Last week a friend selling home goods called me—his shipment got held at Riyadh airport. ZATCA locked it over declared value being too low, and his e-invoice wasn't linked to their system. Total value: $32,000. Stuck 12 days, storage at $80 per day.
The rules changed June 1st. ZATCA dropped the low-value exemption threshold from SAR 1,000 to SAR 500, and now all B2C cross-border orders need real-time e-invoicing. Honestly, the days of filling in whatever amount and printing your own invoice are gone.
My advice: first, never copy HS codes from 1688. Have your customs broker verify them—I've seen a shipment of screws get returned just because one screw type was misclassified into 8 different codes. Second, make sure invoice amount matches logistics docs and customs declaration. Even a one-cent difference can trigger manual review. Third, register for a VAT number on ZATCA's portal now, even if your annual sales are below SAR 375,000. Otherwise, getting caught means back taxes plus a 20% fine.
If you're doing COD, there's a new rule: sellers with over 15% rejection rate get penalized and logistics costs double. I'd suggest setting your return address to a Shenzhen warehouse, not a local one—otherwise you pay SAR 15 per return.
A big wave of audits is coming end of June. You think ZATCA will be targeting Chinese sellers?