Definition
A graphic designer gets an email from her biggest client: "from next quarter, please send your invoices as Factur-X".
Curious, she opens the latest invoice her own hosting provider sent her, the one carrying that very name. On screen it is a perfectly ordinary PDF: a logo, a table, a total.
Nothing shows, and that is precisely the point.
Factur-X is an invoice format that fits in a single file and can be read in two ways. The visible layer is a PDF, the one you proofread before sending and your client prints.
Tucked inside that PDF sits a second, tiny file written in XML: it repeats the same information in a form an accounting system files away without anyone retyping it, issuer, number, date, amounts, tax.
One file, two readings, and both must say exactly the same thing. The format was born from a Franco-German rapprochement: in Germany, the same standard goes by the name ZUGFeRD.
It relies on the flavour of PDF able to carry an attachment, PDF/A-3.
The format, the channel and the obligation
Three notions get blended together in almost every article, and pulling them apart saves a great deal of time. Factur-X is a format, meaning the shape of the file.
A Certified invoicing platform (plateforme de dématérialisation partenaire) is a channel, meaning the route that file takes to reach your client.
Electronic invoicing is the obligation, meaning what the law requires and from when.
Producing Factur-X files does not on its own make you compliant, and switching platform changes nothing about the format of your invoices.
Factur-X is not the only structured format in the scheme either: others exist, purely in XML, which no human reads without a dedicated tool.
The appeal of this one fits in a sentence: it satisfies the machine without depriving you of a readable invoice, which spares you from producing two documents for the same sale.
The list of accepted formats and the timetable that applies to you are published on the tax administration portal, the only up-to-date source on a scheme that has already been postponed once.
What the data layer carries
The XML file holds no logo and no layout: it carries the Mandatory invoice details of your Invoice as separate fields, each in its own place.
Under the franchise en base (the French VAT basic exemption), the tax amount is zero and the exemption-reason field takes the Article 293 B notice, namely "TVA non applicable, article 293 B du CGI" for as long as it remains in force, until 31 December 2026.
Contrary to what is endlessly repeated, it is not the only accepted wording: the Bulletin officiel des finances publiques (the official tax doctrine) accepts three, including the reference to article 293 B bis for the EU-wide exemption.
That wording has an end date of its own: on 1 January 2027, VAT rules move into a new code and the field takes "TVA non applicable, article L. 233-3 du CIBS", the old wording remaining accepted until 30 June 2028.
This page is up to date as of 5 September 2026 and will be revised at that deadline.
Two harmless-looking moves break a Factur-X invoice without a single error message.
The first is editing the PDF to correct an amount: the visible layer changes, the data file keeps the old value, and your client stops seeing the same invoice as their accounting system.
The second is reprinting the invoice to PDF, or passing it through a tool that flattens it: the result looks pixel-identical, but the attachment is gone and only an ordinary PDF remains.
A Factur-X invoice is never corrected by hand: you regenerate it from the tool that produced it, or you issue a Credit note.
€1,800 and two versions of the same invoice
A developer taxed under BNC (non-commercial income) rules, non-regulated, invoices €2,000 for a small website, with no VAT charged. The client negotiates a €200 goodwill discount.
Rather than issuing a credit note, the developer reopens the PDF, replaces the total and sends the file back.
| What the client reads | What their accounting reads |
|---|---|
| PDF: €1,800 to pay | XML: €2,000 to pay |
No simple rule designates which version wins, which is exactly why such a mismatch ends in an automatic rejection or an awkward conversation.
Once the €1,800 transfer has landed, that is the amount which becomes turnover, never the figure printed on the invoice.
The sum is €1,800 × 25.6%, or €460.80 of social contributions at the 2026 rate for non-regulated liberal professions outside the Cipav.
The Cipav is the fund for regulated professions and has its own rate. That rate covers neither the vocational training contribution nor income tax.
And it is the date of the transfer, not the date of issue, that files those €1,800 in one year rather than another: the Cash receipt drives turnover, the invoice time stamp only matters to the electronic circuit.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need paid software to issue Factur-X invoices?
Not necessarily: most invoicing tools have added the format, including in free plans.
What matters is not the price but the method: the tool must produce both layers in a single operation, rather than building a PDF and then attaching a data file to it by hand afterwards.
How can I tell whether a file I received really is a Factur-X?
Open the attachments pane of your PDF reader, the one behind the paperclip icon. A data file appears there, usually named something like factur-x.xml.
If that pane is empty, what you are holding is an ordinary PDF, whatever the sender may have written in the footer.
Can I keep emailing my invoices?
Format and channel remain two separate questions: a Factur-X file sent by email is still a valid file, but that is not the circuit the reform prescribes, which routes business-to-business invoices through an approved platform.
When this becomes binding depends on the size of your business and on which obligation is at stake.
Should I archive the PDF, the XML, or both?
Keep the file exactly as it was issued or received, without reprocessing it: both layers live together inside the same document, and extracting one of them to file it separately amounts to keeping half an invoice.
A file re-saved from a PDF reader may well have lost its data layer along the way.