During his wishes for 2024, President Macron declared that he wanted to “further accelerate our efforts and drastically simplify the lives of our entrepreneurs”. But carrying out major state reforms and its modernization is not a simple thing.
The year 2023 was an illustration of this with the difficult implementation of the single window for businesses, dissected by the Court of Auditors. The audit notably pinpoints an unrealistic initial deadline.
See you in September 2026
The reform of electronic invoicing suffers a priori from the same problems. During the summer of 2023, Bercy this time anticipated a failure of generalization in 2024 and decreed a postponement. This is recorded in the Finance Law published in the Official Journal at the very end of the year.
The generalization will therefore take place with a delay of two years compared to the initial schedule. An amendment to the bill adopted last October already announced the new timetable for the reform.
Large companies are required to be ready to issue electronic invoices from September 1, 2026, and no longer from July 1, 2024. At this same deadline, the transmission of transaction and payment data will also be mandatory.
For mid-sized companies, these obligations will also apply on September 1, 2026. The reform initially provided for entry into force on January 1, 2025. Finally, for SMEs and micro-enterprises, the deadline is set for September 1, 2027.
The Public Late Billing Portal
“Note that SMEs and micro-enterprises must be able to receive electronic invoices from September 1, 2026”, also specifies the Finance Law. For the Minister of the Economy, Bruno Le Maire, it is a question of “giving ourselves the time necessary for the success of this structuring reform for the economy.”
But also to enable the State to complete its own technical project, namely the production of the platform intended to manage the flow of electronic invoices from companies and to connect with PDPs, partner dematerialization platforms.
Developments have been delayed, recalls our colleague from LMI. The opening of the Public Billing Portal (PPF) has been postponed until fall 2024. It was in principle planned for the end of 2023. The pilot is announced for 2025 and the start of production in March 2026.
Has Bercy taken note of the dysfunctions throughout 2023 in the one-stop shop for businesses? In its report, the Court of Auditors sharply criticizes the refusal to call into question the implementation date provided for by law.
She sees it as “undoubtedly unreasonable risk-taking for which companies and state services have borne the serious consequences.”