France imposed electronic invoicing on B2G transactions starting in 2017 in a phased approach.

It plans to impose mandatory B2B e-invoicing and e-reporting from 2023. This includes pre-clearance of sales invoices via the government’s Chorus Pro portal. The French Finance Bill 2021 was amended in 2020 to include the roll out of e-invoicing from 1 January 2023. This will cover domestic B2B invoices initially. France imposed electronic invoicing on B2G transactions starting in 2017 in a phased approach.

Additionally, domestic B2C and cross-border sales invoicing transactional data will have to be reported (‘e-reporting’) to the French tax authorities.

Both requirements will be rolled out as follows:

• Jan 2023 – large enterprises
• Jan 2024 – mid-sized companies
• Jan 2025 – small companies

This will require an application to the European Commission for a derogation from the EU VAT Directive since this requires customers to consent in a legal agreement to only receiving e-invoices.

Businesses will be obliged to apply for a digital access to Chorus Pro. They will then be able to upload their sales invoices in one of the following ways:

1. Manual entry
2. PDF or XML invoice uploading
3. EDI or API connection

Once submitted and verified by Chorus Pro, invoices are forwarded to the customers. Only at this point do they become legal VAT invoices, due for payment and with the right to VAT credit for the customer.

Instead of taxpayers having to complete and submit monthly French VAT returns, the government intends to produce pre-completed returns on their behalf. The taxpayer would then apply for any late transactions or adjustments to be included.

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