The e-billing system is a mandatory, nationwide electronic invoicing framework designed to standardise and automate B2B and B2G invoice creation, transmission and archiving. It leverages the Peppol network and the AE PINT data dictionary to ensure consistency and real-time visibility into commercial transactions.

All VAT-registered businesses in the UAE that engage in B2B or B2G transactions will be required to issue, receive and store electronic invoices through accredited service providers. It is likely that eventually, B2C businesses may also be brought within scope.

Under the UAE’s five-corner model, your accredited service provider (ASP) checks every field of your e-Invoice against the AE PINT data dictionary before sending it over Peppol. Afterwards, all tax-related fields are reported to the FTA’s system (Corner 5) for acknowledgement.

AE PINT is a standardised schema specifying mandatory and optional invoice fields such as tax breakdowns, supplier/customer IDs and metadata to ensure all participants exchange invoices in a consistent format.

The AE PINT data dictionary supports multilingual text fields, so you can include invoice descriptions in arabic, english, or both. Currency fields must comply with ISO 4217 codes (e.g. AED, USD), ensuring clear currency identification for local and international transactions.

Yes. Automated, real-time VAT data transmission to the MoF is likely to reduce manual checks and therefore accelerate refund processing.

Yes. The Federal Tax Authority and Peppol authorities typically offer sandbox environments where you can simulate invoice issuance, transmission and acknowledgement without affecting live data. This helps identify and fix any integration issues in advance.

Peppol 5 Corner is an extension of the Peppol 4 corner setup. It introduces a fifth actor, a government or tax authority platform, into the document exchange process. This allows invoice data to be reported or validated by authorities without disrupting the standard Peppol flow between businesses.

- The supplier sends an invoice to their certified Peppol service provider (access point)
- The invoice is checked, mapped, validated, and prepared for delivery
- Before or immediately after the delivery to the buyer’s access point, a copy of the invoice data is sent to the tax authority
- The tax authority receives the data for monitoring, control, or audit purposes
- The invoice is delivered to the buyer through their own Peppol access point

Failure to issue, transmit or store compliant e-invoices can incur administrative penalties under UAE VAT law, including fines and potential audits by the FTA.

If your foreign buyer is on Peppol, supply their endpoint. If not, your ASP will use a “dummy” endpoint for reporting to the FTA; you then send the invoice separately (e.g. via email). Overseas buyers aren’t required to register with a UAE ASP unless UAE VAT or corporate tax law mandates it.

Analyse your invoicing data against the AE PINT dictionary, select an accredited service provider (ASP) once the MoF publishes the list, and integrate your systems to transmit invoices via their APIs or portals.

Only ASPs can exchange and report invoices. If you wish to become an ASP, you must follow the forthcoming accreditation procedures, meet SLAs and share invoice data with the buyer’s chosen ASP.

As defined for corporate tax in the UAE, a business is identified by its tax identification number (TIN).

The data retention requirements are consistent with current law in the UAE, which mandates a retention period of 7 years.

There are no data residency requirements beyond what is described in the law. However, certain sectors, such as banking and healthcare, may have their own requirements, which should be discussed between accredited service providers (ASPs) and taxpayers.