From 1 September 2026, every business registered in France with a SIREN number must be able to receive electronic invoices. This includes owners of furnished holiday lets who live abroad, even when their rental income is exempt from French VAT and taxed under the micro-BIC regime. The only action required is to designate an accredited reception platform, chosen from the official directory published by the French tax administration, and several accredited platforms offer free reception for small structures.
What changes on 1 September 2026
France is rolling out a mandatory e-invoicing system. The reform has two sides: receiving electronic invoices and issuing them. The two sides follow different calendars.
The reception side comes first. From 1 September 2026, any entity holding a SIREN number must be in a position to receive electronic invoices. There is no size threshold and no VAT condition: a VAT-exempt landlord under the micro-BIC regime is covered in exactly the same way as a large company.
The issuing side comes later for small businesses. Small and medium-sized enterprises must issue their invoices electronically from 1 September 2027. That second date concerns your management agency and your French suppliers more than it concerns you as a landlord.
Why this applies to you, even from the UK
If you let a furnished property in France, your letting activity is registered in France and you were issued a SIREN number at registration. That number is what triggers the obligation, not your place of residence, not your tax regime, and not the size of your rental income.
You can check whether you hold a SIREN, and find it, on the French public company register at annuaire-entreprises.data.gouv.fr by searching your own name.
Living in the United Kingdom changes nothing about this deadline. The obligation attaches to the French registration of your letting activity. It also has no effect on your UK tax position: this is a French administrative requirement about how invoices reach you, not a tax.
What you are not required to do
The reform is lighter for a VAT-exempt landlord than the headlines suggest. Three points matter.
You are not required to issue electronic invoices for your exempt rental income. The 1 September 2026 deadline concerns reception only.
You are not required to transmit your rental receipts through e-reporting. That mechanism concerns operations outside the scope of the invoicing mandate; exempt residential letting income of this kind is not caught.
You do not need to purchase software or change how you manage bookings. The obligation is satisfied by a single administrative step, described below.
The one step to take: designate a reception platform
To receive electronic invoices, you must designate an accredited platform (plateforme agréée). The French tax administration publishes the official directory of accredited platforms; the designation is made once, and several accredited platforms offer free reception plans suited to a landlord who receives a handful of invoices a year.
The practical path is: choose a platform from the official directory, open an account, and complete the designation. Once done, invoices from your French suppliers, such as your management agency, your accountant or tradespeople, will reach you through that platform.
We deliberately do not recommend a specific platform here. The right choice depends on your volume of invoices, your language preferences and whether your accountant already works with one. The official directory is the safe starting point.
How to check that it is done
The designation can be verified through the French professional tax account (espace professionnel) on impots.gouv.fr. If you use a French accountant, they can confirm it in a few minutes. If your property is under a management mandate with us, we walk each of our owners through the designation and confirm completion.
What happens if you do nothing
The 2026 French finance law provides for fines per missing invoice and per missing transmission, capped annually. The more practical consequence is friction: from 1 September 2026, French businesses will progressively stop sending PDF invoices by email, and a landlord with no designated platform will simply stop receiving invoices reliably. The fix costs nothing and takes minutes, which is why we flag it now rather than after the deadline.
Where EDN Gestion stands
EDN Gestion, as a company, falls under the issuing calendar for small businesses: our own invoices for management fees will be issued electronically from 1 September 2027. On the reception side we are ready for 1 September 2026, and we accompany every owner under mandate in designating their platform. If nobody has mentioned this deadline to you yet, it is worth asking who is tracking French regulatory deadlines for your property.
FAQ
I only let through Airbnb or Booking.com. Does this still apply to me? Yes. The obligation attaches to your SIREN number, not to your distribution channels. How you find your guests has no bearing on it.
Is receiving electronic invoices free? It can be. Several accredited platforms in the official directory offer free reception for small structures. You only pay if you choose a platform with paid options you do not need.
Do I have to issue electronic invoices to my guests? No. Your exempt rental income does not fall under the issuing mandate, and guests are private individuals. Nothing changes in how your bookings are invoiced today.
I do not think I have a SIREN. What should I do? Check annuaire-entreprises.data.gouv.fr first, because most registered landlords received one without paying attention to it. If your furnished letting activity was never registered in France, that is a separate compliance question to raise with your accountant, and it predates this reform.
Does this deadline concern the registration of my property as a meublé de tourisme? No, that is a different obligation. Since 20 May 2026, the registration of short-term rental properties with the local authority goes through the national portal declaloc.fr. The 1 September 2026 deadline discussed here concerns invoicing only.
Sources
Official information on the French e-invoicing reform and the directory of accredited platforms: impots.gouv.fr (links to the exact official pages to be inserted at review, mirroring the French version of this article). Public company register: annuaire-entreprises.data.gouv.fr. Short-term rental registration portal: declaloc.fr. Figures and dates in this article come from EDN Gestion's verified regulatory note of 28 July 2026.