Invoicing without VAT in the UAE

Not every business in the UAE charges VAT, and that isn't a mistake — for a lot of businesses it's the correct position. Whether you should be charging it comes down to one question: are you registered with the Federal Tax Authority (FTA)?

Are you registered?

VAT registration becomes mandatory once your taxable supplies exceed AED 375,000 over the previous 12 months, or you expect them to exceed that figure in the next 30 days. Below that, registration is optional: you can register voluntarily once your taxable supplies or expenses reach AED 187,500, but nothing requires you to. If neither threshold applies to you, you are not registered — and that changes what you're allowed to put on an invoice.

What to put on your invoice if you're not registered

A business that isn't registered for VAT must not charge VAT, and must not issue a document headed “Tax Invoice” — that heading, and the tax breakdown beneath it, are for registered businesses only. What you issue instead is an ordinary invoice: your name or business name and details, the client's, a description of the goods or services, the date, an invoice number, and the amount due. No VAT line, no tax rate, and no Tax Registration Number (TRN) field, because you don't have one to show. That's not a lesser version of a tax invoice — it's the correct document for your situation, and charging VAT you're not registered to collect causes bigger problems than leaving it off.

When you cross the threshold

Once your taxable supplies pass AED 375,000 — or you can see that they will within the next 30 days — registration stops being optional. Missing that point has consequences for late registration, but they depend on your specific timeline, so this page won't guess at them: the FTA sets those out, and if you're close to the threshold, its own registration guidance is the place to check where you actually stand. From the day you're registered, everything above changes: you charge VAT on standard-rated supplies, issue invoices headed “Tax Invoice” with your TRN, and file returns.

Once you're registered, “no VAT” can mean three different things

Registration doesn't mean every invoice you issue carries VAT at 5%. Even a registered business issues supplies that carry no VAT charge, and the reason matters, because the three are treated differently:

• Zero-rated supplies are still taxable, just at 0% — they're still reported on your VAT return.
• Exempt supplies carry no VAT, and the input tax you paid to make them generally can't be recovered.
• Out-of-scope supplies sit outside the UAE VAT system entirely — they aren't part of the calculation at all.

Which category a given supply falls into depends on what you're actually supplying, and that's a question for the FTA's guidance or your own accountant — this page can tell you the three exist and differ, not which one applies to you.

Not registered? Fatoura has a toggle for that

Fatoura's invoice builder has a Charge VAT toggle. Switch it off and you get exactly the plain invoice described above — no VAT line, no tax breakdown, and no TRN fields — rather than a tax invoice with the numbers zeroed out.

This page is general information, not tax advice — your own registration status and obligations depend on your circumstances, and the Federal Tax Authority is the authority on both. If you freelance and want the practical side of invoicing — getting paid, numbering, bilingual invoices for corporate clients — see invoicing as a freelancer in the UAE.