Simplified Tax Invoices for Salons in Saudi Arabia: What You Must Include
Every time a client pays for a service or product in your Saudi salon, you are legally required to issue a simplified tax invoice — and that invoice must contain specific information to be compliant under ZATCA regulations.
The word “simplified” can be misleading. It does not mean brief or incomplete. It means it is designed for business-to-consumer (B2C) transactions, as opposed to the full standard invoice used for B2B transactions. But it still carries strict content requirements.
This guide tells you exactly what must appear on every simplified tax invoice you issue — and how to make sure your salon is generating them correctly on every transaction.
Note: This guide provides general educational information. For specific compliance advice, consult your accountant or tax advisor and refer to official ZATCA guidance at zatca.gov.sa.
What Is a Simplified Tax Invoice?
A simplified tax invoice is the ZATCA-compliant document issued at the point of sale to individual clients (consumers). This is the standard invoice type for:
- Hair salon appointments
- Spa and medspa treatments
- Nail and beauty services
- Retail product sales in salon
- Package and membership purchases by individuals
- Gift card purchases
It is distinct from a standard (full) tax invoice, which is required when invoicing a registered business entity.
The 8 Mandatory Fields on a Simplified Tax Invoice
Field 1: Seller’s Name
Your salon, spa, or beauty business’s registered legal name — exactly as it appears in your ZATCA registration.
Field 2: VAT Registration Number
Your 15-digit VAT registration number, formatted as required. This is mandatory and must appear on every invoice.
Field 3: Date and Time of Issue
The exact timestamp of when the invoice was issued. Simplified invoices require both the date and the time.
Field 4: Sequential Invoice Number
Each invoice must have a unique, sequential number. This allows ZATCA and your accountant to identify and trace specific transactions.
Field 5: Description of Goods or Services
A clear description of what was purchased. For salons, this includes:
- Name of each service performed (e.g., “Full Colour Service”, “Keratin Treatment”)
- Quantity and individual price of each item or service
- Any retail products sold
Field 6: VAT Amount
The exact amount of VAT charged, calculated at the applicable rate (currently 15% on taxable services and products).
Field 7: Total Amount Including VAT
The total the client paid, inclusive of VAT.
Field 8: QR Code
A cryptographically signed QR code that encodes the invoice details. This is the most critical ZATCA-specific requirement and cannot be omitted or generated manually — it must be produced by a ZATCA-compliant system.
The QR code encodes:
- Seller name
- VAT registration number
- Invoice timestamp
- Total invoice amount
- Total VAT amount
What Should Also Appear (Strongly Recommended)
While not always mandatory for simplified invoices, including the following improves record-keeping and client experience:
- Salon address and branch name (especially important for multi-branch operations)
- Client name (for loyalty tracking and dispute resolution)
- Stylist or therapist name (for internal commission and accountability purposes)
- Payment method used (cash, Mada, Visa, Apple Pay)
- Deposit applied (if a booking deposit was paid, show it as a deduction from the total)
What a Compliant Salon Invoice Looks Like
Here is a simplified example layout:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[SALON NAME]
VAT Registration No: 300XXXXXXXXXX15
Branch: Riyadh — Al Olaya
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Invoice No: INV-2025-04521
Date: 15 June 2025, 14:32
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Full Colour Service 380.00 SAR
Toner Application 65.00 SAR
Argan Oil Product Sale 90.00 SAR
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Subtotal (excl. VAT): 535.00 SAR
VAT (15%): 80.25 SAR
Booking Deposit Applied: -80.00 SAR
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
TOTAL DUE: 535.25 SAR
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[QR CODE]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
🧾 Related: E-Invoicing for Salons in Saudi Arabia: ZATCA Compliance Guide →
Common Simplified Invoice Mistakes in Salons
| Mistake | Why It Matters |
|---|---|
| Missing QR code | Direct ZATCA non-compliance |
| No VAT registration number | Invoice is invalid for tax purposes |
| No timestamp (only date) | Simplified invoices require both date and time |
| Non-sequential numbering | Cannot be traced or audited |
| “Service” listed without itemization | Insufficient for VAT audit |
| VAT calculated on undiscounted price | Incorrect tax liability |
| No invoice issued for cash payments | Tax evasion exposure |
VAT on Discounts and Promotions
When your salon runs a promotion — for example, 20% off all services on a specific day — the VAT is calculated on the discounted price, not the original price.
Example:
- Original service price: 400 SAR
- 20% discount: -80 SAR
- Discounted price: 320 SAR
- VAT (15% on 320 SAR): 48 SAR
- Total: 368 SAR
The invoice must show both the original price, the discount amount, the discounted total, and the VAT amount calculated on the discounted total.
How Naeeman Generates Compliant Simplified Tax Invoices
Naeeman produces fully ZATCA-compliant simplified tax invoices automatically at checkout. Your team does not need to manually enter fields, calculate VAT, or generate QR codes.
Every Naeeman invoice includes:
- All 8 mandatory ZATCA fields
- Correct VAT calculation on all services and products
- Correct VAT treatment on discounts and promotions
- ZATCA-compliant QR code generated automatically
- Booking deposit deduction shown clearly
- Arabic and English service descriptions
- Sequential invoice numbering
- Secure storage for 6+ years
🚀 Book a Naeeman Demo — see a live simplified tax invoice generated by Naeeman and verify ZATCA compliance in one session.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Does my salon need to issue an invoice for every transaction, even small ones?
For VAT-registered businesses, yes — every taxable transaction requires a compliant invoice. This includes small retail product sales and low-value services.
Can I issue invoices in English only, or do they need to be in Arabic?
ZATCA does not mandate Arabic specifically on simplified invoices, but including Arabic is a strong practice for a Saudi business and avoids any potential interpretation issues. Naeeman generates invoices in both Arabic and English.
What happens if my invoicing software cannot generate a ZATCA-compliant QR code?
You are non-compliant. The QR code cannot be generated manually or with a generic QR code tool — it must be produced by a system that meets ZATCA’s cryptographic specifications. Use a ZATCA-integrated system like Naeeman.
How do I handle invoices for package purchases where services are delivered over multiple visits?
This is a nuanced area — the timing of invoice issuance and VAT recognition for multi-visit packages can vary. Consult your accountant for the correct treatment of package invoice timing in your specific context.
CTA: Every checkout is a compliance moment. Book a Naeeman demo and see how your Saudi salon or spa can generate fully ZATCA-compliant simplified tax invoices automatically on every single transaction.
