asiarefCountriesUnited Arab Emirates › VAT standard rate

United Arab Emirates VAT rate

Standard rate of Value Added Tax under Federal Decree-Law No. (8) of 2017 on Value Added Tax, administered by the Federal Tax Authority (FTA). A federal, GCC-framework VAT introduced across the UAE on 1 January 2018.

Current value5 percent
In force from2018-01-01
Official sourceFederal Decree-Law No. (8) of 2017 on Value Added Tax, Article (3) Tax Rate — 'a standard rate of 5% shall be imposed on any supply or Import pursuant to Article (2) of this Decree-Law' (Federal Tax Authority, unofficial English translation)
Last verified2026-07-24
Verificationprimary — No verification limitation recorded — read from the official source cited.
Provenancesource fingerprint

What this value means

Confirmed from the statute itself: Article (3) of Federal Decree-Law No. (8) of 2017 sets the standard VAT rate at 5%. VAT took effect on 1 January 2018 — the UAE's (and, with Saudi Arabia, the GCC's) first broad consumption tax, implemented under the GCC Unified VAT Agreement. The 5% headline rate has never changed. Alongside the standard rate the law provides for ZERO-RATED supplies (Article 45 — e.g. exports outside the GCC implementing states, international transport, investment-grade precious metals, the first supply of residential buildings within 3 years, certain healthcare and education) and EXEMPT supplies (Article 46 — e.g. certain financial services, bare land, local passenger transport, residential leases). Registration is mandatory above AED 375,000 taxable turnover and voluntary above AED 187,500. The FTA (tax.gov.ae) is the administering authority; the decree-law text is published on the FTA site and on the UAE Legislation portal (uaelegislation.gov.ae/en/legislations/1227). No change is pending as of confirmation.

Get it programmatically

curl https://asiaref.dev/v1/ae/vat
# $0.001 per call — x402 on Base (USDC). No key, no signup.
# History:    curl https://asiaref.dev/v1/ae/vat/history?from=2020-01-01
# Provenance: curl https://asiaref.dev/provenance/ae/vat

Other United Arab Emirates series: policy interest rate · minimum wage · public holidays · inflation rate (CPI) · corporate tax rate · income tax rates