To protect the consumer and combat commercial concealment:
"Zakat, Income and Customs" will apply the electronic invoice to commercial establishments next December
On the fourth of next December, the Zakat, Income and Customs Authority will start the first phase of the project of obligating commercial establishments with electronic invoicing, aimed at achieving economic goals that support competition and consumer protection, and linking all transactions with the authority’s systems automatically.
The Director of the Electronic Billing Project (Invoice) at the Authority, Eng. Abdullah Al-Fantoukh said that electronic billing is a procedure that aims to transform the process of issuing invoices and notices into an electronic process, allowing the exchange of these invoices and credit and debit notes and processing them in an organized form between the seller and the buyer in an integrated electronic format. The electronic invoice is saved in an organized format that contains all the requirements of the tax invoice according to an electronic system that is compatible with the Authority's systems. He stressed that handwritten or scanned invoices are not electronic invoices that are compatible with the Authority's requirements.
During a workshop (remotely) hosted by the Asharqia Chamber last Thursday on the electronic billing project and its stages, moderated by a member of the Chamber’s Commercial Committee, Fahad Al-Suhaim, Al-Fantokh mentioned that the authority is adopting this procedure to enhance the atmosphere of fair competition and consumer protection by providing a unified mechanism for documentation and auditing. Invoicing, combating the shadow economy, reducing commercial cover-up by tracking invoices and data retention, and increasing compliance with tax obligations by strengthening the verification of business transactions.
He stressed that this transformation will be in stages, starting from the fourth of December 2020 AD with the issuance of the electronic billing regulation, followed by the start of the first phase represented in announcing the controls, requirements, technical specifications, and procedural rules necessary to implement the provisions of the electronic billing regulation, which took place on May 28, 2021.
It is worth noting that the commitment to the first phase will be on the fourth of December of this year. The connection and integration between the taxpayers’ systems and the authority’s system will start from the beginning of January 2023, provided that the connection process will be in stages, with the second stage to be completed in January 2023 with some additions, most notably obtaining the authority’s approval electronically before issuing the invoice to the customer.
Al-Fantokh stated that the authority will notify the target group of the connection at least six months in advance. As the controls, requirements, technical specifications, and procedural rules necessary to implement the provisions of the electronic billing regulation were issued,
He stressed that electronic invoicing will be binding on any resident individual or resident establishment registered in value-added tax because it is part of the executive regulations of the value-added tax system. This was only done after studying many international experiences.
