Jeremy Ferrer
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La electronic invoicing will be mandatory for all businesses subject to VAT from... Initially scheduled for July 1, 2024, the obligation for businesses established in France to issue and receive electronic invoices is postponed to a date to be decided as part of the finance law for 2024.
It is a system for issuing, transmitting and receiving dematerialized invoices, involving all transactions with the public sector. It is aboutElectronic invoicing obligation for all companies, and an emission obligation for large companies.
This reform was established in order to accelerate digital transformation, leading to the adaptation of tools and uses. This is the case of the dematerialization supplier invoice. Considered an effective instrument in the fight against fraud, electronic invoicing is established by the French State as well as by the European authorities, and they are beneficiaries. But what do you really need to know about electronic invoicing?
What are the regulatory challenges and what are the benefits for businesses? And what about the implementation of this new reform? We are going to elucidate all the questions that revolve around the electronic invoicing 2024 in this article.
In the General Tax Code (article 289), the tax authorities consider an invoice to be electronic if the invoicing process is dematerialized in every detail. This means that the invoice was not printed at any time. Thus, paper invoices scanned via LAD/RAD tools are not considered electronic. An invoice is therefore said to be electronic if and only if it is issued, transmitted and received in electronic format.
And added to that, it should contain the Mandatory mention invoice legal, including the date and the number of the invoice, the number of the purchase order, the number of the purchase order, the identities of the service provider and the customer, the VAT identification number, the price excluding tax (HT) and the price including all taxes (TTC), the legal form of the company, the share capital, etc. It should also be noted that there are three possible formats for electronic invoicing mandatory: the UBL, the CII and the Factur-X.
With mandatory electronic invoicing, the method of transmission will also change. In fact, transfers between suppliers and customers will no longer be held. From now on, you must use the national Chorus Pro platform. The latter acts as an intermediary, sending information to the tax authorities in real time.
La dematerialization invoice is thus complete from start to finish. As for the editing of invoices, it may be carried out by a service provider certified by the State. In the case of businesses not subject to VAT, they should expect to receive such documentation from partners, suppliers...
Mandatory dematerialization concerns all companies located in France and subject to VAT. Ultimately, therefore, everyone must set up a compliant solution for receiving and issuing electronic invoices.
We are talking about dematerialization invoice Or of Demat supplier invoice, when invoices are converted from paper to electronic, in accordance with legal requirements and tax regulations. Not to be confused with fiscal dematerialization, which involves sending an invoice by simple email. It does not in fact comply with French legislation and regulatory requirements to fully pay paper invoices. Under these conditions, the original tax document in question remains the paper invoice.
It must be sent and archived in this format and not in electronic form. But conversely, it is possible to transmit the invoice in Electronic Data Exchange mode with the fiscal dematerialization of invoices.
In France, there are 2 billion invoices to be issued each year. This leads to the belief that digitalization would be the best alternative. La electronic invoice (obligation) is thus considered as a way for businesses to enter the digital universe. In the 2020 finance law, even the generalization of the electronic format is included.
Concretely, the objective of this law is to increase the competitiveness of businesses, by increasing their productivity through the dematerialization invoice and by reducing their administrative burdens. It also aims to establish the fight against VAT fraud and to promote fair competition between businesses. Not to mention that it is a law that aims to facilitate VAT declaration procedures via a pre-filled declaration system, and to promote knowledge of business activity.
For the French State, the challenge concerning tax evasion is estimated at between 10 and 30 billion euros. To ensure comprehensive coverage beyond domestic B to B, the electronic invoicing is reinforced by the e-reporting system.
The latter provides B to C coverage as well as non-domestic B to B coverage. In the latter case, the billing recipient is not subject to French VAT. It is in fact the main revenue of the State, which is why the project concerns all companies subject to VAT.
Since January 2020 in fact, the electronic invoices are mandatory in the context of public procurement. All companies associated with the State, a territorial authority or a metropolitan area must issue digitized invoices via a platform specifically created for this type of online approach, this platform is Chorus Pro. Thus, following this approach, which was initiated in 2020 for B to G, the introduction of dematerialized invoices in the B to B sector will be gradual between July 2024 and January 2026, affecting all businesses subject to VAT.
What happens next will depend on the size of the business. In fact, all businesses must receive electronic invoices as early as 1Er July 2024, and large companies will have to issue them. As for medium-sized companies, they will have an obligation to issue electronic invoicing From the 1Er January 2025.
And it will be the turn of SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises) and micro businesses to issue electronic invoices from 1Er January 2026.
In order to ensure the legal value of an electronic invoice, the process must first be dematerialized from start to finish. But besides that, there are also other criteria to consider. Referring to article 289 of the General Tax Code, it is necessary to guarantee the authenticity of the invoice, to know the issuer sufficiently. It is also necessary to guarantee the integrity of what the invoice contains, to ensure its inalterability throughout the procedures. And don't forget, you have to make sure that the invoice is legible.
The popularization of electronic invoicing is part of a wider movement to dematerialize exchanges. However, this change can only be complete if all the steps of the transaction themselves, including the signatures that seal the agreement between the parties, are dematerialized. A legal and technological framework is currently in place for this.
In the legal framework, the French law 2000-230 of 13/03/2020 provides an essential foundation of trust for the development of electronic commerce. In the technological framework, advances in cryptography have ensured the identity of signatories, the infallibility of signatures, the uniqueness and irrevocability of signatures, and the integrity of the signed document. In addition, the solutions of dematerialized invoicing provide other possibilities such as verification workflows, mass signing, etc. and this further multiplies the practical benefits.
