Invoicing as a freelancer in France means navigating a specific set of rules: a 20% standard VAT rate, payment deadlines around 30 days, and reporting to the DGFiP in EUR. Get any of these wrong and you can lose income to disputes — or attract a tax-authority audit.
What every invoice in France must include
Start from the legal minimum: a unique sequential invoice number, your registered name and tax ID, the client's name and tax ID, the date of issue, a clear description of services, the amount in EUR, the applicable VAT rate (20%), and the total. Missing any of these makes the invoice non-compliant and the deduction contestable for your client.
VAT, payment terms and penalties in France
The standard VAT rate in France is 20%. Default payment terms run around 30 days from issue. Build late-payment penalties into your terms — collecting them later is much harder if the contract is silent.
The country-specific rule most freelancers in France miss
French law caps payment terms at 60 days from invoice date (45 days end-of-month). Late-payment penalties default to the ECB rate plus 10 points, plus a fixed €40 collection fee — these are due automatically, even without a clause in your contract.
How to issue clean invoices fast
Manual invoicing — even in spreadsheets — gets risky once you have more than five clients. SnapCost generates compliant invoices in EUR with the right VAT, sequential numbering, your branding and a payable link. The same dashboard tracks payment status, sends gentle reminders and exports a clean revenue report at year-end.