Saudi Arabia obliges electronic invoicing

The Kingdom’s Zakat, Tax and Customs Authority has published the final e-invoice resolution after the public consultation of the draft law. It imposes B2B and B2C electronic invoicing for resident taxpayers and third parties acting on behalf of them. It is a clearance model similar to the B2B e-invoicing of India: Invoices in machine readable format has been cleared by the Tax Authority before presented to the buyer. B2C e-invoices will include a QR code. This QR code will enable individuals to check validity of an invoice.

The first phase which comprises mandatory e-invoice generation and archiving will start on 4 December 2021. The second phase, integration with the tax authority’s portal and reporting of e-invoices will be mandatory as of 1 January 2023. According to the resolution, tax authority will gradually mandate integration for different group of companies. The companies under obligation will be published not later than 6 months before the deadline. Egypt has followed a similar approach.

Contribution by Ege AKbas, SNI