Do ZATCA e-invoices have to be in Arabic?

Yes. ZATCA states that the data fields visible on the human-readable form of Tax Invoices and Simplified Tax Invoices must be in Arabic. The invoice can also be bilingual and include English.

This requirement applies to the customer-facing representation of the invoice. Businesses using English-language ERP systems therefore need to ensure that their invoice templates can generate the required Arabic content while preserving the underlying structured XML data.

For multilingual businesses, the practical approach is generally to maintain the required Arabic representation while optionally displaying English alongside it.

Key points

• Human-readable invoice data must be in Arabic.
• English can be included alongside Arabic.
• Bilingual invoices are permitted.
• The requirement applies to Tax Invoices and Simplified Tax Invoices.
• Credit and debit notes are also subject to the Arabic-language requirement.
• ERP and invoice templates should support Arabic rendering correctly.