How to File a VAT Return in the UAE

Quick answers

When is the UAE VAT return due?

The return and any payment are both due by the 28th day of the month following the end of your tax period. If that falls on a weekend or public holiday, it moves to the next business day.

Can I choose whether to file monthly or quarterly?

No. The Federal Tax Authority assigns your tax period and states it on your VAT registration certificate. Changing it requires FTA approval.

Do I have to file if I had no sales?

Yes. A nil return is still required, and missing it carries the same late filing penalty as any other return.

What is the penalty for filing a VAT return late?

AED 1,000 for a first offence and AED 2,000 for a repeat within 24 months, regardless of whether any VAT was due.

What is the penalty for paying VAT late?

Since 14 April 2026, late payment attracts 14% per annum calculated monthly on the outstanding balance. Older guidance describing an immediate percentage followed by a daily rate reflects the previous regime.

How do I correct a mistake in a return I already filed?

Through a voluntary disclosure. Making one before the FTA notifies you of an audit costs significantly less than making one afterwards.

Your tax period is assigned, not chosen

The Federal Tax Authority assigns your filing frequency. It is stated on your VAT registration certificate, and you cannot change it without FTA approval.

Businesses with annual taxable supplies below AED 150 million usually file quarterly. Above that, monthly. The FTA can also assign monthly filing to businesses in higher-risk activities.

Quarterly does not always mean January to March. Your quarters run from the period stated on your certificate, so check it rather than assuming the calendar.

The deadline

Both the return and the payment are due by the 28th day of the month following the end of your tax period. A quarter ending 31 March is due by 28 April.

If the 28th falls on a weekend or a public holiday, the deadline moves automatically to the next business day. You do not apply for the extension.

One practical point that catches people out: the FTA counts a payment on the day the funds arrive in its account, not the day you sent them. Start a transfer two or three business days early.

Not sure when yours falls? Our VAT return deadline calculator works it out from your period.

What the form asks for

VAT 201 separates what you collected from what you paid.

Output VAT — the VAT on your sales. Standard-rated supplies are reported per emirate, which surprises businesses filing for the first time. Zero-rated and exempt supplies go in their own boxes, as net amounts with no tax against them.

Input VAT — the VAT you paid on business purchases and imports, to the extent you can recover it.

The net position — output minus recoverable input. If output is higher, that is what you pay. If input is higher, the difference is carried forward or refunded under FTA rules.

Then adjustments and any other declarations that apply to your situation.

A nil return is still a return

If you had no taxable supplies at all in the period, you still file. There is no exemption for a quiet quarter.

This is one of the most common ways a small business collects a penalty — not through evasion, but through assuming that nothing to report means nothing to do.

What it costs to be late

The penalty for filing late is AED 1,000 for a first offence, and AED 2,000 if it happens again within 24 months. It applies whether or not any VAT was owed, which is why a missed nil return costs the same as a missed real one.

Late payment is charged separately, and the rules changed. Since 14 April 2026, under Cabinet Decision No. 129 of 2025, late payment attracts 14% per annum, calculated monthly on the outstanding balance.

This matters because a great deal of published guidance still describes the older regime — an immediate percentage, a second charge after a week, then a daily rate up to a cap. If you are reading a penalty figure written before 2026, treat it as out of date and confirm the current number with the FTA.

Filing on time but paying late still triggers the payment penalty. They are two separate obligations sharing one date.

What to have ready before you open the portal

Your sales for the period, split into standard-rated, zero-rated and exempt, with the standard-rated figures broken down by emirate.

Your credit notes, since they reduce the output VAT you declare.

Your expenses with recoverable input VAT, and the supplier invoices behind them — an invoice without a valid supplier TRN does not support a claim.

Any foreign-currency invoices converted to AED at the Central Bank rate on the date of supply.

And a check that nothing in the period is still sitting as a draft.

If you find an error after filing

You correct it through a voluntary disclosure rather than editing the filed return. Disclosing before the FTA notifies you of an audit costs considerably less than disclosing after, so the incentive runs toward telling them early.

Errors in the invoices themselves are a different matter and are corrected with a credit note.

Do you need an accountant for this?

For a business with a handful of clients, one currency and no imports, the return is arithmetic you can do yourself, and thousands of UAE businesses do.

It stops being simple when you have imported services, mixed rates, partial exemption, or supplies across several emirates. At that point the cost of an hour of advice is far below the cost of getting it wrong for four quarters running.

Where Fatura Go fits

Fatura Go prepares the figures; it does not file for you. There is no connection to EmaraTax, and marking a period as filed inside the app is your own record, not a submission.

What it does: a VAT report per period with standard-rated supplies split by emirate and labelled with their box numbers, zero-rated and exempt shown separately, and credit notes deducted. A checklist before you file, flagging drafts still sitting in the period, documents missing an exchange rate, a missing emirate on your business, and clients holding a TRN with no address. And an accountant export with the underlying invoices, credit notes and expenses, if you would rather hand the quarter over than key it in yourself.

FAQ