Invoicing UAE Clients as a Non-Resident Freelancer

Quick answers

Do I need a UAE trade licence to invoice a UAE company?

Not to issue an invoice. A licence is about carrying on business in the UAE, which is a separate question from billing a UAE client from abroad.

Do I charge 5% VAT to a UAE client if I live outside the UAE?

No. You are not UAE VAT registered, so you have nothing to charge. Where your client is registered, they account for the VAT themselves under the reverse charge.

Do I have to register for UAE VAT as a non-resident?

Only when no UAE resident person is responsible for accounting for the VAT on your supply. Where your client is registered and applies the reverse charge, that exception covers you.

Does the AED 375,000 threshold apply to me?

No. That threshold is for UAE residents. A non-resident with an obligation to register can have it from the first supply.

What should my invoice say?

An ordinary commercial invoice under your own country's rules — sequential number, date, both parties, a description, the amount and currency. No TRN and no VAT line. A note that the recipient accounts for VAT is helpful where the reverse charge applies.

How do I know whether my client is VAT registered?

Ask for their TRN and verify it. It is 15 digits beginning with 100, and the Federal Tax Authority runs a free lookup that returns the registered legal name.

The usual case — your client is VAT registered

Most UAE companies hiring a foreign freelancer are registered. In that case the tax does not disappear; it moves.

Your service is treated as supplied in the UAE, but the responsibility for declaring the VAT sits with your client, not with you. They self-account for it on their own return. You invoice your normal amount, with no UAE VAT line and no TRN, because you have neither.

Nothing about this requires you to register in the UAE, and nothing about it requires you to change how you invoice — beyond making sure the invoice is clear enough for their records.

The case that surprises people — your client is not registered

Non-residents making taxable supplies in the UAE are required to register, unless there is a UAE resident person responsible for accounting for the VAT instead. The reverse charge is exactly that exception.

So when the exception does not apply — when your client is a private individual, or a business below the registration threshold — the fallback is that you register.

And here is the part that catches people: the AED 375,000 threshold protects UAE residents. It does not protect non-residents. The obligation can arise from the first supply, regardless of how small it is.

In practice this matters most to people selling to UAE consumers rather than to UAE businesses — digital products, courses, subscriptions.

Confirm the client's status rather than assuming it

Since the whole answer turns on whether your client is registered, it is worth having that in writing rather than in a feeling.

Ask for their TRN and keep it with the engagement. A TRN is 15 digits beginning with 100, and you can check the format before you look it up on the FTA portal.

If a client tells you they are registered but never produces a number, treat that as unresolved rather than settled.

What to put on the invoice

You are not issuing a UAE tax invoice, because you are not UAE registered. You are issuing an ordinary commercial invoice under your own country's rules.

Keep it clear: a sequential number, the issue date, your name and address, the client's legal name and address, a description of the work, the amount and the currency. If your client is accounting for the reverse charge, a plain line noting that the recipient accounts for VAT helps their bookkeeping and costs you nothing.

Do not put a TRN on it. Do not add 5%.

Your own country still has rules

None of the above says anything about your obligations where you live. A freelancer in India, Pakistan, the UK or the EU invoicing a UAE client still reports that income at home, and may have local VAT or GST obligations depending on where the customer belongs under their own rules.

The UAE position and your domestic position are two separate questions, and being told the answer to one is not being told the answer to the other.

The opposite direction

If you are the UAE-based one, invoicing clients abroad, the question flips entirely — that is an export of services, and it is zero-rated only when specific conditions are met.

FAQ