United Arab Emirates
Be ready for mandatory e-invoicing before your deadline, with clear advice on what the law requires and what your business must change.
The UAE is replacing paper and PDF tax invoices with structured, government-connected e-invoices. Manaaki Tech helps UAE businesses understand the rules that apply to them, choose the right route, and get their invoicing process ready and tested.
Your deadline depends on your annual revenue. Revenue from business-to-consumer sales counts when you work out which group you are in.
| Your business | Appoint an Accredited Service Provider by | Mandatory e-invoicing from |
|---|---|---|
| Annual revenue of or more | ||
| Annual revenue below | ||
| Government entities |
Any business may start voluntarily from . Administrative penalties apply from your mandatory date, not before.
E-invoicing applies to every person conducting business in the UAE, whether or not you are registered for VAT, unless you or the transaction is specifically excluded.
A business that is excluded can still choose to adopt e-invoicing voluntarily. If it does, it must follow the rules but is not subject to the administrative penalties.
Not sure which group you fall into? That is the first question we answer in a readiness conversation.
These are the mandatory requirements for businesses within scope.
You cannot connect to the government system directly. Every in-scope business must appoint a provider accredited by the Ministry of Finance, and must complete onboarding through the Federal Tax Authority's EmaraTax portal.
Invoices and credit notes must be issued in a structured electronic format (XML or JSON) that follows the UAE version of the Peppol standard, known as PINT AE. A PDF or paper invoice is no longer a valid tax invoice for in-scope transactions.
Each e-invoice and e-credit note must carry all of the data fields prescribed by the Ministry of Finance, which is fields in the UAE data dictionary. This includes seller and buyer Tax Registration Numbers, a unique invoice identifier, the issue date and time, the tax breakdown, and the invoice type. An invoice with missing or incorrect fields is rejected by the provider and must be corrected and resubmitted.
The invoice moves from your system to your provider, across the Peppol network to your customer's provider, and on to your customer. Your provider also reports the required tax data to the Federal Tax Authority. You do not send invoices to the Authority yourself.
E-invoices and e-credit notes must be issued and transmitted through the system within your VAT timelines, and in all cases within of the date of the transaction.
Credit notes must also be issued electronically, through the same system, with the same data discipline.
Invoice and credit note data must be stored within the UAE in a way that preserves integrity and allows the Federal Tax Authority to retrieve it.
If a system failure stops you from complying, you must notify the Federal Tax Authority within .
If your registered business data changes, your provider must be told within the prescribed time. Master data is now a compliance matter, not an administrative one.
Administrative penalties are set by Cabinet Decision No. 106 of 2025 and apply to businesses within the mandatory scope.
| Failure | Penalty |
|---|---|
| Not appointing an ASP and implementing e-invoicing on time | |
| Not issuing and transmitting an e-invoice on time | |
| Not issuing and transmitting an e-credit note on time | |
| Not notifying the Federal Tax Authority of a system failure | |
| Not telling your provider about changes to registered data |
These penalties can apply together. The larger cost is usually operational: a rejected invoice is a delayed payment.
Manaaki Tech is an advisory practice. We prepare you, guide the decisions, and oversee the work so that your own team and your chosen provider deliver it correctly. We follow a diagnostic first, then build.
We confirm whether and when the mandate applies to you, map your invoice and credit note scenarios (B2B, B2G, recurring, credit notes, advance payments and retentions), and identify the gaps between your current invoices and the UAE data dictionary. You receive a short written findings note, with a recommended route, within of the diagnostic conversation.
We start with the accounting or ERP platform you already use, for example Tally Prime or Zoho Books, and work with the e-invoicing partner that platform supports. Where your platform has no workable route, we help you compare accredited providers against your needs, covering integration, support, uptime and commercial terms, before you sign.
We guide the changes your team needs to make: customer and supplier Tax Registration Numbers, invoice numbering, credit note workflows, cut-off timing for the rule, data storage, and failure-notification procedures.
We oversee test scenarios with your provider, review results, and confirm that you are ready before your mandatory date. We stay close through your first weeks of live invoicing, when most rejections occur.
If you want continuing support after go-live, Manaaki Tech arranges and coordinates the accounting and compliance support for you, on your behalf, so you deal with one point of contact.
Scope for each engagement is confirmed in writing after the readiness diagnostic. We do not publish a price list. Each engagement is quoted from the work involved.
Yes, it can. The mandate applies to persons conducting business in the UAE, not only to VAT registrants, subject to the exclusions above.
Business-to-consumer transactions are outside the mandate for now. If you also sell to other businesses or to government, those sales are in scope. Your consumer sales still count towards your revenue when working out your group.
For in-scope transactions, no. A PDF or paper invoice is not a valid e-invoice. You may still share a readable copy with your customer in addition to the structured e-invoice.
No. Invoices must go through an Accredited Service Provider, which validates them and reports the required data to the Authority.
Speak to us immediately. Delay attracts a monthly penalty, so the priority is to appoint a provider and onboard as quickly as a sound decision allows. Do not choose a provider only because it is the first on the list.
We reply within .
Tell us your annual revenue range, your accounting platform, and roughly how many invoices and credit notes you issue each month. We will confirm which deadline applies and what to do first.
Prefer to talk it through? Message us on WhatsApp or call +64 27 212 1266.
This page is general information about the UAE e-invoicing framework as at and is not legal or tax advice for your circumstances. Deadlines and requirements are set by the UAE Ministry of Finance and the Federal Tax Authority and may change. Manaaki Tech is an advisory practice and is not an Accredited Service Provider.