The legal news for entrepreneurs in 2024 revolves around three major areas: electronic invoicing, value sharing, and adjustments to social contributions. Each of these changes modifies concrete management processes, and ignoring them exposes businesses to penalties or avoidable extra costs.
Electronic invoicing: the abandonment of the public portal changes the game for entrepreneurs
The initial project envisioned a centralized public portal for the transmission of invoices and tax data. On October 15, 2024, the State announced that it would not build this portal. Companies must therefore choose an approved private dematerialization platform to fulfill their obligations.
This turnaround transforms an administrative issue into a strategic decision. The choice of a provider involves multiple simultaneous criteria: compatibility with existing accounting software, pricing, termination conditions, and especially guarantees of service continuity. An entrepreneur who signs with a financially fragile platform risks having to urgently migrate their data, with the time losses and errors that this generates.
Approved platforms are subject to specific requirements for hosting, auditing, and data protection, with annual oversight by an independent organization. Checking these guarantees before signing a contract allows you to access the legal page of Wake Up Business where compliance obligations are detailed by category of business.
Cybersecurity and invoicing: an underestimated operational risk
Compliance with electronic invoicing is not limited to the format of documents. Cybersecurity is becoming a criterion for choosing a provider, not a secondary issue. The data transmitted through these platforms includes sensitive tax information: billed amounts, client identities, payment terms.
A breach at the provider can lead to a leak of business data, but also a temporary blockage of the invoicing chain. For a micro or small business without an internal IT department, the platform’s ability to guarantee a high availability rate and a documented business continuity plan is a negotiation point before signing.
- Check that the platform has certified hosting located in the European Union, in accordance with regulatory requirements.
- Request the annual audit report conducted by the independent organization, which certifies compliance with security standards.
- Ensure that the contract includes a data reversibility clause in case of a change of provider or cessation of the platform’s activity.
Value sharing: companies with 11 employees involved in the experiment
Value sharing refers to the mechanisms by which a company redistributes part of its profits to its employees: profit-sharing, participation, value-sharing bonuses. Until recently, obligations focused on larger structures.
An experiment stemming from the law of November 29, 2023, extends this logic to companies with at least 11 employees, when they achieve a positive net taxable profit over three consecutive fiscal years and are not already subject to an obligatory scheme. This measure affects a significant volume of companies that have never had to implement such mechanisms.
The practical challenge is twofold. It is necessary to identify whether the company falls within the scope (number of employees, profit history, absence of existing agreements), and then choose the appropriate mechanism. The value-sharing bonus remains the simplest lever to deploy, but a profit-sharing agreement offers more flexibility regarding triggering criteria.
Anticipate rather than suffer the timeline
Concerned companies benefit from simulating the financial impact before the obligation takes effect. Waiting until the last moment often means opting for the most expensive solution by default, due to a lack of time to negotiate an appropriate collective agreement.
Contributions and social thresholds: the adjustments of 2024 to know
Several payroll parameters have evolved as of January 1, 2024. The Social Security ceiling has been revalued, which modifies the calculation of certain contributions and benefit rights.
The net social amount, already present on pay slips, is now used by beneficiaries for their resource declarations based on income from January 2024. For employers, displaying the net social amount on the pay slip is mandatory, which requires checking the compliance of the payroll software.
- Check the update of the AT/MP rate applied in the payroll software, taking into account specific increases related to the sector of activity.
- Verify that the net social amount appears correctly on each pay slip, as employees must report it in their declarations.
- Recalculate capped contributions after the revaluation of the Social Security ceiling to avoid adjustments at the end of the year.
The hiring aid for apprentices has also been extended in 2024. Companies recruiting apprentices or young people on professionalization contracts continue to benefit from a financial incentive scheme, which remains a relevant lever for structures in the recruitment phase.
The law for businesses in 2024 is not just a list of revalued thresholds. The abandonment of the public invoicing portal and the extension of value sharing modify management processes in the long term. Every entrepreneur should audit their tools and obligations before regulatory deadlines impose themselves.
