How to verify Your UAE visa Validity

The UAE Government offers online and offline facilities to check your resident visa validity and track your visa application with very simple steps. Generally, the validity of visa is two years. Visa is renewed subject to conditions similar to those of fresh visas.

How to verify your resident visa validity online:

Just visit ICP Smart Services

Add your resident visa Unified number or passport number and click.

Then you will get your visa validity

Cash Back Before Day One: Reclaiming Pre-Registration VAT in the UAE

Starting a business in the UAE involves significant upfront costs—office fit-outs, equipment purchases, inventory, and professional services—all of which carry a 5% Value Added Tax (VAT). If you weren't registered for VAT when you paid these bills, that money isn’t necessarily lost.

Under Article 56 of the Federal Decree-Law on VAT, the Federal Tax Authority (FTA) allows newly registered businesses to claw back the Input VAT (the tax charged by your suppliers) paid on goods, services, and imports before their official tax registration date.

However, this isn't an open checkbook. The FTA enforces a strict matching principle alongside four critical exceptions.

🔍 The Golden Rule: The Matching Principle

To reclaim any pre-registration VAT, your expenses must pass a basic test: If you had been registered on the day you bought it, would you have been allowed to claim it?

The law states that these historical goods and services must have been used to make taxable supplies (sales that attract 5% or 0% VAT). If an expense falls under standard "blocked" or excluded categories, you cannot reclaim it.

⚠️ Standard Blocked Tax Reminders: You can never reclaim pre-registration VAT on client entertainment, or on a company motor vehicle if it was ever made available for an employee's personal use.

🚫 The 4 Crucial Exceptions

The UAE VAT framework outlines four strict scenarios where your right to reclaim pre-registration Input VAT is partially or completely denied:

1. Non-Taxable Business Activities

If you bought goods or services to facilitate exempt supplies (such as certain financial services or residential real estate leases), you cannot reclaim the VAT. The expenses must directly link to future taxable business activities.

2. Partially Depreciated Capital Assets (Fixed Assets)

If you purchased a long-term asset (like machinery, computers, or office furniture) before registering, you can only claim VAT on its remaining economic life.

• How the calculation works: If you bought an IT server with an expected life span of 5 years, but you only register for VAT when the asset has 2 years of use left, you are only entitled to reclaim two-fifths (40%) of the original VAT paid. The 60% consumed before registration is lost.

3. The 5-Year Expiry Date on Services

The FTA draws a hard line between physical items and intangible services.

• Goods/Inventory: Can be claimed no matter how long ago they were bought, provided they are still in stock on your registration date.

• Services: Any services received more than 5 years prior to your VAT registration date are completely ineligible for recovery.

4. Cross-Border GCC Asset Movements

If you imported or bought goods in the UAE but physically moved them to another implementing GCC state before registering for VAT in the UAE, your recovery right is blocked here. The tax must be recovered in the destination GCC country, meaning you would need to hold a valid tax registration in that specific state to claim it.

⏳ Critical Timing: The "First Return" Rule

There is a massive operational trap that catches many new UAE business owners off guard: You only get one shot to claim this.

🚨 The Hard Deadline: Pre-registration Input VAT must be declared in the very first VAT return you file after receiving your Tax Registration Number (TRN). If you miss this first window and omit these costs from your inaugural filing, you cannot simply add them to your second or third return later.

💡 Your Next Steps for Compliance

1. Gather Concrete Evidence: You must hold original, valid Tax Invoices matching your legal company name, showing the supplier's TRN and a clear breakdown of the VAT paid.

2. Audit Your Inventory: Take a physical stock count on the exact date your registration becomes effective to prove what goods are still on hand.

3. Check Refund Limits: Keep in mind that once your first return creates a refundable credit balance on your EmaraTax portal, you must proactively apply to get that cash back or let it sit to offset future tax liabilities.

#UAEVAT #TaxRecovery #Article56 #EmaraTax #DubaiBusiness #FTAUAE #CorporateTaxUAE

Number plate upgrade mandatory in Dubai from July 2018

Following the introduction of a new number plate design last year, the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) has now kicked off a campaign urging all motorists to upgrade to the new plates, ahead of mandatory upgrades from July for select codes.

The upgrade is currently available for all types of distinguished and special number plates across all codes, and from May it will also be available optionally for unowned (allotted randomly through vehicle registration) plates.

According to RTA, over the next couple of years, all categories of vehicle number plates will have to be replaced. As the RTA presses ahead with its new plates regime, unowned car plates with codes A, B and C will be among the first to be up for mandatory replacement from July.

The new number plate design that includes either a black and white or colour Dubai logo, depending on the amount you pay, was launched last year after the introduction of double codes necessitated a redesign.

