VAT registration in the UAE. Before the 30-day window closes.

A fixed AED 10,000 administrative penalty applies once you are more than 30 days past the date you were required to register. The FTA can also assess VAT retroactively from when the obligation began — tax you never charged your customers. We handle late UAE VAT registration as well as on-time applications, so if the window has already closed we get you registered and deal with the exposure openly.

The FTA's published service standard is up to 20 business days for a complete VAT registration application, and longer if they come back with clarification requests. Preparing the required documents properly before submission is the single biggest thing that keeps a VAT registration at the short end of that range.

The required documents are a valid trade licence, Emirates ID and passport copies for the owners or authorised signatory, your Memorandum of Association, proof of business address, bank account details, a description of your business activities, and 12 months of turnover evidence. These supporting documents are uploaded to EmaraTax in PDF or DOC format. We check every document required before anything is submitted, because a missing or expired one is the most common reason a VAT registration application stalls.

Yes — free zone entities face the same AED 375,000 mandatory VAT registration threshold as mainland companies. Whether your supplies are standard-rated, zero-rated or exempt affects how taxable supplies and imports are counted towards that threshold, and we confirm the correct treatment for you.

Yes, and there is no threshold. A non-resident taxable person making taxable supplies in the UAE must register from the first taxable supply, whether or not they have a fixed establishment here. Non-resident VAT registration needs a different set of supporting documents from a resident application, and we prepare those for you.

No. Charging VAT before your registration is effective is not permitted, and your customers cannot recover VAT you were not authorised to charge. We make sure invoicing only starts once the FTA has issued your Tax Registration Number (TRN).

You move into ongoing compliance as a registered business. You charge 5% VAT on standard-rated supplies, issue tax invoices showing your TRN and the VAT amount, recover input VAT where it is recoverable, classify zero-rated supplies such as qualifying education services and exempt supplies such as certain financial services correctly, and file a VAT return within 28 days of each tax period ending — even a nil return. Record keeping must be maintained for at least five years. If you later stop making taxable supplies, VAT deregistration is required too. VAT return filing. VAT deregistration.