Definition
E-invoicing is the issue and exchange of invoices in a structured electronic format, such as XML, that the buyer's and the tax authority's systems can read and validate, rather than as PDFs or paper.
What is e-invoicing in practice?
Under an e-invoicing mandate, invoices are created as structured data that the tax authority’s systems can validate, sometimes before the buyer receives them. A PDF emailed to a customer isn’t an e-invoice under these rules. Mandates are spreading country by country, so the details depend on where the business is registered.
Saudi Arabia. ZATCA’s e-invoicing programme (Fatoora) has required every VAT-registered business to generate compliant e-invoices since 4 December 2021 (Phase 1), and is bringing taxpayers onto integration with its platform in waves (Phase 2). The 25th wave covers businesses with VAT-subject revenue above SAR 187,500 in any year from 2022 to 2025, which must integrate by 1 February 2027.
United Arab Emirates. E-invoicing runs through Accredited Service Providers on the Peppol network. After a voluntary pilot from 1 July 2026, businesses with revenue of AED 50 million or more go live on 1 January 2027, others on 1 July 2027 and government entities on 1 October 2027; B2C invoices are excluded for now.
A tax invoice still has to carry the details tax law requires, whatever its format.