Business

The countdown is underway, and the ticking of the clock grows heavy and oppressive in the headquarters of tourism companies.

If Laurent Abitbol, president of Marietton Développement, recently told us that two people work full-time for two years on implementing electronic invoicing, that is not the case everywhere else.

According to many executives interviewed, whether in tourism or, more broadly, outside of it, nobody is ready.

Far from a back‑of‑the‑envelope analysis, this is a real reality. According to the latest Generix barometer published with Exaegis, while nearly 90% of large enterprises claimed to be ready on July 1, 48.5% of French companies had not yet begun implementing the project.

And these figures also appear on the side of the Treasury (Bercy), which held a briefing on the topic, mainly to defuse the discontent surrounding the cybersecurity risk posed by the reform.

Among the companies that report VAT in 2026, i.e., 4 million entities in France, as of August 23, 2026, 58% of them were registered in the directory with their platform. This rate was 55% the previous week.

We are talking here about the core targets, the priority companies. The rate of registrations is advancing by several percentage points per week, so it is moving fast, says a member of the office of David Amiel, the Minister of Action and Public Accounts.

In a few days, it will therefore be essential to have chosen a platform approved by the State that will aim to issue, “transmit and receive invoices in electronic format and extract the data useful to the administration but also receive and transmit transaction and payment data,” as explained on the government site.

This figure of 4 million must be weighed against the 11 million businesses present in France that should be VAT-liable, but are not all, for tax reasons.

“Among them, there are many shells or operators that are no longer active, but also, undoubtedly, data quality issues. This includes many auto-entrepreneurs, small private real estate companies, SCI, etc. They are in practice less critical in implementing the reform. We are giving them more time and that makes sense. At this stage, more than 30% of these enterprises are registered in the directory with their platform, which is very satisfactory“, continues our interlocutor.

It would thus appear that after a slight ignition delay, the leaders have indeed started the forward march.

However, this reform is arriving at perhaps the worst moment, after repeated hacks of public bodies, including the DGFiP, which has triggered a large number of comments and fears.

This is not all, because it also takes place in a deteriorating economic context. The latest barometer published by Altarès clearly shows that our country is experiencing major difficulties, with a bleeding rate of business failures that the government is struggling to curb.

According to the association’s Entrepreneur Employment Observatory, the number of job losses is at its highest in the first half of 2026, with an increase of nearly 7% compared to the same period last year.

In these conditions, Bercy has chosen to play down the rollout of electronic invoicing. “September 1 is not a cut‑off date. It is not the landing of the reform, but its takeoff, its start. Thus, this date marks the first step of the reform, the second major one being September 2027.
A logical consequence of that, which also follows all the exchanges the minister has had in spring and summer with many professional federations, is to say that in 2026 there will be no penalties for any company.
The administration will take a supportive stance toward the reform“, continues the office of David Amiel.

And while Bercy had, for a while, asserted that this flexibility would apply only to structures that had shown a start toward compliance, this time the Ministry of Economy has been clearer.

Even companies that have taken no steps, and have not yet looked into electronic invoicing, will not face penalties, at least in 2026.

Leaders can breathe easy; they still have a few months ahead. Nevertheless, and as Laurent Abitbol told us, electronic invoicing, though heavy and costly in the short term, will bring benefits in the long run.

To read: Electronic invoicing: everything you need to know!

That is also the message the minister’s entourage wanted to convey. “We are talking about a structural reform, a deep modernization reform, a reform of competitiveness and simplification of business life.”

The first beneficiaries of this reform are the companies. For them, it’s time saved, money saved, in many administrative processes related to invoicing, which can even poison their daily lives in their dealings with other private actors and with the tax administration.

Once the after-sales service closes, and reassuring messages are sent, the David Amiel office recalled several points about cybersecurity.

About two weeks ago, the DGFiP was hacked in a major, historic attack.

“The requirements imposed on approved platforms are the highest in Europe, especially when compared with the two major countries that preceded us in implementing electronic invoicing, namely Italy and Belgium.

We imposed on them the ISO 27001 cybersecurity standard, but also hosting data under the SecNumCloud label, the reference qualification issued by the ANSSI, the National Agency for the Security of Information Systems.

This label imposes not only very strong security standards but also covers legal risks related to extraterritoriality“, the team clarifies.

In the face of the explosion of cyberattacks targeting both private and public entities, it is essential to ensure that the sensitive data that will transit through the platforms is secured to the utmost.

The government has therefore imposed prerequisites that will be checked to make sure these actors are taking the necessary steps to protect invoices and information.

“To earn the trust of businesses and the French people, proof must be provided continuously that the requirements we have imposed are respected.

In order to monitor their implementation and ensure it works, platforms were asked to provide a post-production tracking point to the administration on the cyber aspect by the end of September.

The minister also indicated that intrusion tests would be generalized in the fall, as the ultimate proof within the ISO 27001 certification framework.

The administration will not tremble before suspending the operations of a platform whose security level is deemed unsatisfactory“, the minister of Action and Public Accounts’ office states firmly.

Reading that last sentence, sector leaders should not panic.

According to our contact, suspensions or any problem affecting a platform have been anticipated. Backup and portability systems have been planned for companies that would need to switch providers.

In addition, regarding the technical components implemented directly by the administration, Bercy has stated that several intrusion tests have already been performed and that more would follow.

The infrastructures have also been subjected to bug bounty tests, during which hackers push the installations to their limits to identify vulnerabilities, bugs, or underdoors.