Section 12 of the UAE Electronic Invoicing Guidelines V1.1 provides a human-readable illustration of a sample Electronic Tax Invoice and a set of 28 constraints and considerations governing how specific fields must be handled. These clarify how the PINT-AE specification operates in practice for common UAE transaction patterns.
Sample Electronic Tax Invoice: Key Header Fields
The sample provided in the Guidelines shows the minimum required structure for a standard Electronic Tax Invoice. The header includes the Business Process type (urn:peppol:bis:billing), the Specification Identifier (urn:peppol:pint:billing-1@ae-1), the Invoice Type Code (380 for a standard invoice), and the Invoice Currency Code (AED in the sample). The UUID must be present to ensure each Electronic Invoice is uniquely identified and duplication is prevented.
The supplier's Peppol participant identifier is constructed from the prefix 0235: followed by the first 10 digits of the supplier's TRN (the TIN). The buyer's participant identifier follows the same format. For the sample buyer, the electronic address is 0235:1245780912.
The sample also shows optional fields that are commonly populated: VAT Point Date (where the date of supply differs from the invoice issue date), Frequency of Billing, Billing Period, and Payment Mode and Supplier Bank Account Number.
Key Constraints and Considerations
The 28 constraints in Section 12 address specific situations that arise in UAE business practice. The most significant for practitioners are:
TRN inclusion: For Electronic Tax Invoices and Electronic Tax Credit Notes, the TRN must be included. For Commercial Invoices and for out-of-scope or exempt transactions, TRN inclusion is not mandatory.
Line-item count: There are no constraints on the number of lines that can be included in a UAE Electronic Invoice.
Advance payments: Adjustment amounts for advance payments made prior to the final invoice must be included in the Paid Amount field. The original invoice issued when the advance payment was received must be referenced in the Preceding Invoice Reference section.
Rounding: Rounding is applicable only at the invoice level total, to two decimal places. Rounding is not applicable at the tax category level or line-item level. The Rounding Amount field is optional.
Goods and services differentiation: Where an invoice includes both goods and services, the Item Type field is used to differentiate them: G for Goods, S for Services, B for Both.
VAT line amount and amount payable: It is mandatory to specify the VAT amount and the total amount payable in AED for each line, regardless of whether the invoice is issued in AED or another currency.
Invoices in foreign currencies: Where the document currency is not AED, the Invoice Total Amount with VAT in Tax Accounting Currency field is mandatory, and the amount must be converted to AED using the exchange rate approved by the UAE Central Bank. The Tax Accounting Currency field is mandatory when the document currency is not AED.
Surcharges: Surcharges such as the Dubai Municipality surcharge on construction projects or tourism levies are reported under Document Level Charges.
Exports: For export transactions, the Customs Reference Number and Incoterms fields are available for the supplier to declare relevant customs information.
Discounts: Item-level discounts are captured in the Line Level Allowances section. Document-level discounts are in the Document Level Allowances section. Volume discounts may be reflected using Electronic Credit Notes, with the credit note reason code set to volume discount.
Partial credit notes: An Electronic Credit Note can cover only part of an Electronic Invoice amount. A single Electronic Credit Note can also reference multiple past Electronic Tax Invoices.
HSN codes: As at the Guidelines publication date of 1 June 2026, HSN codes are optional. The timeline for making HSN codes mandatory will be announced separately.
Optional fields: Persons and Government Entities are not permitted to add custom optional fields to PINT-AE. Industry-specific requirements must be discussed with the ASP to determine how they can be accommodated within the existing PINT-AE field structure.