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Spotlight PEPPOL BIS Billing 3.0 The EU e-invoicing mandate is here — France Sept 2026, Belgium Jan 2026, Germany 2025.

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Foundations

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Standards

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Flagship messages

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Tools

Tunisia — TTN, El-Fatoora and e-invoicing

Tunisia has structured its e-invoicing strategy around Tunisie TradeNet (TTN), the national operator accredited by the Ministry of Finance, which has operated the El-Fatoora platform since 2016. The universal B2B mandate is being progressively rolled out through 2027.

Regulatory timeline

  • 9 August 2000 — Law 2000-83 on electronic exchanges. Legal framework for electronic signature and document dematerialisation under Tunisian law.
  • 11 April 2000 — Creation of TTN (Tunisie TradeNet). Mixed economy company under the Ministry of Finance, single operator for the dematerialisation of commercial procedures (Liasse Unique, El-Fatoora…).
  • 30 September 2016 — Law 2016-71. Establishes the foundations of the fiscal electronic invoice and designates TTN as the reference operator.
  • 1 January 2017 — 2017 Finance Law. Launches the El-Fatoora pilot for voluntary taxpayers.
  • 1 January 2019 — Mandatory phase 1. Large enterprises (turnover > 5M TND) must issue via El-Fatoora. Confirmation by Decree 2019-1190 of 19 December 2019.
  • 1 January 2022 — Phase 2. Extension to taxpayers under the real regime with turnover > 3M TND.
  • 1 January 2024 — Phase 3. Extension to taxpayers under the real regime with turnover > 1M TND.
  • 1 January 2027 — Targeted generalisation. All VAT taxpayers under the real regime, no threshold — schedule to be confirmed by the next Finance Law.

Technical schema

The TEIF (Tunisia Electronic Invoice Format) is a TTN proprietary XML derived from UN/EDIFACT INVOIC. Features:

  • DocumentTypeCode: FA (invoice), AV (credit note), FD (final invoice), BL (delivery note).
  • Tax registration: strict format 1234567A/A/M/000 — 7 digits + category letter (A to Z) + regime letter + VAT code letter + secondary establishment number.
  • TaxCategory / TaxRate: S standard, E exempt, Z zero; rates 19 % (standard), 13 % (reduced), 7 % (super-reduced), 0 % (export).
  • RefTtnDoc: TTN reference assigned after deposit, serves as permanent identifier for lookup and archival.
  • Signature: XAdES-T or XAdES-X-L signature, certificate issued by ANCE (National Electronic Certification Agency).

Minimal structure of a TEIF 1.8.8:

xmlteif-1.8.8.xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<TEIF xmlns="urn:tradenet:tn:einvoice"
      version="1.8.8"
      controllingAgency="TTN">
  <InvoiceHeader>
    <MessageSenderIdentifier>1234567A/A/M/000</MessageSenderIdentifier>
    <MessageReceiverIdentifier>7654321B/A/M/000</MessageReceiverIdentifier>
    <DocumentIdentifier>TN-2026-00000142</DocumentIdentifier>
    <DocumentTypeCode>FA</DocumentTypeCode>
    <DocumentDate>2026-05-16</DocumentDate>
  </InvoiceHeader>
  <BgmSection>
    <DocumentReferences>
      <Reference type="ON">PO-2026-091</Reference>
    </DocumentReferences>
  </BgmSection>
  <PartnerSection>
    <PartnerDetails functionCode="SU">
      <PartnerIdentifier>1234567A/A/M/000</PartnerIdentifier>
      <PartnerName>Ediverse Demo Tunisia SARL</PartnerName>
      <Address>
        <Street>Avenue Habib Bourguiba 25</Street>
        <CityName>Tunis</CityName>
        <PostalCode>1000</PostalCode>
        <CountryCode>TN</CountryCode>
      </Address>
    </PartnerDetails>
    <PartnerDetails functionCode="BY">
      <PartnerIdentifier>7654321B/A/M/000</PartnerIdentifier>
      <PartnerName>Customer Demo Tunisia SARL</PartnerName>
    </PartnerDetails>
  </PartnerSection>
  <LinSection>
    <Lin lineId="1">
      <ItemIdentifier>SVC-CLOUD-001</ItemIdentifier>
      <ItemDescription>Cloud services May 2026</ItemDescription>
      <Quantity>1.0</Quantity>
      <UnitPriceAmount>50000.00</UnitPriceAmount>
      <TaxCategory>S</TaxCategory>
      <TaxRate>19</TaxRate>
      <TaxAmount>9500.00</TaxAmount>
      <LineAmount>59500.00</LineAmount>
    </Lin>
  </LinSection>
  <RefTtnDoc>TTN-2026-00142-SIG</RefTtnDoc>
</TEIF>

Submission flow

The Tunisian model is a 3-corner via TTN in clearance: the seller signs and deposits their TEIF on tradenet.com.tn (REST API or SFTP), TTN validates (schema, signature, tax registration, amounts) and archives. The buyer is notified and retrieves via their TTN space.

textel-fatoora-flow.txt
┌───────────────┐   ┌────────────────────┐   ┌───────────────┐
│ TN supplier   │──>│ TTN (TradeNet)     │──>│ TN customer   │
│ (ERP, TEIF)   │   │ El-Fatoora         │   │ (notification │
│ + signature   │   │ tradenet.com.tn    │   │  + retrieval) │
└───────────────┘   └─────────┬──────────┘   └───────────────┘
                              │
                              ▼
                  ┌────────────────────┐
                  │ DGI Tunisia        │ ← Legal archival
                  │ portail.tradenet   │   + VAT reporting
                  └────────────────────┘

Taxpayers under the real regime are required to subscribe to the TTN portal and to archive their e-invoices for 10 years (Tunisian legal accounting and tax retention period). TTN offers a paid legal archival service that covers this duration.

Validation

  • Tunisie TradeNet (TTN): tradenet.com.tn — single El-Fatoora operator, TEIF documentation, API and SFTP.
  • TTN taxpayer portal: portail.tradenet.com.tn — end-user interface, invoice lookup, archives.
  • Ministry of Finance: finances.gov.tn — finance laws, decrees, DGI communications.
  • ANCE — National Electronic Certification Agency: tuntrust.tn — issuance of electronic signature certificates for TEIF.

Common pitfalls

  1. Strict tax registration format. The format NNNNNNNL/L/L/NNN (digits / letters / letters / digits) is strictly validated by TTN. Common error: forgetting the secondary establishment code /000 (head office) or /001, /002… (branches). The tax registration without this suffix is rejected.
  2. Mandatory ANCE certificate. The TEIF signature must carry a certificate issued by ANCE (National Electronic Certification Agency) or its commercial subsidiary TunTrust. A European eIDAS certificate, even qualified, is not recognised for El-Fatoora.
  3. Lump-sum regime excluded. Taxpayers under the lump-sum regime (sole-trader merchants with turnover < 100,000 TND) are excluded from the e-invoicing mandate and continue with paper. Check the taxpayer's regime before onboarding them in El-Fatoora.
  4. 10-year archival. The Tunisian Tax Code requires a 10-year retention of e-invoices (and TTN receipts). TTN offers a paid archival service; in-house archival is possible but must guarantee integrity (signature, timestamp, access log) over the entire duration.
  5. Three languages (Arabic, French, English). TEIFs can include labels in Arabic (product descriptions), French (legal mentions) and English (cross-border). UTF-8 encoding mandatory; Arabic characters in CP1252 in Tunisian francophone ERPs are a classic source of error.