Invoices for Algerian auto-entrepreneurs: required items, a sample and the grey areas

Yes, an auto-entrepreneur must issue an invoice for every sale or service made to another economic agent, at the time of the sale or service. With a private individual, an invoice is mandatory if they ask for one. The headache is that the official list of required items was written for traders: it asks for a commercial register number and a statistical identification number (NIS), which an auto-entrepreneur does not necessarily have. What goes in their place? The texts we read do not say.

What the Ministry of Commerce says

According to the Ministry’s FAQ page, based on Executive Decree 05-468 of 10 December 2005, every sale of goods or service between economic agents must have an invoice. The seller issues it and the buyer asks for it. It carries the required items whatever its format, paper or electronic.

On the seller’s side the list covers: name, address, telephone and email where relevant, legal form and nature of activity, commercial register number, statistical identification number, payment method and date, invoice date and sequence number, description, quantity, unit price and total price before tax, nature and rate of taxes, and the total price including taxes in figures and in words. On the buyer’s side you again find name, address, legal form, activity, commercial register and NIS; for a consumer, name, forenames and address are enough.

What it looks like for a freelancer

Here is a sample invoice for a translator working as an auto-entrepreneur, in the spirit of the list (we do not claim the administration has validated it):

• header: full name, address, telephone, email, “auto-entrepreneur”, the activity, auto-entrepreneur card number;
• sequence number (for instance 2026-001) and date;
• client: name or company name and address;
• line: “Translation of 12 pages, 4,000 DA a page”;
• total: 48,000 DA, with “forty-eight thousand Algerian dinars” in words;
• payment method and date.

On VAT, the IFU replaces VAT, the local solidarity tax and the income tax: an IFU auto-entrepreneur’s invoice should not show VAT, but we found no text saying so in black and white for this status.

Where people go wrong

People often assume a proforma or a simple receipt will do: the Ministry speaks of an invoice with a minimum content. They also assume invoices to foreign clients can take any format. For a foreign client we found no rule on currency, language, or showing the buyer’s tax identifier; if your bank asks for an invoice behind a currency transfer, see our guide to the foreign-currency account. One last mix-up: ANAE states that the NIS is not required to work as an auto-entrepreneur or to open a bank account, but that does not mean the item disappears from the Ministry’s list.

As for false invoices and accommodation invoices, the Ministry defines them as invoices with no real delivery or service, or that hide the identity of a client or supplier, to reduce tax. That is not a detail to treat lightly.

To track invoices against the ceiling, use the ceiling tracker.