Document format and locale facts for Saudi Arabia

Why these defaults?

The country code comes from ISO 3166. Unicode CLDR supplies presentation-oriented locale, currency, paper, date, language, calendar, numbering, and direction metadata. Defaults reduce setup time; they do not decide what a valid document must contain.

Recorded official or regional-official language tags: ar.

Selected national claims reviewed

Document vocabulary and checks

Saudi VAT invoice and simplified-invoice particulars, VAT-number registration and verification, baseline retention periods, and FATOORAH generation/integration boundaries are reviewed from ZATCA sources. This local document is not a compliant FATOORAH record and does not generate required cryptographic controls, QR data, XML, clearance or reporting. The taxpayer must confirm its notified integration wave and transaction-specific VAT treatment with current ZATCA material.

Evidence snapshot: 8 official sources · last reviewed 2026-07-19. This is scoped guidance, not a jurisdiction-wide compliance certification.

Tax labels: VAT. Business identifier labels: VAT Registration Number.

• Required when applicable: Saudi tax invoices and simplified tax invoices have different particulars. ZATCA guidance requires the applicable invoice title and core supplier, date, supply, consideration and VAT information; simplified invoices include the prescribed QR code under FATOORAH.Evidence SA_ZATCA_VAT_RULES, SA_ZATCA_PHASE1_PREPARE · reviewed 2026-07-18 · review by 2027-01-18 · automation advisory only
• Required when applicable: Use the VAT account number assigned by ZATCA when VAT registration applies. ZATCA provides a public service to verify registration by VAT account number, commercial registration number, or VAT certificate number.Evidence SA_ZATCA_VAT_REGISTRATION, SA_ZATCA_VAT_VERIFICATION · reviewed 2026-07-19 · review by 2027-01-19 · automation advisory only
• Required when applicable: Retain VAT records for the standard six-year period; ZATCA guidance identifies longer minimum periods for movable and immovable capital-asset records.Evidence SA_ZATCA_RECORD_RETENTION · reviewed 2026-07-19 · review by 2027-01-19 · automation advisory only
• Required when applicable: FATOORAH phase one requires in-scope persons to generate and preserve compliant electronic invoices from 4 December 2021. Phase two integration and clearance/reporting applies in notified waves from 1 January 2023. This browser-local PDF is not a ZATCA-compliant e-invoice and is not cleared or reported.Evidence SA_ZATCA_EINVOICE_SPECS, SA_ZATCA_EINVOICE_ROLLOUT · reviewed 2026-07-19 · review by 2027-01-19 · automation advisory only

Identifier format guidance: See the relevant authority.