The EDI Protocol That Connects to impots.gouv.fr Hasn't Changed Since 2012. Every Tax Software Uses It.
Every accounting software that files your TVA declaration to impots.gouv.fr uses the same protocol: EDI-TVA, a government-specified file format last updated in 2012. Sage uses it. Pennylane uses it. The €200/month software and the €35/month software generate the same file and transmit it to the same server. Liberté uses it too. The difference is that Liberté doesn't charge you for access to a 12-year-old public standard.
TVA declarations are legally mandatory. File one late and the DGFIP (France's tax authority) charges a minimum €1,500 penalty for the first offence. You need software that connects to impots.gouv.fr — and the market has priced that need at €35-200/month. What the market hasn't told you: the protocol used to make that connection is published on impots.gouv.fr, free, available to any developer who reads the documentation.
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How the EDI protocol actually works
EDI stands for Échange de Données Informatisées — electronic data exchange. The DGFIP built this protocol in the early 2000s, with the current version finalized around 2012, to receive declarations electronically instead of by post. It generates a structured text file with fields and codes defined by the government: EDI-TVA for your VAT (TVA — taxe sur la valeur ajoutée) declaration, EDI-TDFC for your corporate income tax return (IS — impôt sur les sociétés).
Think of it like the USB standard. Every device that charges via USB uses the same connector, the same voltage, the same signal format. The cable you buy for €30 and the generic one for €8 carry the same electricity the same way. Accounting software's connection to the French tax authority works identically — the protocol is standardized, published, and free. What you're paying for is the cable's branding.
The technical specification for EDI-TVA runs to 147 pages. The EDI-TDFC specification runs to 203 pages. Both are available, free, at impots.gouv.fr under "Documentation technique EDI." Most entrepreneurs have never heard of these documents. All their accounting software is built around them.
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Five products, one protocol, five different prices
Sage 50cloud files EDI-TVA. Price: €149/month or more. Cegid Loop files EDI-TVA. Price: €89/month or more. EBP Compta files EDI-TVA. Price: €35/month or more. Pennylane files EDI-TVA. Price: €49/month or more. Liberté files EDI-TVA. Price: €0.
Each of them generates a structured text file according to the same 147-page specification. All five transmit it to the same DGFIP server. The DGFIP processes every file identically — a declaration filed from Liberté and one filed from Sage produce the same entry in the DGFIP's database, trigger the same review process, and generate the same receipt. From the government's perspective, which software you used is invisible.
The DGFIP publishes a list of approved EDI partners on impots.gouv.fr. Liberté appears on it. So does Sage. The certification requires technical conformity testing (your EDI files must pass format validation) and signing the DGFIP's technical charter. Same standard for everyone. Same certification for everyone.
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Where the subscription fee actually goes
France's DGFIP built the EDI protocol specifically to reduce administrative burden on French businesses — and to reduce the government's own processing costs. They estimated electronic filing saves approximately €180 million per year compared to paper declarations. The government made the protocol free to use because wide adoption was the goal.
Software vendors built paid products around this public infrastructure. The protocol costs nothing to access; the subscription covers the interface, the database, the support team, and the margins.
A good interface, reliable support, and clean data management have real value. When you pay €120/month for accounting software, you're paying for those things — not for the technology that actually files your taxes. That technology is the government's, and it's free.
Entrepreneurs who've never looked into EDI assume they're paying for something technically proprietary. Vendors benefit from that assumption going unchallenged. Now you know the protocol exists, is public, and costs nothing to use. The pricing conversation looks different from here.
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Lock-in is about your data, not the protocol
What locks you into a software subscription isn't the filing protocol. It's your data.
Over time, you accumulate a chart of accounts (the organized list of every financial category in your bookkeeping), historical journal entries, multi-year archives, and document files — all stored in the software's format, on their servers. Moving that data to another system takes time and often a consultant. The filing protocol is standardized; the data structure around it is not.
Liberté uses open data formats and includes full export from day one. Keeping accounting records locked in a platform you can only access through a paid subscription is a model from before data portability existed as a concept. Entrepreneurs should own their records — not rent access to them.
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The next round: e-invoicing
Mandatory electronic invoicing (the Portail National de Facturation) goes live for large companies in 2026 and for all French businesses by 2027. The new standard — Factur-X and related formats — is another public protocol, published and documented by the French government. It will work exactly like EDI.
New e-invoicing software will offer to connect you to the portal. Some will include it in their base subscription. Others will charge an upgrade fee for "e-invoicing integration" without disclosing that the underlying protocol is, again, a free public standard. The pattern is predictable.
Liberté will include e-invoicing at no additional cost — because including a public standard in a free platform is not a feature. It's the baseline.
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One question worth asking
Call your accounting software vendor and ask: "What does my monthly subscription actually cover — can you break down what I'm paying for beyond the DGFIP connection?"
Most will list interface design, customer support, ongoing regulatory updates, and data storage. Those are real costs that justify real pricing. What they won't include is "access to the EDI protocol itself" — because that cost is zero.
Knowing this doesn't automatically mean you should switch. A good interface and solid support have genuine value. When you compare your current software to Liberté, the comparison isn't about tax filing capability. The filing is identical. The comparison is about whether the interface, support, and data management justify the subscription.
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Free like Android, not free for 30 days
Liberté is free the same way Android is free. The platform is the infrastructure — you can use every feature, file every declaration, manage every employee, without ever spending a euro on the platform itself. Revenue comes from the marketplace of paid services built on top of it, when and if you want them.
Filing your TVA via EDI-TVA is infrastructure. Your monthly payroll declaration to URSSAF (the agency that collects social security contributions) is infrastructure. Bank reconciliation via Open Banking — the EU mandate that requires banks to share your transaction data with authorized software, at no extra cost — is infrastructure. All of it is built on public protocols the government made free for a reason.
You've been paying rent on infrastructure your taxes already helped build. That ends the day you switch.