Invoices and documents
Standard tax invoice
A standard tax invoice is the full VAT invoice you issue when you sell to another business or to a government entity. Under ZATCA's Phase 2 it is cleared: it is sent to ZATCA first and reaches the buyer only after ZATCA accepts it.
What it means
The standard tax invoice sits behind every sale from one business to another: a wholesaler delivering goods to shops, a contractor billing a company for a stage of work, a supplier invoicing a government entity. It records who sold what to whom, the price, the VAT at 15% where it applies, and the total. The buyer keeps it as the record of the purchase and of the VAT it paid.
What changed in Phase 2 is the order of events. A simplified invoice is handed over first and reported later; a standard invoice goes the other way. Your system sends it to ZATCA for clearance, and you give it to the buyer only once ZATCA has accepted it. A wholesaler should therefore wait for acceptance before emailing the invoice to the shop owner or handing it to the driver.
Until your own wave starts, the Phase 1 rules still apply: the invoice is created and stored electronically, in Arabic with an optional second language, and never written by hand. Fatooraz issues standard tax invoices with sequential numbering and a QR code, in bilingual documents with right-to-left Arabic. Follow ZATCA's announcements to learn when your wave begins.
In practice
- Issue a standard tax invoice for every sale to a company or government body.
- Check the buyer's business details are complete before you issue the invoice.
- Under Phase 2, send the invoice to ZATCA and wait for acceptance before releasing it.
- Correct a mistake with a credit note or debit note, not by rewriting the invoice.
Questions about Standard tax invoice
Who needs to issue a standard tax invoice?
A VAT-registered seller needs one for any sale to a business or a government entity. Consumers receive simplified tax invoices instead. If your first customer of the day is a company and the next walks in off the street, the first gets a standard invoice and the second a simplified one.
What does clearance mean for a standard tax invoice?
Clearance means ZATCA receives and accepts the invoice before the buyer ever sees it. Your system sends the invoice to the Fatoora platform, and you issue it to the customer only after acceptance. This applies from your Phase 2 wave, which ZATCA announces in advance, so follow its announcements rather than assuming a date.
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