France · Agentic SaaS development

SaaS Development for France: Billing, VAT and E-Invoicing

Since 1 September 2026, every company in France has had to be able to receive electronic invoices, and large companies and ETIs must also issue them and e-report. PME and micro-enterprises start issuing on 1 September 2027. For a French SaaS company billing French businesses, invoicing stops being a PDF attached to an email and becomes an integration.

Curiosive is a studio in Ankara, Türkiye, that builds subscription products with AI coding agents and a senior engineer reviewing every change. Agents write the CRUD screens, admin views, migrations and test suites. Engineers design the multi-tenant data model, the billing webhooks and the entitlement logic, because those are where a mistake charges the wrong customer or shows one tenant another tenant's data.

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VAT on selling SaaS subscriptions to customers in France

France's standard VAT rate is 20%, with reduced rates of 5.5% and 10% and a super-reduced 2.1%, according to the EU Your Europe table last checked on 13 July 2026. A business customer in another EU country usually pays VAT itself under the reverse charge, although there are several important exceptions. Electronic services sold to consumers are taxed in the customer's country, though below a EUR 10 000 threshold they may be subject to VAT in the EU country where the seller is established, and the One Stop Shop lets a seller declare that VAT through a single EU registration. For the billing model this means storing each subscriber's country, whether they are a business and their VAT number, then pricing in euros. It is worth confirming with an accountant which French rate your product takes before the first invoice.

E-invoicing in France: what a SaaS billing system must support

Article 289 bis of the Code général des impôts requires e-invoices to be issued, transmitted and received through a 'plateforme agréée', so a SaaS company in France invoicing French businesses needs structured invoice data a platform can carry, not only a rendered PDF. The DGFiP's practical start-up guide for 1 September 2026 says sanctions will not be applied to companies that run into difficulties but are on a serious compliance trajectory, and it stresses that this is neither a postponement nor a suspension. Under Council Directive (EU) 2025/516, VAT in the Digital Age, invoices are to be issued electronically to the European standard from 1 July 2030, intra-EU supplies between businesses fall under new digital reporting, and reverse-charge invoices must be issued within 10 days of the chargeable event. We design invoice records as data first, with documents generated from them.

Payments for French subscribers: SCA, Wero and webhooks

The PSD2 strong customer authentication standards have applied since 14 September 2019. They let a payment provider skip authentication for a remote payment of no more than EUR 30 only while the payer's remote payments since the last authentication stay within EUR 100 in total or five consecutive transactions, so challenged payments are normal events, not edge cases. Payment habits are moving too: in its 16 September 2026 release, EPI says its Wero wallet has been live there for person-to-person payments since 2024 and that e-commerce acceptance is rolling out in France through 2026, with Air France, Decathlon, Fnac Darty and Orange confirming adoption. We treat the payment provider's events as the source of truth and make every webhook handler idempotent. PicKey (pickey.ai), built with subscription billing, is the closest example.

Accessibility duties for digital services sold in France

France transposed the European Accessibility Act in Article 16 of Loi n° 2023-171 of 9 March 2023. It applies to services provided after 28 June 2025, and the services it names include consumer and real-estate credit, payment and e-money services, electronic communications, access to audiovisual media, e-books and reading software, and passenger transport. Providers employing fewer than 10 people with annual turnover or balance-sheet total of no more than €2 million are exempt, and DGCCRF agents enforce the rules alongside the sector regulators. The Act concerns services provided to consumers, so a tool sold only to businesses is generally outside it, while a consumer payment or e-book service sits inside unless the size exemption applies. Agents can generate accessible components and tests; engineers decide what counts as done.

The EU Data Act has applied since 12 September 2025, and its recitals place SaaS among data processing services. Switching terms must sit in a written contract, with a notice period of no more than two months and a transitional period of no more than 30 calendar days. Until 12 January 2027 providers may charge only reduced switching charges capped at the costs directly linked to the switch, and none after that. For a service mostly custom-built for one customer and not offered at broad commercial scale, some of these duties do not apply, but the provider must say which ones before the contract is signed. Engineering-wise, that means a tenant-scoped export built in from the start. Login raises a French question: under the arrêté of 8 November 2018, a private company may integrate FranceConnect only for change-of-address services or where a legal text explicitly requires it to verify its own users' identity, such as a bank's customer due diligence.

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Reveal Software

Release Coach AI

Inspire Film

Poppin

Zing Coach

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Questions

The things people ask before starting.

How does VAT work when a French company sells SaaS to customers across the EU?

It depends on who buys. Business customers in other EU countries usually account for VAT themselves under the reverse charge, while electronic services sold to consumers are taxed in each customer's country and can be declared through the One Stop Shop. The French standard rate is 20%, with reduced rates of 5.5% and 10%.

Does a SaaS company in France need to issue e-invoices in 2026?

Only if it is a large company or an ETI; those have had to issue e-invoices and e-report since 1 September 2026. Every company must already be able to receive them, and PME and micro-enterprises start issuing on 1 September 2027. Invoices travel through a plateforme agréée, so billing data needs to be structured well before that date.

Can a French SaaS add FranceConnect as a login option?

Only in two cases: change-of-address services, or online services where a legislative or regulatory text explicitly requires the company to verify its own users' identity, such as a bank's customer due diligence. For most SaaS products the answer is no, so plan email, passkey or single sign-on login instead.

How much does it cost to build a SaaS for the French market?

Work runs as AI-accelerated development, starting from $2,000 per month, with scope agreed in writing. Both figures are US dollar starting points, not quotes. Ankara's working day begins at 07:00 or 08:00 French time depending on the season, so planning calls fit into a French morning.

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You get a reply within a day
From the engineer who would do the work, not a sales team. If we are not the right fit we say so, and where possible we point you somewhere better.
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Ankara / Türkiye · Working across European and US time zones

SaaS Development for France: Billing, VAT and E-Invoicing

VAT on selling SaaS subscriptions to customers in France

E-invoicing in France: what a SaaS billing system must support

Payments for French subscribers: SCA, Wero and webhooks

Accessibility duties for digital services sold in France