Definition
A consultant invoices €2,000 for a three-month engagement. The client pays, then stops everything after the first month. They agree on a €500 refund.
She opens her software, looks for a way to edit the invoice already sent, finds none, and ends up deleting it to issue a new one at €1,500.
Two months later her declaration no longer matches her bank statement, and nobody can tell which of the two invoices the client actually paid.
An avoir (credit note) fixes precisely that.
It is an Invoice in reverse: the same details, the same parties, a number taken from a continuous run, and an amount that subtracts instead of adding.
It does not replace the original invoice, it sits facing it.
Article 242 nonies A of annex II to the French tax code, the same one carrying the mandatory invoice details, requires any document modifying an invoice to refer unambiguously to the one it corrects: a credit note that does not quote the original invoice number corrects nothing.
Four situations call for one: a cancelled order, work cut short along the way, a wrong amount, a goodwill gesture granted after sending.
In all four the original invoice stays in place, the credit note carries its own number, and the Invoice numbering reads without a gap.
What a credit note changes, and does not change, in your declaration
Back to the consultant, under the BNC (non-commercial income) rules. Over the year she collected €2,000 then returned €500: she kept €1,500, and that is the figure she declares.
Contributions follow: €1,500 × 25.6% = €384 at the 2026 rate for liberal professions under the general scheme outside the Cipav, a rate covering neither the CFP (vocational training contribution), nor the chamber levy owed by traders and craftspeople, nor income tax.
Declaring the full €2,000 would have cost her €512, meaning €128 paid on money she no longer holds.
The rule fits in one sentence. Only money that genuinely left your account reduces your turnover: the Cash receipt decides, never the document.
A credit note issued against an invoice that was never paid is therefore declared nowhere, since nothing had been declared.
A credit note turned into store credit for a future order reduces nothing either: the money stayed with you.
If the refund falls in the same period as the payment, enter only the net amount in your Turnover declaration.
If it falls in a period you have already declared, it is that declaration, the one for the period the money left, that you correct from your online account, with the credit note as supporting evidence: the declaration covering the original payment was correct when you filed it.
The refund then goes into your Income ledger as a negative line facing the receipt it reduces, with the credit note number as its supporting document.
Then comes the case that surprises people most: when the invoice and the credit note fall in different years.
A €2,000 job collected on 15 December belongs to the turnover of the year that is ending, and a €500 refund paid the following February does not travel back to correct it.
A credit note belongs to the year the money leaves, not to the year of the invoice it corrects. Your total is therefore higher in the first year and lower in the second, and both declarations remain correct in their own right.
The trap costs money in both directions.
Issuing a credit note never gives you back contributions paid on turnover you had not collected: on an invoice left unpaid there is nothing to recover, because there was nothing to declare in the first place.
And the other way round, subtracting a credit note from a later declaration when no money has left your account amounts to under-declaring your turnover.
The only case that lowers a declaration is an actual refund, backed by a transfer.
Credit note, corrected invoice, discount: three documents, three moments
| Document | When it is used |
|---|---|
| Discount or rebate | Before sending: the reduction appears on the invoice itself, no other document is needed |
| Avoir (credit note) | After sending, when the amount due drops or disappears: the original invoice survives, the credit note faces it |
| Facture rectificative (corrected invoice) | After sending, when the invoice is wrong on something other than the amount: a missing statement, the wrong identity, a VAT line added by mistake |
| Store credit with you | When the client accepts a voucher rather than a transfer: a useful gesture, but your turnover does not move |
Under the franchise en base (VAT basic exemption), your credit note carries the same Article 293 B notice as the invoice it corrects.
The Bulletin officiel des finances publiques (the official tax doctrine) accepts three formulations, the most common remaining "TVA non applicable, article 293 B du CGI" until 31 December 2026. From 1 January 2027, VAT rules move to a new code and it becomes "TVA non applicable, article L. 233-3 du CIBS", the old one remaining accepted until 30 June 2028.
If your software slipped in a VAT line by mistake, repairing it is urgent: any VAT mentioned makes you liable for it purely because it was invoiced, and your client cannot deduct it.
The other way round, a credit note a supplier sends you is declared nowhere.
The micro scheme calculates your contributions and your tax on what you collect, never on what you spend: a refunded software subscription or a cancelled order with a supplier moves neither your declaration nor your ceilings.
Keep the document with your records, it serves as proof of payment, not as a deduction.
A Deposit invoice (facture d'acompte) collected and then returned follows the same path: a credit note quoting it, a refund, an adjusted declaration.
This page is up to date as of 5 September 2026.
Frequently asked questions
Does a credit note need an invoice number?
Yes, a number taken from your usual sequence, or from a dedicated series such as AV-2026-001 if you prefer to keep them apart.
What matters is that the series stays continuous and that the credit note quotes the number of the invoice it corrects, otherwise the link between the two documents disappears.
Can I cancel an invoice without issuing a credit note?
No, not once it has gone out to the client. Deleting it leaves a gap in the numbering and erases the trace of the transaction, which an audit reads as revenue collected and then hidden.
A credit note does the opposite: it shows the mistake and its correction side by side.
Does a credit note let me recover my social contributions?
Only if you had declared a payment that you then refunded, and the reduction is taken in the period the money left: the turnover of that period drops accordingly, the contributions follow, and the overpayment is adjusted.
On an unpaid invoice, however, there is nothing to recover, since that amount never entered your turnover to begin with.
Should I refund the client or leave them credit with me?
Both are possible and open to negotiation.
Just be aware that the tax and social consequences differ: a refund transfer reduces the turnover you have to declare, whereas credit towards a future order leaves the money in your account, and therefore in your receipts for the year.