France switches to e-invoicing — what it means for Swiss businesses

On 1 September 2026, France begins its switch to electronic invoicing. From that day, every VAT-registered company in the country must be able to receive electronic invoices — regardless of its size. Sending follows in stages: large and medium-sized companies also from 1 September 2026, small and micro companies a year later, from 1 September 2027.

Electronic does not mean «PDF by email» here. What is meant is a structured format a machine can read, transmitted through an approved platform. A scanned sheet of paper does not satisfy the obligation. The timetable is published by the French Ministry of the Economy: Tout savoir sur la facturation électronique.

For Swiss businesses it comes down to the establishment

This is where it gets concrete for Swiss companies, and this is where the story is often cut short. What matters is not the French VAT number but whether your company has a permanent establishment in France — that is, lasting premises or people authorised to conclude contracts there.

Anyone without a permanent establishment in France is not covered by the e-invoicing obligation. The French tax administration says so explicitly: L'e-reporting pour les entreprises étrangères sans établissement stable. You therefore do not have to issue or receive structured invoices through a platform, even if you hold a French VAT number.

No establishment means: no e-invoice — but a reporting duty all the same.

Because instead of the invoicing obligation, the reporting obligation applies — so-called e-reporting: anyone generating taxable turnover in France must transmit the corresponding data to the tax administration at regular intervals, likewise through an approved platform that has to be chosen beforehand. For sellers this applies from 1 September 2026 (large and medium-sized companies) and from 1 September 2027 respectively (small and micro companies).

Anyone who does maintain a permanent establishment in France is treated like a French company — with everything set out above.

What to do now

• Establish whether your company has a permanent establishment in France. That single answer determines which of the two obligations applies to you.
• Choose an approved platform — necessary in both cases, only for different purposes.
• Check whether your accounting can process structured invoices. Anyone typing PDF invoices in by hand today will, from September, be typing in formats that were never meant for it.

The last point is the one that is easily overlooked. The obligation concerns the format of the invoice — it says nothing about how the data reaches your accounting. A structured format is machine-readable; that only pays off if there is a machine reading on your side too.

And in Switzerland?

There is no comparable general obligation here. Towards the federal administration, electronic invoicing has been standard for years; between companies it remains your decision. Anyone delivering to France, however — or into the EU, where the same development is under way — is caught by the obligation through the customer, not through their own legislator.