Micro-entrepreneur in France, in English

The French admin nobody explained to you, one question at a time: invoicing, VAT, URSSAF and e-invoicing, each answer checked against the official sources on a stated date, from someone who has been a micro-entrepreneur since 2018.

Checked against official sources · Unsettled points marked as unsettled · Written by a micro-entrepreneur, not an accountant

Every English-speaking micro-entrepreneur in France ends up asking the same questions, and the answers on the forums are always slightly different because the person answering is also guessing. These are the answers I now give, with the source and the date each was checked, and where the true answer is "nobody has decided yet", it says so.

Invoicing a UK client

Which VAT line goes on an invoice to a UK client, and why Autoliquidation is wrongThe reverse charge is an intra-EU mechanism and the UK left it in 2021. What goes on the invoice instead, under the franchise and when VAT-registered.
Can a Micro-Entrepreneur in France Invoice a UK Client in Pounds and in English?Yes to both. French law fixes nineteen mentions on an invoice and neither the language nor the currency is one of them. What has to stay, and what you declare when the sterling lands.
Do I Have to Put EI After My Name as a Micro-Entrepreneur?Yes, since 15 May 2022: on invoices, quotes, business correspondence and the title of the business bank account. The mention British freelancers most often miss, because it arrived as a setting nobody switched on.
The €40 Recovery Fee and the Late-Payment Line Every French Invoice NeedsDue date, penalty rate and the fixed €40 indemnité forfaitaire pour frais de recouvrement: compulsory on every business invoice since 2013, missing from most freelance templates, and four lines of text once written.
Do I Have to Declare My Wise Account in France? Form 3916 for Micro-EntrepreneursYes. Wise's European entity is Belgian, so the account is held abroad and goes on form 3916 every year, with a €1,500 fine per undeclared account. The same for Revolut, Starling and any UK account you still hold.
Paid in Pounds: Which Exchange Rate Goes on the URSSAF Declaration?URSSAF publishes no rule, so you borrow the income-tax one: the rate on the day the money was at your disposal. Converted on arrival, declare the euros credited before fees; held in sterling, the ECB rate for that day. Then never vary it.
Does UK Client Income Count Towards the French VAT Franchise Threshold?Not settled. The July 2026 commentary suggests services to a business outside the EU do not count; the 2023 version said they did. Which threshold is in doubt, and the one letter that settles it for you.

E-invoicing

E-invoicing in France for micro-entrepreneurs: the questions freelancers keep askingIs the tax office email real, does it apply under the VAT franchise, which free platforms are approved, is there a fine, and what changes in September 2027.

The long version is a fourteen-page guide, and it is free: what "being able to receive" means, ten platforms checked against the official list, the five steps with a way to confirm each worked, and the e-reporting that catches your foreign invoices from September 2027.

Clients in the EU, and everywhere else

A business client in Dublin or Berlin is the one case that needs care: a French intra-community VAT number before the first invoice, the single word "Autoliquidation" with both numbers on it, and a monthly return to French customs, the DES, that most freelancers have never heard of. A client in Cairo, Chicago or Sydney needs none of that and is treated like the UK client above, with a form or a withholding tax at their end to know about. The two questions that sort every foreign client, and what each answer means for the invoice, are in the third guide; pages on the most-asked parts of it follow here as they are written.

The guides

The free pages above answer the question you arrived with. The guides are the long version: every mention in order, the model invoices in French and English ready to copy, the working for each unsettled point, and the sources. Each is sold on its own, or all three together with the URSSAF declaration tracker and the deadlines calendar as Micro Admin 2026/27.

Guide · €19Invoicing a UK client from FranceThe nineteen mentions, both VAT lines, pounds and Wise, what to declare and when, and a bilingual model invoice in sterling to copy. Thirteen pages.Read more → Guide · €19Clients in the EU, and everywhere elseTwo questions that sort every foreign client, the VAT number and the DES for an EU business, the W-8BEN, withholding taxes, and two model invoices. Twelve pages.Read more → The kit · €49Micro Admin 2026/27All three guides, the URSSAF declaration tracker that does the sums, and the deadlines calendar to the end of 2027 for the wall and the phone. January update by email.See what is in the kit →

Who writes this

I am Sophie Kazandjian, a British micro-entrepreneur in the Gard since 2018, with most of my clients in the UK and some further away. I run a digital operations practice and I am not an accountant. Everything here is general information checked against the official French, EU and UK sources on the date stated on each page; it is not advice about your circumstances, and for a decision that turns on them, write to your Service des impôts des entreprises through the messaging service in your espace professionnel, or see an expert-comptable. The rules move, sometimes mid-year. When they do, the pages are re-checked and the guides get a January update, which is why there is a year in the name.

A question that is not here yet goes to [email protected]. The ones that come up more than once get a page.

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