VAT Registration Is Not VAT Advice.
VAT Planning, Input Recovery & Compliance Advisory
Filing a VAT return is administration. Deciding when to register, whether to register, how to structure transactions across Designated and non-Designated Zones, and how to recover input VAT on assets used for both taxable and exempt purposes — that is advice.
The UAE VAT framework has produced a body of interpretive complexity that many businesses have not resolved. Intercompany transactions between related Free Zone entities. The correct VAT treatment of management fees. Input recovery on real estate held for mixed use. The reverse charge on imported professional services. None of these have obvious answers. They have answers that benefit from deliberate analysis before the Federal Tax Authority forms its own view.
We do the analysis before it becomes a liability.
The Work We Do
- Voluntary registration assessment — when registration generates a net benefit rather than an obligation
- Input VAT recovery optimisation — partial exemption, attribution methodology, capital goods adjustment
- Designated Zone analysis — correct treatment of goods and services moving between DZ and non-DZ
- Intercompany VAT — related-party supply characterisation, management fee treatment, cost allocation
- Zero-rating and exemption analysis — export of services, financial services, qualifying educational and healthcare supplies
- Reverse charge on imported services — identification, compliance, and FTA audit readiness
- VAT grouping — eligibility, election, intra-group supply treatment
- Real estate VAT — residential versus commercial, first supply, developer exemptions
- FTA voluntary disclosure — where historic VAT returns require correction
- VAT audit preparation — documentation review and response strategy
Who This Is For
Free Zone companies with cross-border or intercompany supply chains. Property developers and investors holding mixed-use assets. Businesses importing professional or digital services from abroad. E-commerce operations supplying into and out of the UAE. Any business that registered for VAT at inception and has not reviewed the position since.
The best time to review a VAT position is before the return is filed. The second-best time is before the FTA opens an enquiry. Both are available now. One of them will not be.