Why you cannot skip this

Ministerial Decision No. 243 of 2025 obliges every business in scope, whether it issues or receives invoices, to appoint a service provider accredited by the Ministry of Finance. Without one your invoice does not reach your customer or the tax authority, however correct the file is. Who can be accredited, and how, is set by Ministerial Decision No. 168 of 2026, which replaced Ministerial Decision No. 64 of 2025 on 1 October 2026.

This is the single biggest difference with e-invoicing in Europe. There, being reachable over Peppol is usually enough. Here, your access point must hold UAE accreditation.

What accreditation does and does not prove

It proves the provider has been assessed against the ministry's technical, security and interoperability requirements, and may operate on the UAE network.

It does not prove anything about price, service quality, or whether the provider also sells invoicing software. Most of the register is middleware, ERP platforms and accountancy firms — they connect the system you already use.

It is not permanent either. Accreditation runs for two years from the date it is granted and has to be renewed; the ministry can also terminate it earlier.

Accredited or pre-approved?

Until 30 September 2026 the ministry also granted pre-approval: an initial review passed, full accreditation still to come. Ministerial Decision No. 168 of 2026 abolished that stage. Providers that held it had 30 days from 1 October 2026 to complete accreditation; any that fail to do so lose their approval.

During that transition the official list may still show a few pre-approved providers. Treat that status as unfinished, not as a lighter form of accreditation — only accredited counts.

You can search the full register, with its retrieval date, on our provider list.

Questions worth asking

  1. Are you accredited today — and since when? Accreditation runs for two years, so ask how renewal is handled.
  2. Do you connect to the software I already use, and at what cost?
  3. Who reports to the Federal Tax Authority — you, or do I need to do anything?
  4. Where are my invoices kept, and for how long? You must be able to produce them to the authority for the period the Tax Procedures Law sets; since 1 October 2026 they no longer have to be stored inside the UAE.
  5. Every accredited provider has committed to 100 free e-invoices a year for each customer, counted from the date you sign. What does it cost beyond that, and is there a minimum?

Official sources