Mozambique is the third Portuguese-speaking country to adopt SAF-T, after Portugal (2008) and Angola (2019). Mozambique’s tax authority, the Autoridade Tributária de Moçambique (MTA), has made monthly invoice file uploads to its e-Declaração portal mandatory from May 2025, with full SAF-T (Moz) implementation planned for 2026.
Key dates: From May 2025, all taxpayers must upload monthly invoice files to the MTA’s e-Declaração portal. Full SAF-T (Moz), covering general ledger, master files, and complete transaction records, is planned for 2026. MTA guidance was issued on March 27, 2025.
Monthly Invoice Reporting: The First Step
From May 2025, all Mozambican taxpayers must submit structured invoice data to the MTA on a monthly basis. The required data includes:
- •Transaction dates: The date of each invoice or equivalent billing document.
- •Party identification: Buyer and seller tax identification numbers, names, and addresses.
- •Goods and service descriptions: Line-level detail of what was supplied.
- •Unit and total values: Unit prices, quantities, and line totals.
- •VAT amounts: Mozambique’s standard VAT rate is 17%, and the VAT amount must be reported for each transaction line.
Submission is via compressed file upload to the MTA’s e-Declaração portal. High-volume taxpayers have the option to submit daily or weekly rather than waiting until month-end, which may help distribute the processing workload and reduce the risk of deadline-related errors.
The MTA’s e-filing portal is accessible at edeclaracao.at.gov.mz.
Full SAF-T Implementation: 2026
The monthly invoice reporting requirement is the first phase of a broader SAF-T rollout. Full SAF-T (Moz) implementation, planned for 2026, will expand the scope of required data beyond invoicing to include general ledger entries, master file records (customers, suppliers, products, tax tables), and complete source documents covering sales, purchases, payments, and goods movements. This mirrors the comprehensive SAF-T structure used in Portugal and Angola, adapted to Mozambican tax law and the country’s 17% VAT regime.
Software Certification
The MTA requires all billing and accounting software used to generate SAF-T files to be certified. Software developers must contact the MTA to obtain the official technical specifications for the SAF-T (Moz) data structure and complete a formal certification process before their products can be used for compliance. This is consistent with the approach taken by Portugal’s AT and Angola’s AGT, where only certified software may produce official tax files.
Businesses should verify that their ERP or accounting software vendor has completed or initiated MTA certification. Using uncertified software to generate SAF-T submissions is itself a compliance risk, and files produced by uncertified systems may be rejected by the e-Declaração portal.
Penalties for Non-Compliance
Mozambique’s penalty regime for SAF-T non-compliance is particularly strict:
- •Account lock: Submitting an incorrect SAF-T XML file triggers a 5-day account lock. During this period, the taxpayer cannot issue invoices or import goods, effectively halting business operations.
- •Criminal prosecution: Repeated failure to comply with SAF-T submission requirements can escalate to criminal prosecution of company directors. This is among the strictest enforcement mechanisms in any SAF-T jurisdiction globally.
The severity of these penalties underscores the MTA’s seriousness about digital tax compliance. A single malformed XML file can lock a business out of invoicing and imports for nearly a week, making pre-submission validation critical.
Practical note: Businesses operating in Mozambique should prioritise three actions before May 2025: confirm that their software vendor has initiated MTA certification, establish an e-Declaração portal account with the correct credentials, and implement a pre-submission validation step to catch XML errors before upload. Given the 5-day account lock penalty for incorrect files, validating SAF-T XML locally before submission is not optional; it is a business continuity requirement.
SAF-T in Portugal, Angola, and Mozambique
Portugal introduced SAF-T in 2008 with mandatory software certification and structured XML reporting. Angola followed in 2019 and added an e-invoicing mandate in 2026. All three countries use the OECD SAF-T base standard with mandatory software certification and structured XML file submission.
However, country-specific differences remain significant. Mozambique’s 17% VAT rate differs from Portugal’s 23% and Angola’s various rates. Submission channels vary: Portugal uses the AT’s e-Fatura portal, Angola uses the Portal do Contribuinte, and Mozambique uses e-Declaração. Code lists, element requirements, and penalty regimes are jurisdiction-specific. For a broader view of SAF-T adoption globally, see our SAF-T adoption overview.