UAE scraps e-invoicing pre-approval; providers must now complete full accreditation before October 30

UAE businesses preparing for electronic invoicing need to check that their service providers have completed accreditation under new rules outlined by the Ministry of Finance. Under Ministerial Decision No. 168 of 2026, providers must complete required assessments and testing before receiving accreditation. The decision took effect on October 1, replacing the earlier framework that allowed preliminary approval.

Companies with annual revenues of Dh50 million or more must appoint an accredited provider by October 30, 2026, and implement e-invoicing by January 1, 2027. Businesses within scope with revenues below Dh50 million must appoint a provider by March 31, 2027, and implement by July 1, 2027.

The change reflects the programme's move into operational phase. The previous framework allowed providers to receive preliminary approval while infrastructure was being developed. That intermediate stage has been removed. Providers that received preliminary approval under the earlier decision have 30 days from October 1 to complete accreditation requirements; failure to do so will result in termination of preliminary approval.

Electronic invoicing means structured invoice data exchanged electronically between supplier and buyer and reported to the Federal Tax Authority. PDFs, Word documents, photographs or scanned invoices do not meet this definition. The UAE model links five participants: supplier, accredited provider, buyer's accredited provider, buyer and tax authority.