Glossary

Plain-English definitions for the terms you'll run into.

The Peppol 5-corner model (DCTCE)

This is the technical path an invoice takes under the UAE's e-invoicing system, officially called the Decentralized Continuous Transaction Control and Exchange (DCTCE) model. Five "corners" are involved: the supplier and buyer at each end, an accredited service provider on each side handling the actual exchange, and the FTA receiving a parallel tax report.

The Peppol 5-corner (DCTCE) modelCorner 1, the supplier, sends invoice data to Corner 2, their accredited service provider. Corner 2 validates it and passes it to Corner 3, the buyer's accredited service provider, which delivers it to Corner 4, the buyer. Corners 2 and 3 each also report a Tax Data Document to Corner 5, the Federal Tax Authority.PINT-AEXMLDeliverTax DataDocumentTax DataDocumentCorner 1SupplierCorner 2Supplier'saccredited providerCorner 3Buyer'saccredited providerCorner 4BuyerCorner 5Federal Tax Authority(reporting, not routing)

Terms

ASP (Accredited Service Provider)

A company certified by the Ministry of Finance to connect your business to the Peppol network and exchange invoices on your behalf. You cannot connect directly; an ASP is mandatory.

Peppol

Pan-European Public Procurement OnLine: the international network and message-format standard that lets invoices move between different countries' accredited providers in a common structure. The UAE adopted Peppol as the backbone of its own e-invoicing system rather than building a separate network from scratch.

PINT AE

Peppol INTernational, UAE localisation: the specific XML invoice format the FTA's system accepts, adapted from the global Peppol PINT standard to include UAE VAT and TRN fields.

TRN

Tax Registration Number: the unique number the FTA assigns a business when it registers for VAT.

B2B, B2G, B2C

Business-to-business, business-to-government, and business-to-consumer invoicing. The current mandate covers B2B and B2G; B2C is excluded until a future Ministerial Decision extends scope.

Tax Data Document (TDD)

A summary of an invoice's tax-relevant fields that ASPs report straight to the FTA in near real time, separately from delivering the invoice itself to the buyer.

VAT group

Multiple related entities registered under a VAT grouping arrangement. For e-invoicing, each entity's TRN is generally still its own ASP relationship, though the Ministry of Finance has given a 24-month grace period for transactions between entities inside the same VAT group.

Ministerial Decision

The legal instrument the Ministry of Finance uses to formally set or change e-invoicing rules. For example, extending the mandate to B2C transactions would require a new Ministerial Decision, not just an announcement.

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