The Federal Tax Authority (FTA) of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has opened the VAT registration in UAE portal for both Excise Tax Registration and Value-Added Tax (VAT) in UAE. This allows all businesses that deal with excise goods to register for Excise Tax and for VAT as well that already started from 1 January 2018, at a 5% rate.

Excise Tax and VAT implementation in UAE

The Cabinet Decision No. 37 of 2017 on the Executive Regulation of the Federal Decree-Law No. 7 of 2017 on Excise Tax talks about who is liable to pay tax when the latter is not settled.
The Cabinet Decision No. 38 of 2017 on Excise Goods, Excise Tax Rates, and the Method of Calculating the Excise Price, which shows the agreed rates and goes into the price specifics.
The next is the Cabinet Decision No. 39 of 2017 on Fees for Services provided by the Federal Tax Authority which establishes the VAT registration UAE fees for the services of FTA for the clients that will be collected.
The last one is the Cabinet Resolution No. 40 of 2017 on Administrative Penalties for Violations of Tax Laws in the UAE that is for all violations of Federal Law No. 7 of 2017 on Tax Procedures, Federal Decree-Law No. 7 of 2017 on Excise Tax, and Federal Decree-Law No. 8 of 2017 on VAT.

Do I need to register for VAT or Excise tax in UAE?

If you are running a business in Dubai or any emirate of UAE, you need to register for VAT & Excise Tax in UAE

a) For the Federal Excise Tax, every single business in the UAE that produces, imports, or stockpiles excise goods, or intends to do so, is necessary to register.

The current excise goods with tax rates are the following:

Tobacco and tobacco products and energy drinks (100%)
Carbonated drinks (50%)

b) For VAT, the registration is for all firms in UAE that fall under the minimum annual income of AED 375,000. If they don’t meet the minimum annual income, a business can still choose to register for VAT if they go beyond the voluntary base which is AED 187,500. On the other hand, if the minimum amount for voluntary registration is surpassed by a business’s expenses, they can register voluntarily as well. Start-up companies (without turnovers) are encouraged in this kind of opportunity.

Procedure & Documents required for Excise Tax Registration in UAE

For Federal Excise Tax, those businesses that haven’t registered yet are required to provide the following:

Trade License(s) (if applicable)
Certificate of Incorporation (if applicable)
Customs number(s) issued by Customs department(s) (if applicable)
Passport, Emirates ID of the manager, owner, and senior management
Authorized signatory documents
Articles of Association/Partnership Agreement/Club or Association Registration/Law or Decree (if applicable)
Bank Account details

Procedure & Documents Required for VAT Registration in UAE

For VAT, the documents required depend on the type of entity (individual, incorporated bodies, other non-corporate bodies, or government entity). The common documents with the aforementioned entities are the following:

Trade License(s) (if applicable)
Certificate of Incorporation (if applicable)
Financial Statements
Bank Account details
Authorized Signatory documents
Passport and Emirates ID of manager, owner, and senior management

As mentioned above, different documents are required for different entities. Some other documents not listed may be needed.
You will be requested to upload copies of these documents. The accepted file types are PDF, JPG, PNG, and JPEG. The file size limit is 2 MB each.

Vat Consultants in UAE

FAR – Farahat & Co. can help if you have any concerns about the Excise Tax UAE and VAT preparation, accounting, and registering excise tax in UAE. As we are one of the vat consultants in UAE that has more than 30 years of experience in different industries, we can conduct a consultation with you and cater to your needs. Click here for VAT assessment for business in UAE.