UAE VAT tax invoice for restaurants
What your receipt has to show, when a simplified invoice is enough, and where UAE e-invoicing stands for restaurants — as of October 2026. This is a plain-language summary, not tax advice; check your own case with your tax agent.
The basics
- The standard VAT rate in the UAE is 5% (Federal Tax Authority).
- Only a VAT-registered business — one with a TRN — issues tax invoices.
- Amounts of VAT on a tax invoice are stated in AED.
Simplified or full tax invoice?
Most restaurant sales can use a simplified tax invoice: the customer is not VAT-registered, or is registered but the supply is AED 10,000 or less. A simplified invoice shows the words "Tax Invoice", your name, address and TRN, the date, what was supplied, and the total with the VAT charged.
A full tax invoice is needed when a VAT-registered customer buys more than AED 10,000 — typically corporate catering or events. On top of the simplified fields it carries the customer's name, address and TRN, a sequential invoice number, and the net amount and VAT for each line.
How Dinelax prints it
- With your TRN saved, the receipt is titled TAX INVOICE and فاتورة ضريبية and shows your TRN. With no TRN, it prints a plain receipt.
- A pre-bill handed to the table says it is not a tax invoice.
- Each bill has its own number, the items, the VAT in AED and the total.
- For a company, add its name, TRN and address and the bill becomes a full tax invoice.
- Menu prices can include VAT or have it added on top — and you can set this separately for each delivery partner.
- The VAT summary shows output VAT on sales, input VAT from supplier bills, and the net payable for the period.
Dinelax is not "FTA approved" — the FTA does not approve restaurant POS systems — and it is not on the FTA's Tax Accounting Software Register. What counts is what the invoice shows.
E-invoicing: what changes for restaurants
The UAE is moving business-to-business invoices onto an electronic system (Peppol, through accredited service providers) under Ministerial Decision 244 of 2025:
- Voluntary use and pilots from 1 July 2026.
- Revenue of AED 50 million or more: live on 1 January 2027.
- Revenue below AED 50 million: appoint an accredited provider by 31 March 2027 and go live on 1 July 2027.
- Sales only to consumers are outside the system until the Minister decides otherwise. A restaurant's walk-in and delivery sales to individuals are consumer sales; its invoices to companies are not.
Dinelax does not send e-invoices today. If your restaurant invoices companies, plan your accredited provider for those invoices before your go-live date. Dates have been amended before — check the Ministry of Finance e-invoicing page for the latest.