Information on the payment of services subject to the obligation of electronic invoicing or to the transmission of transaction data, information concerning public contracts except those covered by defence secrecy, must be transmitted to the administration.
But in the event that the customer auto-pays the tax or the service provider has chosen VAT on direct debit, there will be no obligation to transmit payment data. As a general rule, it is the service provider who will be responsible for this Electronic invoicing obligation, based on its cash receipts.
In all, this concerns the declarant's identification number and the duration of registration, the date of collection, the price collected by tax rate, and the invoice numbers in case of invoice transactions. Ultimately, this data should make it possible to pre-fill VAT returns, taking into account the payment rules applicable to the provision of services.
Moreover, compliance with this obligation requires a systematic reconciliation between billing and payment data. This is consistent with the monthly reporting schedule established for businesses that fall under a simplified real regime, and for other businesses, shipping will be done once every 2 months.
The archiving principles are the same whether for an original invoice template or for a digital copy of a paper invoice. The archiving system must guarantee the integrity, authenticity and legibility of the document, during the legal retention period, for the tax authorities it is 6 years and for commercial documents it is 10 years. It is therefore imperative to use a solution dedicated to this purpose, an electronic archiving system or the SAE, recommended by the NF Z42-013 standard, which makes it possible to protect and trace access to documents.
Then, the file must be accompanied, at your choice, by one of these technical procedures, namely a digital fingerprint, a server stamp based on a General Security Standard (RGS*) compliant certificate with at least 1 star, an electronic signature based on a certificate that meets at least the general security standard level 1 star (RGS*). It is often in this case that we speak of an electronic invoicing obligation.
Adapting the CHORUS PRO platform, the PPF public platform will be the hub of the system for receiving all transaction data. This concerns transactions transmitted by the taxable person, but also those transmitted by a partner dematerialization platform (PDP). The tax authority will then receive from the PPF the data on invoices, transactions and collections that companies must communicate to it.
As far as PDPs are concerned, each of them must allow their users to issue electronic invoicing under legal conditions. Each PDP should also allow its users to perform certain procedural checks as well as to identify who the invoices are intended for, and to update the central repository of user data. And of course, the data received from users and that must be transmitted to the Directorate-General for Public Finances (DGFIP) must be able to be extracted and transmitted according to accepted formats (syntax and semantics) within the required time.
When a Invoice template falling underElectronic invoicing obligation is sent directly to the public platform, it is the latter that will take care of the delivery of this invoice to its recipient. This can be done directly or through a PDP if the recipient has mentioned one.
La electronic invoicing is an excellent way to fight VAT fraud and allows businesses and tax authorities to build a relationship of trust. But there are still many other benefits that electronic invoices offer businesses as well as the environment.
First, the creation of an automated billing chain makes it possible to process and send the corresponding quotes and invoices in a few clicks. Thanks to her, traceability of invoice processing is strengthened, accounting more secure and payment deadlines improved. The receipt of the invoice and its transaction can be monitored in real time. This will lead to suppliers paying their bills more quickly.
Then, when structured, electronic invoicing makes it possible to automate certain parts of the processing process, but also to carry out a whole set of controls in order to avoid possible errors. This way, there will no longer be duplicate invoices, typing or addressing errors, etc.
In terms of processing costs, electronic invoices are much less expensive than paper invoices, and processing is much faster.
In addition, the dematerialization invoice represents ecological benefits. It makes it possible to limit the consumption of paper as well as printing equipment. And we know that the emission and sending of paper invoices contribute twice as much to greenhouse gas compared to dematerialized invoices. It also allows digital archiving, so less physical storage, which saves working space and saves considerable time.
As part of theElectronic invoicing obligation, non-compliance with the obligation to issue electronic invoices is punishable by a fine of 15 euros per invoice, up to a limit of 15,000 euros per calendar year. Then, each omission or violation of transmission obligations by a platform operator of dematerialization supplier invoice will be punishable by a fine of 15 euros per invoice charged to him, but not exceeding 45,000 euros.
As part of the obligation to transmit transaction and payment data, the penalty applicable to the taxable person is 250 euros per transmission, but must not exceed 15,000 euros per calendar year, this is valid for each of these 2 obligations.
Failure by the operator of the dematerialization platform to comply with its obligations will result in a fine of 750 euros per transmission, with a maximum of 45,000 euros per calendar year for each of these obligations.
Regulatory and legal frameworks are currently in place, and technical specifications are on the verge of covering all facets of the reform. Work to build the public platform will soon begin and a pilot phase will be set in 2023 for the first months of experimentation in 2024. The establishment of a electronic invoicing 2024 is a preparation and subsequent registration phase will also begin for dematerialization providers, wishing to acquire PDP status.
It is now time for businesses to assess the existing situation in light of the new obligations. It is also time to consider the solutions that the reform framework offers, and of course to plan for the work to adapt their systems.
In summary, what to remember about the reform of electronic invoicing 2024 It is that, it is a system for issuing and receiving dematerialized invoices.
Between the 1Er July 2024 and the 1Er July 2026, the electronic invoicing (obligation) will be introduced gradually for all businesses subject to VAT. Then, the invoices will be transmitted from one company to another with the tax administration as an intermediary, via the Chorus Pro Public Invoicing Portal platform. Businesses will be able to use a dedicated service provider approved by the State to issue a compliant invoice.
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