Dubai
VAT Registration in Dubai
We handle your VAT registration and ongoing returns, with experience in how Dubai's market is structured.
When does registration become mandatory?
The mandatory threshold is AED 375,000, measured on total taxable supplies and imports over the previous twelve months — a rolling period, not your financial year. Or where you expect to exceed it in the next thirty days. Voluntary registration sits at AED 187,500, and there taxable expenses count too.
Why Dubai specifically
Dubai is a dense trading market: import, export and re-export, with supplies moving between the mainland and free zones. That makes classifying supplies — standard, zero-rated, exempt, out of scope — considerably harder than in a simple local activity.
Free zone companies
Free zones carry particular considerations in how supplies are treated, and being in one does not automatically place a company outside the scope of the tax. We assess your specific position before any step.
After registration
Registration is a beginning, not an end: the cycle of periodic returns starts, along with getting tax invoices right and testing input recoverability. We run the full cycle, or review what you prepare before submission.
What we need from you to start
Trade licence and constitutional documents, identification for owners and authorised signatories, the company's bank details, a statement of supplies for the previous twelve months, and your customs importer code if you import. Getting this pack complete the first time is what actually shortens the process — the files that run late are the ones that began incomplete.
Mistakes we see repeatedly in Dubai files
Four recur constantly: measuring the threshold against the financial year instead of a rolling twelve months; counting exempt supplies into the calculation when they do not belong there; missing the forward-looking thirty-day test that obliges registration before the threshold is actually reached; and assuming that being in a free zone removes the company from scope automatically.
Once registration is approved
You are assigned a tax period to file against, and payment falls on the same deadline. That is where the real work starts: a tax invoice that meets the required form, evidence behind every input you reclaim, and records kept so that any figure in a return can be rebuilt later under review.
Frequently asked questions
How long does registration take?
It depends on how complete the documents are and how quickly queries are answered. We prepare the full file up front to shorten it.
We registered late — what now?
Late registration is a breach in its own right. We review your position and help settle it by the quickest route rather than letting it accumulate.
You are in Abu Dhabi — do you serve Dubai?
Yes. Tax files are handled entirely digitally, and we arrange in-person meetings in Dubai when the file needs one.
Our sales are below the threshold — should we register voluntarily?
Voluntary registration helps a business accumulating significant input tax, such as one still setting up that buys but does not yet sell. For anyone else it adds a recurring obligation with nothing in return. We model the effect on your position before recommending it.
Do zero-rated supplies count toward the threshold?
Yes. Zero-rated is still a taxable supply and counts. Only exempt supplies fall outside the calculation — and confusing the two is one of the most common causes of late registration.
We have branches in more than one emirate — one registration or several?
Registration attaches to the legal person, not the branch. We review your entity structure to establish whether a tax group is appropriate.