 10 days (with exceptions for small and medium-sized entities (SMEs)).

Another e-reporting obligation applies in certain cases involving payments received by vendors for specific transactions. Whether this simplification also applies to this obligation will have to be confirmed in a yet-to-be published Decree.

No new data requirements

The announced simplification is not particularly detailed. Based on available information, it appears the government is reaffirming that, to protect the information technology (IT) development currently being carried out by companies and software providers, no additional data will be required before the e-invoicing reform is introduced (in September 2026).

Exclusion from e-reporting obligation of non-EU transactions between French taxpayers

Transactions realized outside the EU between French-established taxpayers are excluded from e-reporting, simplifying the system.

Tax Authorities have seemed to indicate that this will concern transactions operated by two French-established entities outside of the EU that fall within the scope of "foreign VAT" (i.e., outside of the French VAT system).

The exclusion might not be available for transactions subject to EU VAT in an EU Member State other than France; this will have to be confirmed during Parliament's September 2025 discussions on the Finance Bill for 2026.

Exclusion from penalties for entities without a SIREN Number

The entire e-invoicing mandate in France for B2B transactions relies on a Global Directory (Annuaire) maintained by the government platform (PPF) that identifies all the French-established entities through a serial and unique identification number called a "SIREN Number."

It has been unclear whether penalties could apply to a vendor selling to a French professional (liable for VAT) that does not provide its SIREN Number; in this case the e-invoicing mandate cannot be enforced because the customer is not listed in the Global Directory. This situation may arise for certain professional bodies that do not have SIREN Numbers despite being liable for VAT (notably in the banking and financial sector) or for newly created entities (due to the time required to obtain the identification number).

The Ministers have now confirmed that no penalty will apply in these cases. Evidently, this absence of penalty may apply to either the vendor or the buyer.

Simplifications for B2C e-reporting

Two simplifications apply to the B2C e-reporting obligation:

1. One change is technical, canceling the e-reporting requirement for the number of B2C transactions operated daily.
2. The other change allows operators that apply a VAT Margin Scheme for B2C sales to use a simplified calculation method for the margin VAT in each e-reported B2C transaction (e.g., calculation of an estimated VAT margin per transaction), reducing complexity for businesses.

E-reporting obligation postponed to September 2027 for non-established taxpayers

Operations in France

The announcement states that the obligation to issue electronic invoices is postponed to September 2027 for businesses that are not established in France but are liable for VAT on operations in carried out in the country.

The announcement refers to the requirement for nonresident entities that are only VAT registered in France to e-report the line item details of transactions carried out in France. These entities do not have access to the Global Directory and thus the e-invoicing mandate would not apply to them.

Also, the announcement does not clarify whether this will apply to every transaction that nonresident entities perform in France, such as sales subject to French VAT, intra-EU deliveries of goods and exportations from France. This will have to be confirmed as part of the discussions on the adoption of the Finance Bill for 2026.

Intra-EU acquisitions in France

The announcement also says that the deferral to September 2027 applies to businesses not established in France that are conducting intra-EU acquisitions in France.

These nonresident entities should also benefit from the announced simplification removing the obligation to e-report the international incoming invoices at line-item level. This will have to be confirmed as part of the discussions on the adoption of the Finance Bill for 2026

Implications

These recent updates should help taxpayers navigate the e-reporting system with greater ease. Affected entities should contact their tax advisors for further clarification or support.