A French size category for a company that has outgrown the small-firm tests and is not yet one of the largest. Article 51 of the law of 4 August 2008 on the modernization of the economy created the category, and Decree No. 2008-1354 of 18 December 2008 sets the arithmetic. INSEE uses that decree for business statistics. The tax authority uses the same ceilings to time electronic invoicing.
From 1 September 2026, a firm in this band must issue an Electronic Invoice (E-Invoice) on domestic sales to other businesses. Smaller firms have until 1 September 2027 to issue. Every firm in scope must be able to receive by the earlier date.
How the Band Is Measured
Three figures from the last closed financial year, restated on an annual basis, decide the band. For invoicing, the Direction Générale des Finances Publiques (DGFiP) reads them on the legal unit identified by its Système d’Identification du Répertoire des Entreprises (SIREN), not on the wider group. A subsidiary is judged on its own accounts. The snapshot date is 1 January 2025: the last year ended before that date, or, if none had closed, the first year ended on or after it. INSEE’s statistical enterprise can combine legal units. This timetable does not.
- Headcount. People occupied by that legal unit. Crossing a headcount ceiling is enough to leave the current band.
- Annual turnover. The year’s turnover. It does not move a firm up on its own while headcount is still inside the ceiling.
- Balance sheet total. Paired with turnover. Money figures move a firm up only when headcount is still inside the ceiling and both turnover and the balance sheet total sit above it.
A firm with fewer than 250 people stays a Small and Medium-Sized Enterprise (SME) when turnover does not exceed €50 million or the balance sheet total does not exceed €43 million. With a smaller staff, it leaves that band only when turnover is above €50 million and the balance sheet total is above €43 million. At 250 people or more, it has already left.
The Four Size Bands
The decree defines four bands. This one is every firm that is not an SME, occupies fewer than 5,000 people, and has annual turnover not exceeding €1,500 million or a balance sheet total not exceeding €2,000 million. One of those two money ceilings is enough. A firm that misses every earlier band is a large enterprise: 5,000 people or more, or, with a smaller staff, turnover above €1,500 million and a balance sheet total above €2,000 million. For the first three rows, both the headcount cell and the financial cell apply.
| Band | Headcount | Financial Test |
| Microenterprise | Fewer than 10 people | Turnover or balance sheet total not over €2 million |
| Small and medium-sized enterprise | Fewer than 250 people | Turnover not over €50 million, or balance sheet total not over €43 million |
| Intermediate-sized enterprise | Fewer than 5,000 people, and not an SME | Turnover not over €1,500 million, or balance sheet total not over €2,000 million |
| Large enterprise | 5,000 people or more, or not in the bands above | If headcount is under 5,000: turnover above €1,500 million and balance sheet total above €2,000 million |
Microenterprises are the smallest slice of the SME test. The issuing timetable treats them with other small firms, not with this band.
Issuing and Receiving Invoices
From 1 September 2026, every business liable for Value-Added Tax (VAT) must be able to receive electronic invoices, including a firm on the VAT exemption scheme and a firm that issues none of its own. On that date, large enterprises and this band must issue electronic invoices for Business-to-Business (B2B) sales of goods or services between companies established in France. SMEs and microenterprises issue from 1 September 2027, and they may start earlier if they choose. The same two dates cover transaction and payment data sent to the tax authority.
An electronic invoice here is not a PDF sent by email or a scan of a paper bill. It uses a structured format, or a hybrid of structured data and an image, and it passes through an approved platform. Supplier and customer need not choose the same platform. A firm in this band must already receive electronic invoices from large suppliers and from any smaller firm that issues early. A smaller supplier that waits may keep its old format until 1 September 2027.
