UAE Poised to Implement Mandatory B2B E-invoicing in the Middle of 2025
In recent years, the United Arab Emirates government has steadily advocated for increased digitization within the public sphere. The country already recognizes e-invoice exchange between consenting parties, and has successfully introduced a fully-digitized public procurement platform (DPP) facilitating bulk of B2G contract processes. Furthermore, the Dubai authorities successfully led an initiative in 2021 to become a completely paperless government.
Based on these developments introducing obligatory e-invoicing for the B2B sector is a logical next step.
UAE-based entities currently have an option to use either traditional or electronic invoicing. This is soon to change, as on July 11th 2023 the UAE Ministry of Finance announced plans to start introducing an “e-billing” solution coupled with a mandatory B2B e-invoicing regime in July 2025.
The mandate itself is expected to be introduced in two stages:
- Stage 1 in July 2025 – obligatory e-invoice issuing for transactions over AED 50,000
- Stage 2 in July 2026 – obligatory e-invoice issuing for all transactions
The detailed model of the future e-invoicing system is yet to be announced. However, it is widely believed that this system will mirror the structure of the system introduced by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
There’s more you should know about e-invoicing in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia – learn more about the new and upcoming regulations.
