Business visitors refund scheme

Conditions to benefit from the scheme

• Foreign businesses can be eligible to apply for the Business Visitors Refund provided that the following conditions are met:

1. The foreign business has no place of establishment or fixed establishment in the UAE;
2. The foreign business is not a taxable person in the UAE and is not carrying on business in the UAE (unless the recipient is responsible to account for VAT under the reverse charge mechanism);
3. The foreign business is carrying on a business and is registered as an establishment in the country in which it is established;
4. The foreign business is from a country that has a reciprocal arrangement with UAE (does not apply to GCC states);
5. The input VAT incurred by the foreign business is not blocked from recovery as specified in the UAE VAT Legislations; and
6. The foreign business is not a tour operator.

• The following is an approved list of countries with reciprocal arrangements with UAE according to the UAE Ministry of Finance:
  • Austria / Bahrain / Belgium / Denmark / Finland / France / Germany / Iceland / Isle of Man / Korea / Kuwait / Lebanon (in certain circumstances) / Luxembourg / Namibia (in certain circumstances) / Netherlands / New Zealand / Norway / Oman / Qatar / Saudi Arabia / South Africa (in certain circumstances) / Sweden / Switzerland / UK / Zimbabwe.

• The period of each refund claim is 12 calendar months (does not apply to GCC states).

• The minimum amount of input VAT for which a refund claim can be submitted under this scheme is AED 2,000.

• The deadline to submit the refund application is between 1 March to 31 August of the year following the calendar year in which the related input VAT was incurred (i.e., for the calendar year 1 January to 31 December 2022, the deadline to submit the refund application is 31 August 2023).

• The following are the required documents and information to submit the refund application:

1. Original tax compliance certificate or equivalent certificate, in Arabic or English issued by a tax authority and attested by the UAE Embassy in the country of tax registration.
2. Declaration in Arabic or English indicating the percentage of input tax the foreign business is eligible to recover on expenses, if the business undertakes exempt or non-business activities in the country of establishment, which do not give the right to fully recover any input VAT.
3. The relevant compliant tax invoices with a proof of payment (original hard or soft copies).
4. Bank details.
5. Details of the authorized signatory.

• In addition to the above, certain documents are required to be enclosed in an envelope and couriered to the Federal Tax Authority (FTA) and should be received by the FTA within one month from submitting the refund application (otherwise the refund application will be rejected).

• The refund application will be processed within 4 months of submission (once all the relevant documents are received by FTA).
• Once the refund request is approved, the refund will be processed within 10 business days.

• The refund will be processed in United Arab Emirates dirhams (AED).