Breaking Change: Checking the duplicate (response codes 208 & 209)

Announcements
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New validation rules to check for duplicate invoices (response codes 208 and 409).

Dear Community Members,

Numerous taxpayers are pushing increasingly large number of duplicate invoices which is resource intensive for no additional value. Therefore, in order to increase efficiency and performance of overall system, ZATCA will introduce new run time validation to check for duplicate invoices in both Clearance and Reporting APIs.

Below are the key details:

  1. Objective: To improve overall system performance and efficiency by identifying duplicate invoices submitted on Clearance APIs and Reporting APIs by comparing the hash values of invoices submitted within 24-hours.

  2. Functionality Overview:

    • Clearance API:

      • Scenario: When taxpayers submit B2B invoices using Clearance API, the hash of invoice will be stored in a dedicated database for 24 hours to identify duplicates.
      • Validation: Subsequent submission of invoice(s) with the same hash value within 24 hours will trigger the response code “208 - Invoice Hash Previously Submitted."
      • Response will include Cleared Invoice: The response will include Cleared Invoice along with ZATCA’s signature and QR Code.
      • Repeated instances of sending duplicate invoices will be flagged for investigation.

    • Reporting API:

      • Scenario : When taxpayers submit B2C invoices via the Reporting API, the hash of invoice will be stored in a dedicated database for 24 hours to identify duplicates.
      • Validation: Subsequent submission of invoice(s) with same hash value within 24 hours will trigger rejection with response code “409 - Invoice was already reported successfully earlier."
      • 409 to be treated as successful reporting: When taxpayers receive 409 response, it is implied that B2C invoice with same hash value was successfully reported in first instance and saved at ZATCA’s end.
      • Repeated instances of sending duplicate invoices will be flagged for investigation.

  3. Impacted Components:

    • Reporting APIs on Production and Simulation Environments
    • Clearance APIs on Production and Simulation Environments

  4. Deployment Plan:

    • Simulation Environment: The new validation rules are expected to be deployed to Simulation Environment tentatively by 15, May 2025. ZATCA encourages all taxpayers and solution providers to commence testing of new validation rules promptly upon deployment to Simulation and to share any feedback at the earliest.
    • Production Environment: New validation rules will be deployed to Production Environment tentatively by 3rd week of June, 2025 allowing about one month’s time to the taxpayers and solution providers for testing on Simulation Environment.

For questions or clarifications, contact [sp_support@zatca.gov.sa].

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