• Tunisia mandates e-invoicing for dine-in businesses

• Reform targets tax fairness, transparency, and digital modernization

• Rollout begins 2025, fully applies by 2028
  

Tunisia’s Finance Ministry has made electronic invoicing mandatory for certain restaurants and dine-in establishments, under a decree published in the official gazette on Tuesday, October 14. The reform is part of the government’s digital transformation strategy and aims to create a fairer tax system based on actual revenues.

The measure applies to restaurants, cafés, tea rooms, and similar businesses that serve food or drinks for consumption on the premises. It stems from Article 59 of the Personal Income Tax and Corporate Tax Code, which sets out the fiscal obligations of such operators.

Implementation will be phased in. Companies operating in tourist establishments, as well as second- and third-category cafés and tea rooms, must comply from November 1, 2025. Other companies offering dine-in services will follow on July 1, 2026. The requirement will extend to self-employed individuals under the standard tax regime with monthly declarations from July 1, 2027, and to all other individual operators in these activities from July 1, 2028.

Authorities say the system will improve fiscal transparency, reduce underreporting, and bring tax collections in line with real business activity. It is also expected to modernize the management tools used by hospitality operators and promote fairer competition across the sector.

The Finance Ministry estimates that tax evasion costs the state budget about 3 billion dinars (roughly $1 billion) each year. The new measure follows a June directive requiring businesses not yet registered in the national e-invoicing system to bring their status into compliance.

Samira Njoya