Invoicing legally decides less about your taxes than about your clients. Without an invoice, a large part of the market is closed to you.
Why the invoice decides your ceiling
That is the point beginners discover too late.
A company needs a proper document to book an expense. Without it, it cannot pay you, even if it wants to, and even if your work suits it.
Concretely, that splits the market in two: clients who pay hand to hand, often small and irregular, and those going through an accounts department, that is agencies, structured companies and foreign clients.
Moving from one side to the other does not happen with a better portfolio, it happens with a registration.
The simplified regime, plainly
It is designed for small and medium-sized independent activities.
The principle: you pay a fixed monthly amount, set by a bracket, rather than a complex calculation on your results. That bracket depends on several parameters, including annual turnover.
What to keep in mind: the amount is predictable, it is paid every month even with no income, and it rises in steps.
The detail of the brackets, the amounts, the components and the obligations depends on your situation and changes regularly: it is checked with the competent administration and with an accountant, before registering and then at every review.
What is worth knowing from the start
Four practical points.
The monthly payment is due even in months with no job. Plan it as a fixed cost, not as a deduction from the good months.
Issuing invoices goes through an online system, and it is useful to do the first one with somebody who knows it, to avoid an error in the nature of the activity.
A dedicated bank account makes the year legible and any check simple.
And updating the bracket has deadlines: missing them costs more than changing bracket.
Invoicing abroad
That is the most interesting case, and the most regulated.
A service sold to a client established outside the country does not follow the same rules as a local one, neither for the statements, nor for the treatment of the tax, nor for how the money comes in.
Three questions to ask an accountant before the first international invoice: what must appear on the document, how the operation is declared, and through what channel the payment is possible and under what conditions.
The practical point: settle that question before approaching foreign clients, not after signing. A quote accepted and then impossible to invoice costs the client and the credibility.
What is tracked month after month
| Item | Why track it | Frequency |
|---|---|---|
| Total invoiced over twelve months | It determines the bracket | Every month |
| Payments received in foreign currency | They convert at a given date | On each receipt |
| Records kept | They matter in an audit | On each invoice |
What to set up from the first invoice
A three-column table, date, client and amount, plus one folder per year for the documents. Nothing more complicated is useful at the start.
What to ask a professional
The applicable bracket, the thresholds, the recategorisation date and the treatment of income from abroad, to be confirmed with an accountant.
Frequent mistakes
Four, all avoidable.
Invoicing before being registered, telling yourself you will sort it out later. That is the most expensive mistake.
Choosing too low a bracket to pay less, then ending up out of line with reality.
Forgetting that the threshold is calculated on twelve rolling months, as described in the box.
And confusing the monthly amount with a tax on profit. They are not the same thing, and it changes how you set your rates: what you pay does not depend on what is left to you.
Sources
Checked on 26 August 2026. Thresholds and rates change: where this guide and the official source disagree, the official source is right.
