ZATCA Announces the Launch of the Fatoora Simulation Portal (FSP)

Tally Solutions | Updated on: August 14, 2023

The Zakat, Tax and Customs Authority ('ZATCA') has announced the establishment of a new pilot testing portal, "Fatoora Simulation Portal" (FSP), made available to taxpayers from 27 December 2022. The portal will act as a representation of the ZATCA's Fatoora Portal and enable taxpayers to test and experience the entire e-invoicing journey - from onboarding the IT system to clearing and reporting e-invoices and related notes and more. 

The FSP portal can be accessed via a dedicated tile on the Fatoora portal for taxpayers. It is to be noted that the FSP is not intended for generating actual invoices. Instead, it should be used for testing with dummy or historical data. Hence the response in the FSP shouldn't be considered as an official clearance or reporting of the documents by ZATCA. Therefore, the testing on the ZATCA's Fatoora portal will end on 23 December 2022 and shall continue on the FSP from 27 December 2022. 

Official Fatoora Portal Go Live

E-Invoicing was introduced in Saudi Arabia last year. The first wave of the integration phase is applicable to businesses with revenue exceeding 3 billion from 1st January 2023. Whereas the second phase will apply to businesses with revenue exceeding 500 million in FY 2021 from 1st July 2023.

The official portal of Fatoora that will be utilized by taxpayers for integration purposes will be live from 26 December. Post this; taxpayers can start onboarding their IT system.

According to the VAT Implementation Regulation and the E-invoicing Regulation, taxpayers can begin onboarding their respective production systems, and invoices shared with the Fatoora portal will be regarded as official tax invoices. It is to be noted that since ZATCA's approval is not required, any taxpayer who is registered for VAT will be eligible to integrate their production system in the Fatoora portal. 

After the appropriate e-invoicing generation solution has been onboarded and integrated with the official Fatoora portal, taxpayers - who are either part of phase 1 or will be required to integrate as part of phase 2 of e-invoicing are required to share invoices with ZATCA. The "Fatoora Simulation Portal" can be used to test the readiness and compliance of other taxpayers whose systems were not notified in phase 1 or phase 2. For more information, please click here for the updated Fatoora portal user manual.

Bottomline

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) introduced electronic invoicing or e-invoicing last year. On 4 December 2021, phase one of the implementation and generation went live. On 1 January 2023, phase two of the implementation and integration phase is expected to go live. The latest phase will need taxpayers to integrate their invoicing systems with the Fatoora Portal of the Zakat, Tax, and Customs Authority (ZATCA).

From 26 December 2022, taxpayers who are a part of the first phase—those whose revenues exceed SAR 1 billion—as announced and communicated by ZATCA can begin integrating with the official Fatoora portal. As the data will be considered official now, it is important to survey and guarantee all field-level and security necessities are fulfilled. Taxpayers who are not a part of the first phase might continue using the Fatoora Simulation Portal (FSP) for the purpose of testing from 27 December 2022 and onwards.

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