UAE amends its VAT and Tax Procedures laws to create the legal basis for e-invoicing
This page records one dated change. For the rules in United Arab Emirates as they stand today, see the United Arab Emirates guide →
- Jurisdiction
- United Arab Emirates
- Tax
- VAT / Tax Procedures
- Change type
- E-invoicing
- Status
- Enacted
- Impact
- FYI
- Announced
- 30 September 2024
- Instrument
- AE-FEDERAL-DECREE-LAW-16-2024
- Authority
- UAE Ministry of Finance
- Verified
- Fetched from official source · high confidence
UAE VAT registrants and any person the Minister of Finance designates as subject to the e-invoicing system.
No action — monitoring only. These are framework laws enabling the downstream ministerial decisions.
Federal Decree-Law No. 16 of 2024 (amending Federal Decree-Law No. 8 of 2017 on VAT) and Federal Decree-Law No. 17 of 2024 (amending Federal Decree-Law No. 28 of 2022 on Tax Procedures) were both signed on 30 September 2024 and announced by the UAE Ministry of Finance on 29 October 2024 as the legal basis for the national e-invoicing system. FDL 16/2024 widens 'tax invoice' and 'tax credit note' to include electronic formats, adds definitions of electronic invoices and electronic credit notes, and ties VAT refunds to e-invoicing compliance where applicable. FDL 17/2024 defines the 'e-invoicing system', subjects any person designated by the Minister to it, and empowers the Minister of Finance to issue the decisions setting its effective dates, requirements and covered persons. Each decree-law takes effect 30 days after its publication in the Official Gazette. The phased rollout was set later by Ministerial Decisions No. 243 and 244 of 2025.
What changed in detail
Two federal decree-laws, both signed on 30 September 2024, create the legal basis for the UAE’s national e-invoicing system. The UAE Ministry of Finance announced them on 29 October 2024.
Federal Decree-Law No. 16 of 2024 amends Federal Decree-Law No. 8 of 2017 on VAT. It:
- widens “tax invoice” and “tax credit note” to include electronic formats;
- adds definitions of electronic invoices and electronic credit notes;
- ties VAT refunds to compliance with e-invoicing where it applies.
Federal Decree-Law No. 17 of 2024 amends Federal Decree-Law No. 28 of 2022 on Tax Procedures. It:
- defines the “e-invoicing system”;
- subjects any person the Minister designates to that system;
- empowers the Minister of Finance to issue decisions setting its effective dates, requirements and the persons it covers.
Each decree-law takes effect 30 days after its publication in the Official Gazette. The Gazette publication date is not stated in the Ministry of Finance sources cited here, so this record gives no effective date.
What it means
These are framework laws, and they remain in force. On their own they required nobody to issue an e-invoice. That came from the ministerial decisions they authorised: Ministerial Decision No. 243 of 2025 on scope and obligations, and Ministerial Decision No. 244 of 2025 on phase dates, with the first mandatory phase starting 1 January 2027. The VAT-refund link in Decree-Law 16 is the provision that gives the mandate teeth: where e-invoicing applies, getting VAT back depends on complying with it.
Proof
The Ministry of Finance has announced the issuance of Federal Decree-Law No. 17 of 2024, amending key provisions of Federal Decree-Law No. 28 of 2022 concerning tax procedures.
Source snapshot of the official page. Open full size ↗ينشر هذا المرسوم بقانون في الجريدة الرسمية، ويعمل به بعد (30) ثلاثين يوما من تاريخ نشرهThis Decree-Law shall be published in the Official Gazette and shall come into force thirty (30) days after the date of its publication.
Source snapshot of the official page. Open full size ↗Archived from the official distribution · Federal Decree-Law No. (16) of 2024 amending Federal Decree-Law No. (8) of 2017 on VAT (Arabic text, UAE Ministry of Finance), signed 30 September 2024 · mof.gov.ae
Sources
- Issuance of Amendments to Federal Decree-Law on Tax Procedures and Federal Decree-Law on Value Added Tax to Support the eInvoicing System — UAE Ministry of Finance
- Federal Decree-Law No. (16) of 2024 amending some provisions of Federal Decree-Law No. (8) of 2017 on VAT (Arabic) — UAE Ministry of Finance
- Federal Decree-Law No. (17) of 2024 amending some provisions of Federal Decree-Law No. (28) of 2022 on Tax Procedures (Arabic) — UAE Ministry of Finance