What is an e-invoice under the French reform?
Say how you invoice today: the tool suggests the format that suits you among the three formats every platform accepts.
Suggested format
Factur-X
A readable PDF with the CII XML file inside: one document for people and machines.
| UBL EN 16931 | Accepted by every platform |
| CII EN 16931 | Accepted by every platform |
| Factur-X (PDF/A-3 + CII) | Accepted by every platform |
CGI annex IV article 41 septies C (order of 27 July 2026): three base formats.
Prepared by Radif Partners · Method · Tax code, BOFiP and approved-platform list checked on 25 October 2026
Under the reform, an e-invoice is not an invoice sent electronically: it is an invoice issued, transmitted and received in a structured, machine-readable form, through an approved platform. It holds data organised under the European standard EN 16931: seller and buyer identity, SIREN, lines, amounts, VAT rates, due date. A PDF made in a word processor and sent by email is not one, even though the law accepted it between businesses until now. Three formats make up the base that every platform can process: UBL, CII and Factur-X, the last combining a readable PDF with an XML file. E-invoicing covers sales between VAT taxable businesses established in France. Other transactions, consumer sales and dealings with other countries, fall under e-reporting. Receiving has been mandatory for all businesses since 1 September 2026, and issuing will be for SMEs and micro-businesses from 1 September 2027.
What the law says
Article 289 bis of the French tax code requires invoices between taxable persons established in France to be issued electronically and sent through an approved platform, which extracts data for the tax authority. The text therefore covers three things at once: a structured format, a transmission circuit and a transfer of tax data. An invoice that misses any of the three is not an e-invoice under the reform.
| Document | E-invoice? | Why |
|---|---|---|
| PDF sent by email | No | No structured data, no platform |
| Scanned paper invoice | No | Image without data |
| Factur-X submitted on a platform | Yes | PDF/A-3 with CII XML, approved circuit |
| UBL or CII submitted on a platform | Yes | Structured XML, approved circuit |
| Factur-X sent by email | No from your date | Right format, wrong circuit |
The three base formats
The order of 27 July 2026 sets the base: UBL and CII, two XML syntaxes, and Factur-X, which embeds a CII file in a PDF/A-3. Every approved platform must accept them. The choice mostly depends on your customers: if they read their invoices on screen, Factur-X keeps a visual document. The formats page details the differences.
Suggested format
Suggested format
Factur-X
| UBL EN 16931 | Accepted by every platform |
| CII EN 16931 | Accepted by every platform |
| Factur-X (PDF/A-3 + CII) | Accepted by every platform |
E-invoicing and e-reporting
The two duties complement each other. E-invoicing covers sales between businesses established in France. E-reporting covers the rest: consumer sales, transactions with other countries, payments received for services. The tax authority thus receives the data of almost every transaction subject to VAT, as the BOFiP news item on the reform explains, which should eventually allow returns to be prefilled.
Why France is moving to e-invoicing
The stated aim is twofold: fighting VAT fraud, by matching sellers’ and buyers’ data, and cutting the cost of handling invoices in businesses. For a small business, the most tangible benefit is the end of retyping: an invoice received as structured data goes straight into the books. To check whether you are concerned and from when, the obligation check answers in a few clicks.
To see what a compliant file looks like in practice, the Factur-X sample can be downloaded and opened in any PDF reader. The XML it contains shows, tag by tag, the data your customer’s platform will read.