United Arab Emirates (UAE)
In 2021, UEA will go completely paper-free, eliminating more than 1 billion pieces of paper used for government transactions every year. As an entirely paperless government, 100 percent of internal and customer transactions will be digitized from 2021. That means the Government will no longer issue or ask for paper documents across all of its operations.
In Europe, often B2G e-invoicing is followed by B2B.
With the arrival of VAT in the UAE on January 1, 2018, the archiving of invoices has become more critical. The Value Added Tax-registered companies need to keep the invoices for an extended period that means the current year and five more years. Taxpayers can quickly meet this requirement through e-invoicing. VAT legislative package has been adopted as well as published by UAE. Electronic invoicing is allowed; however not mandatory yet. There is a requirement for a digital signature to ensure the authenticity and integrity of the invoice.
UEA and KSA are both parts of “The Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf” and both introduced the VAT regime on January 1, 2018. We, therefore, consider it most likely that UEA will introduce e-invoicing and follow KSA example.
