France has extended the statutory retention period for VAT records from six to ten years, effective 1 January 2027. The change applies to all books, registers, invoices and supporting documents, including electronic records. Businesses must ensure archived invoices remain readable and searchable for the full ten-year period.
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Key Takeaways
From 1 January 2027, France's statutory retention period for VAT invoices and supporting documents extends to ten years, as amended by Law No. 2026-534.
Large businesses and mid-sized enterprises must issue electronic VAT invoices from 1 September 2026 under France's mandatory B2B e-invoicing regime, and must preserve the original invoice data, formats, status information and supporting audit evidence for ten years.
SMEs and micro-enterprises must start issuing electronic VAT invoices from 1 September 2027 under France's mandatory B2B e-invoicing regime.
Businesses must ensure archived electronic invoices remain readable, searchable and capable of being produced to the French tax authorities for the full ten-year retention period, as required by France's retention rules.
Yes, the ten-year retention requirement applies to documents whose existing six-year period expires after 1 January 2027, meaning records created in earlier years may need to be retained longer under France's retention rules.
Primary source
Read the full article at VatCalcThis summary was published on VATfaqs.com on 24 July 2026. It relates to VAT developments in France. The original source is VatCalc.
