What changes under the UAE eInvoicing programme?
Today most invoices travel as PDFs attached to email. Under the programme, invoices between businesses and to government become structured electronic files that move between the supplier's and the buyer's Accredited Service Providers (ASPs), and the FTA receives the invoice data.
A PDF can be read by a person; a structured file has to be read by a system. Every field must therefore be present, consistent and in the expected format, from the TRNs to the tax category of each line.
Who is affected, and by when?
The programme is phased. Larger businesses, grouped by revenue, go first, followed by the remaining businesses and then government entities. Each group must appoint an ASP by one date and be live by a later one.
The published dates for each group are shown in the timeline on this page. Rules and dates can change, so confirm your own obligations with your tax adviser.
What should a contractor prepare now?
Most of the work is in your data, not your software contract. Start with the basics that a structured file will expose.
- Customer records with correct TRNs and legal names
- A tax category and VAT amount on every invoice line
- Sequential numbering for invoices and credit notes
- Invoices held as data in your system, not only as PDFs
- A shortlist of Accredited Service Providers and a decision on who owns the project internally
How does eInvoicing relate to your VAT records?
eInvoicing changes how invoices are exchanged and reported. The VAT treatment of each supply does not change, so the quality of your VAT records matters more, not less: errors that a person might have caught on a PDF now travel straight to the data the FTA receives. Returns continue to be handled on EmaraTax.
The published timeline
-
Revenue AED 50 million or more
- Appoint an ASP by
- 30 Oct 2026
- eInvoicing live by
- 1 Jan 2027
-
Revenue under AED 50 million
- Appoint an ASP by
- 31 Mar 2027
- eInvoicing live by
- 1 Jul 2027
-
Government entities
- Appoint an ASP by
- 31 Mar 2027
- eInvoicing live by
- 1 Oct 2027
Dates per Ministerial Decision No. 244 of 2025 as amended by No. 66 of 2026. Rules and dates can change. Confirm your obligations with your tax adviser. This page is not tax advice.
UAE compliance figures at a glance
| Rule | Figure | Source |
|---|---|---|
| UAE standard rate of VAT | 5% | Federal Decree-Law No. 8 of 2017 on Value Added Tax |
Last reviewed 14 Nov 2026. A summary, not tax or legal advice. Confirm your obligations with an adviser.
How Civova handles this
Today: every tax invoice and credit note in Civova is already structured data, with supplier and customer TRNs, a tax category and VAT amount on each line, and totals in AED. Nothing is re-typed from a PDF.
On the roadmap: exchange through your chosen Accredited Service Provider. It is not available yet; ask for the current status in your demo and we will show you exactly what is live. This page is general information, not tax advice.