The Ministry of Finance announced changes to the rules on 19 October, but the text of the decision has not yet been read: the details come from press reports. For groups with several UAE entities, the budget impact changes; the start dates do not.
What happened
On 19 October 2026 the UAE Ministry of Finance published a news item on its website about changes to the electronic invoicing (e-invoicing) rules, aimed at reducing the compliance burden. The details, including the decision number (Ministerial Decision No. 197 of 2026), come from Gulf News rather than from a direct reading of the text, so they should be treated as reported and subject to verification. According to Gulf News, the changes are effective from 1 October 2026.
What changes in practice
The press reports three simplifications. First, transactions between members of the same VAT group (several companies registered as a single taxable person for VAT) are excluded from e-invoicing from 1 January 2027 to 31 December 2028, a period of 24 months. Second, there is no longer a requirement to store e-invoice data in the UAE; the record-keeping obligations under the Tax Procedures Law remain, as does the duty to keep data available to the Federal Tax Authority (FTA). Third, an interruption of the invoicing system no longer has to be notified to the FTA within two working days. The timetable set by Ministerial Decision No. 168 of 2026 is unchanged: appointment of an accredited service provider by 30 October 2026 for businesses with revenue of AED 50 million or more (about USD 13.6 million), by 31 March 2027 for the others, with go-live from 1 July 2027 for businesses below that threshold.
Who it applies to
The exclusion concerns businesses that operate a VAT group: typically an owner with several UAE companies, or a holding company with VAT-registered subsidiaries. Removal of the in-country storage requirement matters to businesses that use accounting software or cloud services hosted outside the UAE. The end of outage notifications applies to every business required to issue e-invoices.
The exposure
The exclusion is not an exemption from e-invoicing: it lasts 24 months and covers only transactions inside the group. An invoice issued to a customer outside the group, or by a company that is not a member of the VAT group, remains in scope. The opposite risk is failing to keep to the timetable because the rules are said to have been relaxed: the provider appointment deadlines have not moved. The text of the decision has not been read directly.
What to do now
Read the text of the decision on the Ministry of Finance website or on the UAE Legislation portal before changing any plan. Then sort entities by revenue band (above or below AED 50 million), identify which belong to a VAT group and which transactions are intra-group, and check where the accounting system currently stores invoice data. Businesses with revenue of AED 50 million or more must in any case have an accredited provider appointed by 30 October 2026.
Sources
- https://mof.gov.ae/en/news/
- https://gulfnews.com/business/banking/uae-eases-e-invoicing-rules-businesses-to-now-get-more-flexibility-time-1.500715708
Published 20 October 2026 on the basis of public sources and official United Arab Emirates instruments. This is not legal or tax advice. Verify your position with a qualified professional before acting.