UAE VAT return filing · FTA EmaraTax
Your VAT return, filed before the 28th.
Exiloz prepares your VAT201 from reconciled books, files it through EmaraTax, and times the payment so it lands with the FTA before the deadline. Not on it.
What we file
Six forms cover almost every VAT problem a UAE business has.
Most engagements start with a return due next week. They usually end up covering the rest of this list too.
Quarterly & monthly returns
Output tax, recoverable input tax, reverse-charge imports and adjustments, prepared from reconciled ledgers rather than an exported sales total.
VAT 311Refund claims
Where input tax exceeds output tax, the credit can be refunded instead of carried forward. We prepare the claim and answer the FTA's follow-up questions.
Form 211Voluntary disclosure
Errors above AED 10,000 have to be disclosed. Doing it before an audit costs far less than being found, so we quantify the exposure first and file fast.
De-regVAT deregistration
Supplies dropped below AED 187,500, or the company is closing. Applications are due within 20 business days of the trigger; late ones carry a monthly fine.
AuditFTA audit support
Records assembled, sample requests answered, correspondence handled. The goal is to make your file boring to read.
ReviewVAT health check
A look at returns already filed, before the FTA looks. Blocked input tax, missing tax invoices, and zero-rating that will not survive a challenge.
How a period runs
The 28 days, spent deliberately.
Filing on day 28 and paying the same afternoon is how businesses that did nothing wrong still get charged. This is the calendar we work to instead.
Books closed
Sales, purchases, imports and credit notes reconciled to the bank. Gaps chased while there is still time to fix them.
Return drafted
Input tax tested against the blocked-item rules. Reverse charge applied on imports and services where it belongs.
Your sign-off
The draft goes to you with the workings attached, so you approve numbers you can actually trace.
Filed on EmaraTax
Submitted and acknowledged. Confirmation and schedules archived for the record-keeping period.
Payment cleared
Scheduled early enough that the money lands with the FTA. A transfer that leaves on the 28th can still arrive late.
Why filing moves to us
Nothing exotic. The boring things, done every period.
- Filed from reconciled books
- A return built off an unreconciled sales report is a guess. The ledgers close first, so the numbers you sign hold up if anyone asks.
- One person who knows your file
- The same accountant through the year, so the reverse-charge question you asked in March is not re-argued in September.
- Every workpaper kept
- The schedule behind each box on each return, archived for the statutory record-keeping period and produced on request.
Run your own numbers
Two meters run at once. Most people only notice one.
Filing late is a fixed fine. Paying late is a percentage that compounds monthly. And if you are not registered yet, the threshold test moves every month.
What a missed deadline costs
Figures from Cabinet Decision No. 49 of 2021 on administrative penalties.
Two separate meters. The filing penalty is charged once and does not grow. The payment penalty starts at 2% the day after the deadline, then adds 4% on each monthly anniversary until the tax is cleared. Paying the principal stops the larger of the two.
Enter a due date in the past to run the meter.
Indicative only. The 4% charge applies on monthly anniversaries of the due date, and the percentage penalties are capped at 300% of the unpaid tax. Your actual assessment depends on your EmaraTax record and any waiver or instalment arrangement.
Where you sit against the thresholds
Federal Decree-Law No. 8 of 2017, Articles 13 and 17. Mandatory registration is a one-way trigger: cross the line in any rolling 12 months and the obligation exists, even if the next quarter is quieter.
Your rolling 12-month figure is above AED 187,500 but below the mandatory line.
The full checker takes your month-by-month turnover and finds the exact month you crossed, which is the date the FTA backdates liability to.
Asked every week
VAT filing, answered plainly.
Still stuck on something specific? Ask us directly — the answer is usually one message long.
When is my UAE VAT return due?
Twenty-eight days after your tax period ends, which lands on the 28th of the following month. Both the return and the payment are due by then. The FTA assigns your period at registration and staggers the quarters, so yours may end in February or April rather than March. Your exact dates are on your EmaraTax dashboard, and if the 28th falls on a weekend or public holiday the deadline moves to the next business day.
Do I still file if I had no sales?
Yes. A nil return is still a return. Skipping it triggers the same fixed penalty as a return with tax due — AED 1,000 for a first offence, AED 2,000 if it happens again within 24 months. It is the cheapest filing you will ever do, and the most expensive one to forget.
What does filing or paying late actually cost?
They are separate meters. Late filing is a fixed AED 1,000, or AED 2,000 for a repeat within 24 months. Late payment is 2% of the unpaid tax straight after the due date, then 4% per month on whatever is still outstanding, capped at 300% of the tax. Miss a quarter with AED 100,000 of VAT due and six months of inaction turns into roughly AED 27,000 of penalties on top of the tax you still owe. Pay the principal first; every month of delay adds another 4%.
Can you file periods I have already missed?
Yes, and that is a common way engagements start. We quantify the tax due per period and get the principal paid first, because the 4% monthly charge runs on unpaid tax rather than unfiled returns. Then outstanding returns go in oldest first, to stop repeat-offence escalation. If a missed period also contains errors above AED 10,000, a voluntary disclosure filed before an audit sits at a much lower penalty tier than an assessment raised after one.
Is vatfiling.com the same firm as Exiloz?
Yes. vatfiling.com is the VAT filing arm of Exiloz Management & Tax Consultant LLC, a Dubai-based accounting and tax consultancy in Deira. Every enquiry, engagement letter and invoice runs through exiloz.com, where the corporate tax, accounting and business setup work lives too.
Send your last return and your current books.
We will tell you what the next filing looks like, what it will cost, and whether anything already filed needs a voluntary disclosure. No charge for that first look.