Saudi Arabia: Guide to develop a compliant QR code for simplified e-invoices
02 December, 2021
In brief
The Zakat, Tax and Customs Authority (‘ZATCA’) has published a new guide providing explanation / clarification in relation to development of of a compliant QR code for E invoices.
In accordance with the e-invoicing Resolutions issued by ZATCA earlier, simplified invoices must contain a QR code containing certain prescribed information.
The guide can be downloaded from this link.
In detail
The guide issued by ZATCA provides some technical information/ clarification in respect of the following:
QR code specifications along with timelines to mention required details (generation vs integration phases) as detailed in the below table:
| Description | Tag | Due Date |
| Seller’s name | 1 | 4th Dec 2021 |
| VAT registration number of the seller | 2 | 4th Dec 2021 |
| Time stamp of the invoice (date and time) | 3 | 4th Dec 2021 |
| Invoice total (with VAT) | 4 | 4th Dec 2021 |
| VAT total | 5 | 4th Dec 2021 |
| Hash of XML invoice | 6 | 1st Jan 2023 |
| ECDSA signature | 7 | 1st Jan 2023 |
| ECDSA public key | 8 | 1st Jan 2023 |
| For Simplified Tax Invoices and their associated notes, the ECDSA signature of the cryptographic stamp’s public key by ZATCA’s technical CA | 9 | 1st Jan 2023 |
Tag, Length, Value (also referred to as TLV) file format and its creation along with explanation of some common mistakes.
QR code presentation.
The Takeaway
Taxable persons who will be issuing simplified invoices in an electronic format are recommended to take note of this guide issued by ZATCA. Necessary steps should be taken to ensure a compliant QR code is generated for simplified invoices to be issued from 4 December 2021 and onwards.
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