VAT on menu prices in Saudi Arabia: the 15% rule for restaurants

A Saudi restaurant charges 15% VAT, that VAT must already be inside the price shown to the customer, and every bill is a QR-coded electronic invoice. Those three rules — the 15% rate, VAT-inclusive display, and Fatoora e-invoicing — are set by ZATCA and apply to dine-in, takeaway and delivery alike. This guide states each one, then covers the licences and fees to open, with every figure cited to an official Saudi source. It is general information, not tax or legal advice; confirm your own case with ZATCA, the Ministry of Commerce, Balady and the SFDA.

Create your free ordering pageBook a demo (opens in a new tab)

The three rules every Saudi restaurant follows

1. VAT is 15%, inside the price

Saudi Arabia's standard VAT rate is 15% (ZATCA), in force since 1 July 2020. Food is standard-rated — there is no reduced rate or exemption for restaurants — so dine-in, takeaway and delivery are all at 15%.

2. The price you show already includes VAT

Prices announced or displayed to consumers in Saudi Arabia must be VAT-inclusive: the final invoice cannot exceed the displayed price. So the number on your menu is the number the customer pays. You do not add 15% at the till on top of a VAT-exclusive menu price.

3. Every bill is a QR-coded e-invoice

ZATCA's Fatoora e-invoicing is mandatory for VAT-registered businesses, including restaurants. For the simplified (B2C) invoices you give walk-in customers, a QR code is required on the invoice. Your point-of-sale or ordering system must generate a compliant e-invoice, not a plain paper receipt.

How to show it in Menuthere

Because Saudi prices are VAT-inclusive, you type each dish's final price into Menuthere and that is what the customer pays. Set your online ordering for Saudi Arabia once and the same prices show on your website, QR menu and WhatsApp orders. For menu calorie display, the SFDA calorie-label tool helps you meet the labelling rule.

Licences and fees to open: what is verified, what varies

Some Saudi restaurant costs are published as flat figures; others are calculated per case. Here is what is official, and what you should treat as "varies".

A few things worth knowing:

• The CR base fee is SAR 200 a year. Numbers you see online like "SAR 1,200 + 500" usually mix in LLC-incorporation or publication steps and Chamber of Commerce membership — those are separate from the base CR.
• Not every restaurant needs SFDA facility registration. A standard dine-in restaurant is licensed mainly through Balady; the SAR 5,000 SFDA registration applies to food-production, central and cloud/ghost kitchens and similar facilities.
• A home kitchen can start free. The Freelance Work Certificate (productive families / home-based food) is issued free by HRSD through freelance.sa, valid one year, and lets you invoice and open a business bank account without a full CR.
• There is no separate "cloud kitchen" licence. A cloud or ghost kitchen is regulated as a central/production kitchen: CR, Balady licence, SFDA registration and Civil Defence approval.
• Balady and Civil Defence fees are not single published numbers. They are computed per activity, area and municipality, so get your figure from the official platform rather than a blog.