E-invoicing rules for Painters in France: receiving from 1 September 2026, issuing in 2026 or 2027

Large companies and mid-caps (ETI) must ISSUE e-invoices and e-report from 1 September 2026; SMEs, micro-businesses and micro-entrepreneurs — most tradespeople — from 1 September 2027. From 1 September 2026 every VAT-registered business in France, including micro-entrepreneurs, must be able to RECEIVE electronic invoices. The accepted format is Factur-X (hybrid PDF/XML), UBL or CII. Invoices flow through a certified platform (plateforme agréée, formerly called PDP) registered with the DGFiP, rather than direct to the tax authority. This is the position as at 8 October 2026 — e-invoicing legislation is moving quickly across the EU, so confirm against current national guidance before relying on a date. Vasco generates Factur-X (hybrid PDF/XML), UBL or CII directly from an invoice, so a Painter does not need separate software to comply.

Factur-X (hybrid PDF/XML), UBL or CII. A PDF emailed to a customer is NOT a structured e-invoice — a PDF is an image of an invoice, whereas the mandate requires machine-readable data that the recipient's system can process without retyping. Invoices flow through a certified platform (plateforme agréée, formerly called PDP) registered with the DGFiP, rather than direct to the tax authority. Vasco produces the structured file from the invoice you already raised, rather than asking you to rebuild it in a separate tool.

Be able to receive by September 2026, and choose a certified platform well before your September 2027 issuing date. Two practical points that catch out small trades businesses: being able to RECEIVE a structured invoice is often required earlier than issuing one, and 'sent' is not the same as 'accepted' — in Italy and Spain the authority can reject a filing, and a rejected invoice was never legally issued. Vasco tracks that distinction so a Painter can see which invoices are genuinely filed and which were refused.

No. The requirement is a valid structured file in the correct format, not a particular class of software or an ERP. A self-employed Painter can comply with a tool that produces Factur-X (hybrid PDF/XML), UBL or CII correctly and keeps the audit trail. Vasco is built for one-person and small trades businesses across six European markets and generates the formats each one requires, so you are not paying for an enterprise system to satisfy a rule aimed at invoice data.