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What you need to know now
A qualifying foreign business may recover eligible UAE VAT through the business-visitor scheme, which is separate from tourist and registered-business refunds.
- Check establishment and UAE taxable-person status first.
- Review reciprocity and excluded expenses.
- Prepare invoices, payment evidence and the required tax certificate.
Choose the business-visitor route correctly
A foreign business seeking recovery of UAE VAT should first establish whether the business-visitor scheme is the appropriate route. It is different from a tourist claim and from input-tax recovery by a UAE-registered taxable person. Review the claimant’s establishments, activities and registration position before preparing invoices. Foreign incorporation on its own is not sufficient: the scheme has eligibility, reciprocity and expense conditions that must be considered together for the relevant claim.
Build an invoice-level claim schedule
List each invoice with supplier details, invoice number, date, expense description, VAT amount and payment evidence. Identify the legal person receiving the supply and explain the business purpose of the cost. Separate credit notes and any amounts already recovered elsewhere. This allows a reviewer to understand the claim without guessing from bank statements. Where an invoice is incomplete or addressed to another entity, resolve the evidence issue rather than placing it into the claim unquestioned.
Check certificates and excluded costs
Use the current FTA business-visitor guidance to identify the supporting tax certificate and other documents required for the claimant. Review expense eligibility separately from the fact that VAT appears on an invoice. An amount charged by a supplier is not automatically recoverable under every refund scheme. Keep the certificate, translation or certification evidence where required, and the eligibility conclusion together so the file supports both the applicant’s status and the individual costs claimed.
Submit and reconcile the outcome
Follow the current filing instructions for the relevant claim period rather than using the original 2018 or 2019 opening dates as a present deadline. Retain the application, attachments and correspondence. When a decision or payment arrives, reconcile it to the invoice schedule and record any rejected or adjusted items with the explanation. Do not assume that a refund request means the whole VAT balance has been approved; maintain a clear distinction between claimed, accepted and received amounts. Keep the final claim schedule in the same version as the submitted attachments to make later queries easier to reconcile.
YOUR NEXT STEPS
A practical way forward
- 01
Step 1
Map the claimant’s establishments and UAE activities.
- 02
Step 2
Compile a claim schedule tied to supporting invoices.
- 03
Step 3
Follow the current FTA business-visitor filing instructions.
CLEAR ANSWERS
Frequently asked questions
Can any foreign company claim?
No. Eligibility, reciprocity and expense restrictions apply.
Is a tourist kiosk the right route?
No. This is a business claim to the FTA.
Earlier article & background First published 20 January 2019 · retained for context
This earlier article is preserved for context. Its rates, deadlines, approvals and announcements may have been superseded. Use the current guidance and official references on this page for your next step.
Foreign business VAT refund : The foreign business must not have a place of establishment or fixed establishment in the UAE
The Federal Tax Authority (FTA) has outlined four conditions that would allow foreign businesses to recover value-added tax (VAT) incurred in the UAE.
To be eligible for the VAT refund, the first condition is that foreign businesses must not have a place of establishment or fixed establishment in the UAE or in any of the VAT-implementing GCC states.
Secondly, such foreign businesses must not be a taxable person in the UAE. Thirdly, they must also be registered as an establishment with a competent authority in the jurisdiction in which they are established; and finally, they must be from a country that implements VAT and that equally provides VAT refunds to UAE businesses in similar circumstances.
The authority clarified that the period of each refund claim shall be a calendar year, noting that for claims in respect of the 2018 calendar year, refund applications can be made as of April 1, 2019. However, for subsequent calendar years, the opening date for accepting refund applications will be March 1 of the following year; this means that for the period from January 1 to December 31, 2019, applications will be accepted as of March 1, 2020.
The FTA went on to stress that the minimum claim amount of each VAT refund application submitted by business visitors is Dh2,000, which may consist of a single purchase or multiple purchases. The Authority urged potential applicants to hold on to the original tax invoices on the purchases for which they would like to reclaim VAT, as they will be required to be submitted along with the refund applications.
The state may still submit a VAT refund application to reclaim VAT incurred in the UAE under this scheme, the FTA assured, outlining only three situations where VAT cannot be reclaimed.
The first situation is if the foreign business in question makes supplies in the UAE, unless the recipient is obliged to account for VAT under the reverse charge mechanism. Secondly, a VAT refund cannot be processed if the input tax in respect of any goods or services is “blocked” from recovery and, therefore, not recoverable by a taxable person in the UAE. The third situation where a refund is not possible is if the foreign business is a non-resident tour operator.
Khalid Ali Al Bustani, director-general, FTA, noted that this procedure reflects positively on many sectors, including tourism, trade, exhibitions, conferences, etc.
He further explained that reciprocity is a key condition for the procedure, whereby the Authority will refund the VAT to businesses resident in countries that refund VAT for UAE businesses visiting their territories.
VERIFY THE DETAIL
Official sources & further reading
Source checks support this general guide. Your treatment depends on the facts, tax period and applicable legislation.
