VAT Advisory

Overview

Oil was discovered in the UAE in 1958 and it has rapidly developed as one of the major Oil producing countries in the world. Within UAE, the Emirates of Abu Dhabi has the major oil reserve followed by Dubai and Sharjah. The UAE brought in law in 1965 to tax the income of oil and gas and petrochemical companies. The minimum tax rates were fixed at 55%. Subsequently, income tax was also levied on the branches of foreign banks in the UAE. The rates of tax is generally 20%.

Historically Oil has been the major contributor to the Government’s revenue source. Introduction of Excise Tax wef 1 October 2017 and Value Added Tax (VAT) wef 1 January 2018. Both Excise Tax and VAT in the UAE are based on the Common GCC Tax Framework for Excise and VAT.

Although UAE has no corporate tax or personal income tax, it has, to encourage trade and investments and to eliminate double taxation, it has entered into Double Tax Avoidance Agreements (DTAA) with many trade partners (115 as at 15 July 2021). This DTAAs are beneficial to both, UAE residences and companies incorporated in UAE.

With an objective to provide our clients with the best possible advice on their tax matters/issues, we provide the following services

• UAE VAT Advisory
• UAE VAT Audit
• UAE VAT Deregistration
• Economic Substance Regulation
• Country by Country Reporting
• Tax Residency Certificates