Penalties are €50 per invoice, but DGFiP will apply no penalty during 2026

France's 2026 Finance Law (adopted February 2, 2026) raised e-invoicing penalties from €15 to €50 per non-compliant invoice, capped at €15,000 per year. Early enforcement will prioritize helping businesses comply over automatic fines — but the legal exposure is real, and the bigger practical risk is invoices your customers' systems simply reject. UPDATE (19 Aug 2026): on 11 July 2026 DGFiP published a practical guide for businesses that will not be ready on 1 September 2026. There is no statutory grace period and the start date is not postponed. Penalties will not be applied automatically — DGFiP assesses each business individually and expects documented proof of genuine effort, such as platform quotes, a signed contract or a migration plan. Businesses that made no effort at all can be penalised immediately. A three-month formal notice (mise en demeure) applies before fines, but ONLY to the obligation to use an approved platform to receive invoices; it does not cover failing to issue e-invoices or failing to send e-reporting data. If technical problems forced you onto paper or PDF, you are expected to push those invoices back through the approved platform once fixed, taking care to avoid double payment or double VAT deduction, and to document what happened. UPDATE (late August 2026): the start date held. A cyberattack on the DGFiP became public on 12 August 2026 and triggered renewed calls to postpone the reform. The government said no: Public Accounts Minister David Amiel, the DGFiP and the AIFE convened the approved platforms to reconfirm the 1 September 2026 timetable. Reporting indicates the attack did not involve the e-invoicing infrastructure itself. On enforcement, the DGFiP start-up doctrine holds: penalties will not be applied automatically in the opening phase where you can show a documented, good-faith implementation effort and a credible path to compliance. The legal exposure is unchanged — it is the application that is being handled proportionately. UPDATE (1 September 2026): on go-live day the Minister for Public Accounts, David Amiel, stated in a communique that no penalty will be applied to any business during 2026. This is the first time the position has been put as a blanket, dated commitment rather than a case-by-case tolerance, and the DGFiP described the start date as a starting gun rather than a cut-off. Three things it does not mean. It is not a postponement, the obligation itself applies from 1 September 2026. It is not law, it is an application doctrine, so article 1737 of the tax code stays legally in force and a doctrine cannot be relied on in front of a judge the way the text can. And it does not cover businesses that simply did not bother. If you are behind, keep written proof of genuine effort such as a signed platform contract, quotes, or a migration plan. One figure to add: the 2026 Finance Law also raised the e-reporting penalty from 250 euros to 500 euros per transmission, with its own 15,000 euro annual cap, separate from the per-invoice cap. The DGFiP has opened a free helpline for the reform on 0806 807 807, Monday to Friday, 8.30 to 18.00.

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