What must appear on a UAE tax invoice

Mandatory fields

Every full tax invoice should carry all of the following, generated by the system rather than typed.

• The words identifying it as a tax invoice
• Supplier legal name, address and TRN
• Customer legal name, address and TRN where the customer is registered
• A unique sequential invoice number and the date of issue
• Date of supply where it differs from the issue date
• Description, quantity and unit price for each line
• Taxable amount, tax rate and tax amount per line
• Gross total payable, with any discount shown explicitly
• Currency, and the AED equivalent with the exchange rate where invoiced in another currency

Zero-rated versus exempt

Zero-rated supplies are taxable at 0% and belong in your taxable turnover. Exempt supplies are outside the tax charge and affect input recovery. Treating them as interchangeable produces a return that reconciles to nothing.

Set the tax category on the product or service record, not on the invoice line at typing time. Human choice at invoice entry is where the inconsistency enters.

Rounding, per line and in total

Compute tax per line, round per line, then sum. Computing tax on the invoice total instead produces figures that differ by fractions from your customer's own calculation — enough to stall payment while two accounts teams argue about a dirham.