A Tax Invoice is a key document for VAT. As such, it is important to make sure that the accounting software includes certain requirements for the issuance of electronic invoices in the UAE.

As per the relevant regulation issued by the FTA in October 2017 entitled “Requirements Document for Tax Accounting Software”, please see below for the requirements of the tax accounting software:

e-invoices should be generated automatically by an approved accounting software
(no manually prepared tax invoices allowed) and include the required FTA mandated
tax invoice fields;

• e-invoices should be generated automatically by an approved accounting software (no manually prepared tax invoices allowed) and include the required FTA mandated tax invoice fields;
• taxpayers must be able to generate and store tax Invoices electronically using a fully compliant software system;
• There should be provisions to prevent uncontrolled access, software time change, tampering of e-invoices or logs, and multiple invoice sequences; and
• There is a requirement of digital signature for ensuring the authenticity and integrity.

Also, the UAE VAT regulations mentions that a taxable person may issue a tax invoice by electronic means provided that:

• the taxable person is capable of securely storing a copy of the electronic tax invoice in compliance with the record keeping requirements; and
• the authenticity of origin and integrity of content of the electronic tax invoice should be guaranteed.