Add or strip out UAE VAT.

How this is calculated

Both directions

Adding VAT to a net amount is the easy way round: multiply by 5 %. Taking it out of a gross amount is where people slip, because 5 % of the gross is the wrong answer. The VAT inside a gross figure is 5 ÷ 105 of it, so AED 10,000 including VAT is AED 9,523.81 net and AED 476.19 tax, not 500.

The standard rate is 5 % and has not changed since VAT was introduced in 2018. No increase has been announced.

Rounding

Executive Regulation Article 61 permits rounding to the nearest fils on mathematical rounding, which means two decimal places, rounded up from a half. Rounding down as a habit is not what the rule says.

Where the rounding happens matters. On a full tax invoice the VAT is rounded on each line item. On a simplified invoice it is rounded on the total. Do not mix the two approaches within one document, which is exactly what happens when a spreadsheet rounds per line but the accounting system rounds the sum.

Reverse charge

When you buy services from a supplier abroad, you declare the VAT as though you were the supplier and recover it in the same return: output tax in box 3, input tax back in box 10. For a fully taxable business the two cancel out and no money moves, but leaving it out of the return is still an error. If you make exempt supplies your recovery is only partial, and then the reverse charge really does cost you.

Since 1 January 2026, Federal Decree-Law No. 16 of 2025 has removed the requirement to raise a self-invoice. The documentation obligation itself remains: you still have to keep the supplier's document and be able to show how you arrived at the figure.

Zero-rated and exempt are different things

A zero-rated supply is taxed at 0 % but remains a taxable supply: it counts towards your registration threshold and you keep full input VAT recovery. Exempt income does neither. Only four categories are exempt, so most income that people call “VAT-free” is in fact zero-rated. Whether that distinction pushes you over the registration line is what the VAT registration check answers.

What this tool does not do

• It does not decide the rate for you. Choosing between 5 %, zero-rated, exempt and out of scope is a question about your supply, not about arithmetic.
• It does not handle the profit margin scheme, partial exemption, or the capital assets scheme for items costing AED 5,000,000 or more.
• It does not prepare a return. Boxes 3, 6, 7 and 10 interact in ways a single amount cannot capture.