What every invoice must show
- The words "tax invoice" prominently, an individualised serial number, and the date of issue.
- Your commercial name, address, place of business and TIN — and the same for your customer, plus their VAT registration number, whenever the customer is VAT-registered. You need their TIN anyway: it goes in the VAT Schedule you upload with your return.
- The rate of tax shown for each category of goods or services on the invoice, not just one total, together with the tax charged, the amount excluding tax and the amount including tax.
- Retailers may issue an abridged invoice — name, address and TIN of the supplier, date, description, quantity, value and VAT — but once the goods exceed E3,000 you must issue a full tax invoice carrying the buyer's name and address.
Numbering, keeping and correcting invoices
Records must be kept in Eswatini, in English or SiSwati. Under section 51 of the VAT Act, 2011 you keep the original tax invoices, credit notes and debit notes you receive and a copy of every one you issue, together with customs papers for imports and exports. Keep them for at least five years after the end of the tax period they relate to. If ERS finds records in another language it can require a translation at your cost (section 54).
To correct an invoice, issue a credit note where the tax charged was more than the tax properly chargeable, or a debit note where it was less (section 30). Each must say "credit note" or "debit note" prominently, identify the invoice it corrects by number, show the old and corrected taxable value and the tax difference, and briefly explain why it was issued (Third Schedule, clauses 2 and 3).
Failing to provide a tax invoice, credit note or debit note is an offence with a fine of E2,000 to E10,000, imprisonment of up to 3 years, or both. Issuing a non-compliant one deliberately or recklessly carries E6,000 to E15,000 or up to 6 years, or both (section 56).
Electronic invoicing in Eswatini
Eswatini has one, and it started in 2026. Legal Notice No. 111 of 2026 amended the Third Schedule of the VAT Act to recognise electronic tax invoices, fiscal receipts, credit notes and debit notes issued through an electronic fiscal device. The Commissioner General's Electronic Submission of Fiscal Data and Return-Supporting Records Notice, 2026 came into force on 15 July 2026 and sets the machinery: transactions recorded through an accredited EFD, fiscal data transmitted to the ERS e-Invoicing System in real time or within 15 days where real-time transmission is not available, and a fiscal document carrying the supplier's TIN, the date and time, a unique transaction identifier, taxable value, tax amount and total, the tax rate, the payment method, the EFD's identification, a digital signature and a scannable QR code with a verification URL. A tax invoice must also carry the buyer's TIN. Nobody is obliged to switch yet: ERS is rolling this out progressively by sector and is still accrediting device suppliers, with wholesale and retail named as the first industries. Until ERS notifies your category, keep issuing ordinary tax invoices and uploading VAT Schedules. Devices will come as an E-SDC at your premises or a free web-based V-SDC run by ERS, and the cost of buying or upgrading one is deductible for income tax.