ZATCA / Fatoora

Saudi Arabia's tax authority and its national e-invoicing programme, which requires invoices to be issued as structured, cryptographically stamped XML.

ZATCA (the Zakat, Tax and Customs Authority) is Saudi Arabia's tax authority, and Fatoora is its e-invoicing programme. Phase 1 required electronic invoices with defined content and a QR code. Phase 2, the Integration Phase, requires invoices to be produced as UBL 2.1 XML, cryptographically stamped with a ZATCA-issued certificate, and exchanged with ZATCA's platform — cleared before issue for B2B invoices, reported within 24 hours for B2C.

Fatoora is the programme name for Saudi Arabia's mandatory e-invoicing regime, administered by ZATCA. It rolled out in two phases.

Phase 1 — Generation

Invoices had to be issued electronically with prescribed fields and a QR code. Handwritten and scanned invoices stopped being acceptable.

Phase 2 — Integration

The substantive phase. Invoices must be structured XML (UBL 2.1), carry a cryptographic stamp from a certificate obtained through ZATCA onboarding, and be transmitted to ZATCA — cleared before issue for standard B2B invoices, reported within 24 hours for simplified B2C invoices.

Taxpayers were brought into Phase 2 in waves based on revenue, with ZATCA notifying each wave in advance.

Confirm your own wave and obligations with ZATCA or your tax advisor; this is a definition, not tax advice.

ZATCA / Fatoora

Phase 1 — Generation

Phase 2 — Integration

Glossary

ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning)

RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation)

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