In short
- Ministerial Decision No. 197 of 2026, in force since 1 October 2026, eases the UAE e-invoicing rules.
- E-invoice data may now be stored outside the UAE, and the two-day failure notice to the FTA is removed.
- Transactions inside a Tax Group are excluded for 24 months from 1 January 2027. The other deadlines are unchanged.
The UAE Ministry of Finance has amended the rules of the national electronic invoicing system. Ministerial Decision No. 197 of 2026 changes Decision No. 243 of 2025 and took effect on 1 October 2026. The Ministry says the goal is more clarity and less operational burden on businesses.
This is an update to our 12 October news on the e-invoicing deadlines: the dates listed there still apply.
What has changed
- Storage outside the UAE is allowed. The requirement to store e-invoices, credit notes and related data inside the country is removed. You still have to keep them for the period set by the Tax Procedures Law and hand them to the Federal Tax Authority on request.
- No more two-day failure notice. Article 12 on system failures is repealed, so a business no longer has to notify the FTA within two business days when its e-invoicing system goes down.
- Tax Groups get a pause. Transactions between members of the same Tax Group are treated as excluded transactions for 24 months starting 1 January 2027.
What it means in practice
The main practical effect is a wider choice of software. Until now, a cloud accounting system or e-invoicing provider had to keep your data on servers in the UAE. Now international services with data centres elsewhere are an option, as long as you can retrieve the documents for the full retention period.
Companies that are part of a Tax Group get two extra years before invoices between their own entities have to go through the e-invoicing system.
The rest of the timeline is unchanged by this decision. If you are choosing a provider or connecting your accounting system, check that it can export your archive and that its contract covers storage for the required period.
We help companies choose and connect accounting and e-invoicing software and automate the flow of documents between systems. See our business automation services or contact us.
