Two phased ‘e-billing system’ B2B July 2025 to July 2026
The Arab Gulf state of United Arab Emirates (UAE) Ministry of Finance has published plans to implement mandatory real-time payments and e-invoicing for B2B transactions from July 2025. The news came as part of a range of five transformational projects. There will be a two-phased launch plan for B2B e-invoicing:
- July 2025 transactions above AED 50,000 (approximately US$ 13,600)
- July 2026 all transactions
The Ministry of Finance describes an “e-billing system” project to develop an advanced electronic billing system and activate it at the country level. The system will also automate the procedures for filing tax returns with the tax system to facilitate filing tax returns, improve tax compliance, and reduce cases of tax evasion.
Currently, the UAE government has given legal recognition to e-invoices when agreed between transaction counter-parties.
This would follow the December 2021 Saudi Arabia e-invoicing implementation.
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July 2025 proposals
The UAE is likely to follow the Saudi model:
- Initial voluntary phase prior to July 2025
- Ability to produce QR Code e-invoices; B2B (e-invoice) and B2C (e-note where not requirement for a VAT deduction) using an ‘E-Invoice Generation Solution’ that has been verified and approved by the tax authority.
- Integrate into Ministry of Finance’s validation platform for basic checks and e-signature of approval for customer as part of Continuous Transaction Controls.
- Formats: UBL- XML o PDF with embedded XML
