e-Fatura vs e-Arşiv: invoicing guests and agencies in Türkiye

In Türkiye the buyer decides. A hotel in e-document scope issues e-Fatura, an electronic invoice in a format the Revenue Administration sets and carries through its central platform, to buyers registered for e-Fatura, and e-Arşiv Fatura to everyone else, including individual and foreign guests. A hotel outside scope still issues a fiscal document for every sale.

A guest checks out, an agency wants one invoice for twelve rooms, and a company has asked for its tax number on the bill. The front desk has one question to settle before any of them is answered: who is the buyer on each charge? This article explains the e-Fatura vs e-Arşiv choice in plain words, what a licensed integrator actually does, and how common hotel cases, from split folios to agency stays, are settled. After reading, you can put seven written questions to your accountant and give your front desk a one-page rule per segment.

Does every hotel sale in Türkiye need a fiscal document?#

Yes. In Türkiye every stay involves a payment, a fiscal document (an invoice or e-document), a guest identity notification (KBS) and personal data (KVKK), and the fiscal document is owed on every sale, whatever its size. The four steps are described in more detail in the four steps of every stay in Türkiye.

The Tax Procedure Law (Vergi Usul Kanunu, Law No. 213) defines an invoice as the commercial document a merchant gives a customer to show the amount owed for goods sold or work done. The same law sets the minimum content: the date, series and sequence number, the issuer's name, address, tax office and number, the customer's name, trade title, address and, if any, tax office and number, and the type, quantity, price and amount of the goods or work. Those who must keep books retain their books and documents for five years from the calendar year after the year they relate to, according to the consolidated text of the Tax Procedure Law on mevzuat.gov.tr (opens in a new tab) (Articles 229, 230 and 253, 1 November 2026).

The e-Fatura versus e-Arşiv question is about the channel and the format of that document, never about whether a document exists. Two other duties travel alongside the invoice on the same stay: the guest identity notification and the personal data rules. They are separate from the invoice and are not discharged by issuing one.

A hotel that gets the document type right and the content wrong has still failed. The content rules apply in full to electronic documents.

What are e-Fatura and e-Arşiv in plain words?#

e-Fatura is an electronic invoice in a format the Revenue Administration sets, travelling from seller to buyer through a central GİB platform. e-Arşiv is the route for the same invoice duty when the buyer is not on e-Fatura.

e-Fatura has been in use since 5 March 2010 under VUK General Communiqué No. 397, according to the Revenue Administration's e-Fatura page (opens in a new tab) (GİB, eBelge, "e-Fatura Hakkında", 1 November 2026). GİB describes it as an electronic document carrying the information an invoice must contain under the Tax Procedure Law, sent between seller and buyer through a central GİB platform. GİB is explicit that it is not a new document type: it has the same qualities as a paper invoice.

Under VUK General Communiqué No. 509, taxpayers in the e-Arşiv application issue e-Fatura to buyers registered for e-Fatura and e-Arşiv Fatura to taxpayers not registered for e-Fatura and to people who are not taxpayers, according to the Revenue Administration's e-Arşiv page (opens in a new tab) (GİB, eBelge, "e-Arşiv Hakkında", 1 November 2026). An e-Arşiv invoice is delivered on paper or electronically, as the buyer requests.

Both are fiscal documents. Neither relaxes the content rules in the Tax Procedure Law, and neither shortens the retention period.

Who decides which document you issue: the hotel or the buyer?#

The buyer's registration decides. A hotel in e-document scope issues e-Fatura to a buyer registered for e-Fatura and e-Arşiv Fatura to a buyer who is not.

The test is the buyer's status in GİB's system, not the size of the sale, the length of the stay or the guest's nationality. A registered business buyer receives e-Fatura through the GİB platform; GİB states that taxpayers registered for e-Fatura must send and receive the invoices they issue to each other as e-Fatura. A buyer who is a taxpayer but not registered for e-Fatura, or a person who is not a taxpayer at all, receives e-Arşiv Fatura.

A foreign guest is ordinarily a buyer outside e-Fatura registration, which points to e-Arşiv; the tax treatment of that sale is a separate question for the accountant. The hotel cannot choose to send e-Fatura to a buyer who is not registered for it, and should not treat the choice as a preference.

What if your hotel is not in e-document scope?#

You still issue a fiscal document for every sale. The question becomes when your business enters scope and what changes on that date, not whether a document is owed.

Scope is set by GİB by taxpayer type, and GİB publishes a transition calendar for taxpayers coming into scope. This article gives no dates and no turnover thresholds: they change, and the current ones were not verified against a primary GİB text. Your accountant reads the calendar against your taxpayer type.

Outside scope, the invoice content rules of the Tax Procedure Law apply in full, and the retention period is unchanged. Some sales happen at an outlet rather than at the front desk; fiscal devices (ÖKC, yazar kasa) are a separate duty from e-documents and are handled outlet by outlet, as covered in ÖKC fiscal devices in hotel outlets.

Entering scope is not only a software change: it changes who receives the document, how it is delivered and what evidence the hotel keeps. Ask a plain question of your accountant: which entry in the calendar applies to us, and from which date?

What does a licensed integrator actually do?#

A licensed integrator (özel entegratör) provides the connection between the hotel's billing system and the GİB platform, so the hotel does not have to build that connection itself.

Private integration was introduced by VUK General Communiqué No. 421. GİB describes it as the route that lets taxpayers without sufficient IT infrastructure use the application through an integrator.

The integrator transmits. The hotel remains the issuer of the document and answers for its content, including every element the Tax Procedure Law requires. Four questions to put to any integrator: which document types it carries, how a failed transmission is reported back to the hotel, how a cancellation or correction is handled, and what the hotel keeps as evidence that a document was sent.

A person reviewing the document before it leaves is good practice, and the review has to cover the content, not only the transmission status. Do not assume the integrator checks your invoice content. That duty sits with the hotel, and a review checklist for hotel e-invoices before sending helps make it routine.

How do common hotel cases work, for example split folios and agency stays?#

Most hotel invoicing questions are not about e-Fatura versus e-Arşiv at all. They are about who the buyer is on each charge, and that is settled before the document type.

Split folio: room charge to the company, minibar and spa to the guest. Two buyers can mean two documents, so the split has to be decided when the charge is posted, not at checkout. Agency stay: the agency is the buyer for the contracted rooms, and the guest's extras usually belong to a different buyer; a city ledger view keeps the two apart, as explained in the city ledger for invoicing agencies and companies.

Company stay with a tax number: the buyer is a registered business, which points to e-Fatura if the hotel is in scope; the accountant confirms the case. Deposits and prepayments: whether a document is issued at the deposit or at the stay is a timing question; this article states no rule, the accountant does. Foreign-currency charges: which rate applies, and on which day, is a question for the accountant; this article states no rule.

Corrections: a wrong document is put right through the route the accountant and the integrator define. Deleting it is not that route.

What should you confirm with your accountant before the season starts?#

Bring seven questions in writing and get the answers in writing, so the front desk is not deciding document types at checkout.

What to do next#

One duty, two channels, one decision: the buyer. Take the seven questions to your accountant before the season, get the answers in writing, and give the front desk a one-page rule for each segment it serves. Everything else in this article, from the integrator's role to the split folio, follows from that single test.