“The RTA has developed a new strategy for number plates resulting in a new generation of number plates with double codes. This has accordingly resulted in the whole design for the number plates to be changed to adopt the single and double codes with the same design language,” said Sultan Al Marzouqi, director of RTA’s Vehicle Licensing.

The double codes are being introduced as the RTA is running out of single codes, as the number of vehicles continues to rise at an alarming rate in Dubai.

Replacement in 2 years

According to RTA, over the next couple of years, all categories of vehicle number plates — whether purchased online, bought in an auction or allotted through the vehicle registration process — will have to be replaced in phases.

In the next phase, beginning January next year, plates with codes D, E, F, G, H and I will have to be replaced, while in January 2020 replacement for codes J, K, L, M, N and O will start and following that in January 2021, it will be the turn of all unowned plates with codes P to Z as well as other types of plates.

Depending on the size of the plates and colour of the logo, the prices of the plates vary.

A regular short number plate with a black and white logo will cost Dh35, while a long number plate in the same category will cost Dh50.

For those who already own number plates with the colour logo of Dubai, the replacement for the long and short plates will cost Dh35 and Dh50, respectively, while those who want to buy a new plate with coloured Dubai logo will have to pay Dh400 irrespective of the plate’s size.

As for the distinguished or special number plates, the replacement will cost Dh500, with the process to be completed mandatorily by the end of this year.

Al Marzouqi said motorists with owned number plates willing to get the plates replaced can either proceed immediately to any of the RTA-affiliated vehicle testing and registration centres or get it replaced at the time of their scheduled renewal, while those with unowned number plates can wait till May to do the same

The Abu Dhabi Judicial Department reduced Will Registration Charges for Non-Muslims

The ‘wills’ registration office in the capital where many non-Muslim residents register their wills, has reduced the registration charges from Dh5,500 to Dh950 from December.

Though the service charge was only Dh500 when the service started in August from November, the office revised the service fee and started charging Dh5,500 for a ‘will’ registration. The Abu Dhabi Judicial Department [ADJD] reduced it to support the registry of wills.

In case of sudden death of the testator, the assets will be distributed by the court as per the will. The wills registration office for non-Muslims builds up the confidence among residents of legal protection of their assets in the UAE and it ensures them the liberty of selecting the appropriate method to write and register their will concerning the disposal of their estate after their death.

A spokesperson of the Abu Dhabi Judicial Department said: “Now the service fee is only Dh950 for registering a will.”

The spokesperson said: “Any person can bequeath his/her estate to males and females equally and in case of his/her death, the assets will be distributed by the court as stated in the testator’s will.”

Whereas the changing or revoking of will is concerned, the testator can revoke the will at any time, or otherwise replace it by a new one, the spokesperson said.

The office helps to legalise a will of a non-Muslim for the disposition of a deceased’s estates, nominating a guardian for his/her minor children, he said. From August last year, a special “Non-Muslims Wills Office” started operations at the Abu Dhabi Judicial Department to register inheritance wills for non-Muslim expatriates in the capital.

As people from many nationalities live in the UAE, they can now legally register their will here. It guarantees that their families and children can legally claim the assets in the UAE in case of testator’s death.” As per the will, beneficiaries can claim assets of the testator anywhere in the UAE, whether they register in Abu Dhabi or Dubai. It will be valid for all the UAE.

“More than 50 of my clients have registered their wills at the Abu Dhabi office but I can say that approximately, so far, more than 100 expatriates would have registered their wills at the Non-Muslims Wills Office in Abu Dhabi,” he said.

About the different services fees, he said, the Dubai Courts charges Dh2,165 for registering a will and Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) Courts takes Dh10,000.”

The office in Abu Dhabi was established after a decision issued in May by Shaikh Mansour Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Presidential Affairs, who is also the chairman of the Abu Dhabi Judicial Department, to create a registry of wills office and probate for non-Muslims.

The application is submitted online at [ADJD] website. The competent employee verifies if the application meets the requirements. A notification by SMS is sent to the applicant with the approval of the application or request for modification. The application fee is paid online through ADJD website.

The applicant can contact the Non-Muslim Wills Registration Office to schedule an appointment for the application processing. Then the applicant has to visit on the fixed date the Non-Muslim Wills Registration Office to submit the original documents. After completing these procedures, finally, the will is legalised and will be delivered by the Notary Public of the department.

REQUIRED DOCUMENTS

• Emirates ID.

• Passport (original and a copy).

• The document “Will” to be legalised, with a sufficient number of copies for all parties concerned and a copy of records.

• Documentation that provides clear proof of the bequeathed property ownership.

• An official translation attested by the Ministry of Justice is required where the document is drafted in a language other than the Arabic language.

• Venue: Abu Dhabi Judicial Department (Main Building)

• Timing: 8am to 2pm [Sunday to Thursday]

• Service Fee: Dh950