Saudi Arabia e-invoicing: ZATCA Wave 24 now mandatory for SMEs too

Riyadh, 30 June 2026 – Saudi Arabia’s tax authority ZATCA (Zakat, Tax and Customs Authority) let the deadline for its twenty-fourth integration wave pass, in the phased rollout that Saudi Arabia e-invoicing has followed since 2021. All VAT-registered businesses with revenue above SAR 375,000 in 2022, 2023 or 2024 were required to integrate their invoicing systems with the Fatoora platform by 30 June 2026 at the latest. Wave 24 applies the lowest revenue threshold to date, pulling an unprecedented number of small and medium-sized businesses into the integration requirement.

What Saudi Arabia e-invoicing under Wave 24 involves

Saudi Arabia has been rolling out its e-invoicing mandate in phases since December 2021, through two main stages. The first stage (Generation Phase) simply requires businesses to generate electronic invoices. The second stage (Integration Phase), which Wave 24 falls under, goes considerably further: invoicing systems must be technically connected to ZATCA’s Fatoora platform, invoices must be delivered in a specific XML format with QR codes, digital signatures and unique UUIDs, and every invoice goes through a real-time clearance process via a secure API before it becomes valid. ZATCA selects each wave based on revenue thresholds from prior years; with Wave 24, that threshold drops to SAR 375,000, roughly EUR 90,000 in annual revenue.

For the businesses affected, this means invoicing is no longer simply a document to archive afterwards, but a process that requires prior approval from the tax authority. That imposes different technical requirements on software and integrations than companies in Europe are used to.

A different model from Peppol

For Dutch and Belgian companies trading with Saudi partners, it is important to understand that ZATCA does not run on the Peppol network. Where Peppol works through a decentralised four-corner model in which Peppol Serviceproviders exchange invoices directly with one another, Saudi Arabia applies a centralised clearance model: every invoice is first submitted to the government, which approves it before it reaches the recipient. This distinction matters for businesses operating internationally that deal with multiple e-invoicing standards at once. Peppol.now explored this same contrast in more depth in the article on how Greece’s clearance model differs from Belgium’s Peppol approach, a comparison that largely holds for Saudi Arabia as well.

What this means for international businesses

Companies trading with Saudi partners, or with an entity in Saudi Arabia, should check whether their current invoicing software is already prepared for the Fatoora clearance process. For organisations invoicing both in Europe via Peppol and elsewhere via clearance models, the need for a single, central AP/AR environment that can combine multiple standards, rather than separate point solutions per country, keeps growing. That is exactly the kind of challenge many Peppol Serviceproviders are now addressing beyond the Peppol network as well.

Non-compliance is not a minor matter either: ZATCA can impose fines on businesses that remain unintegrated with Fatoora after the set deadline, increasing the longer the breach continues. Foreign businesses with a Saudi entity are therefore well advised not to wait until the next wave affects them directly, but to assess now whether upcoming revenue growth could trigger a lower threshold, and therefore an obligation, in the near future. ZATCA typically publishes the criteria for each new wave several months ahead of the actual deadline, giving businesses concrete time to prepare.

With Wave 24, ZATCA takes another step towards full coverage of the Saudi business community. The continuing rollout of Saudi Arabia e-invoicing once again shows just how differently international e-invoicing models can be structured compared with the European Peppol network.

1. ZATCA: Determines the Criteria for Selecting the Targeted Taxpayers in Wave 24
2. EY Global Tax Alert: Saudi Arabia e-invoicing wave update
3. VATupdate: Saudi Arabia (KSA) ZATCA Phase 2 Wave 24 Compliance by 30 June 2026

Compare Peppol Serviceproviders on Peppol.now to find providers that also support compliance solutions beyond the Peppol network.