You can register a UAE company for VAT yourself on the FTA's EmaraTax portal, and an AI agent can do almost all of the work. With Claude Code, my Dubai free zone company's VAT registration took one evening and no agent fee, against the AED 1,500 to 2,500 an agent or free zone usually charges. The skill I used is free and open source.
In October I gave Claude our invoices. It worked out the monthly turnover, drafted the FTA turnover declaration letter, made the company stamp we never had, and filled all 9 steps of the EmaraTax VAT form while I watched. I signed the letter, read the review page and pressed Submit.
This is part 2. A month earlier I did the same for Corporate Tax, and when I posted that skill, one of the first replies was someone saying they needed to sign up for VAT next. VAT is the harder of the two forms. Corporate Tax is one form filled from your licence. VAT wants your numbers.
#The two thresholds
UAE VAT comes from Federal Decree-Law No. 8 of 2017. Two numbers decide whether you register, both counted as taxable supplies over any 12 months, or expected in the next 30 days.
- AED 375,000 is mandatory. Cross it and you have 30 days to apply. Late registration costs a fixed AED 10,000.
- AED 187,500 is voluntary. Cross it, with supplies or with taxable expenses, and you can register so you can reclaim the VAT on your costs.
The part that surprises founders who invoice clients abroad: zero-rated sales still count. Services exported to customers outside the UAE are usually taxed at 0%, but they are still taxable supplies. "My clients are abroad" does not mean "I don't need to register." Exempt supplies, like some financial services or residential property, don't count.
#The mistake that makes the portal say no
Count your turnover by invoice date, not by the cash that landed in the bank.
An invoice issued on 2 October counts in October, even if the client pays in November. If you build your table from bank deposits, the 12-month figure comes out too low, the portal sets your registration criteria to "Not Applicable", and it tells you you're below the threshold.
The skill builds the month-by-month table from your invoices, by invoice date, converted to AED (US dollars at the 3.6725 peg). It also refuses to round a month up to get you over a line. If your honest numbers aren't there yet, it tells you to wait.
#What the skill is
The UAE VAT Registration Skill is a set of instructions an AI agent follows to fill the EmaraTax VAT form (V101) in your browser, plus a small Python tool that drafts your declaration letter. It works with Claude Code, OpenAI Codex, or any agent that can control a browser.
If you already used the Corporate Tax skill, half the form fills itself. Your Taxable Person profile, address, contact and signatory carry over.
| The agent does | You do |
|---|---|
| Builds the monthly table by invoice date | Log in to EmaraTax, and approve UAE PASS on your phone |
| Drafts the turnover declaration letter | Sign the letter and the sample invoices |
| Fills all 9 steps, uploads every PDF | Answer residency and whether to ask for an exception |
| Checks every step saved on the review page | Tick the declaration and press Submit |
| Refuses to inflate a month | Decide anything about your tax position |
#The declaration letter, drafted for you
Step 3 asks for a turnover declaration letter on your company's letterhead: your turnover by month since you started, the date you crossed the threshold, a standard declaration paragraph, and the signature and stamp of the authorised signatory. The FTA links a Word template, and this letter is the slowest part of the form to do by hand.
The skill ships tools/turnover_declaration.py. Give it a JSON file with your company and invoices and it writes a two-page PDF, the letter and an itemised list of every invoice behind the numbers.
pip install reportlab
python tools/turnover_declaration.py my-company.json declaration.pdf
We didn't have a company stamp. Plenty of small free zone companies never order one. Set "seal": true and the tool draws a simple round seal with your company name and licence number. Only ever use it for your own company. The signature line is left blank on purpose. You sign it.
#The 9 steps on EmaraTax
Step 3, eligibility, is the one that needs preparation: the monthly supplies table, the next 30 days, the signed declaration letter and one to three signed sample invoices. Once your numbers pass a threshold, the criteria box flips to Voluntary or Mandatory.
Steps 5 and 7 are where the questions get personal, residency, UAE PASS, whether to apply for an exception. The skill asks you and types your answer. It never decides those for you.
#Three things that would have got it rejected
I posted these right after I submitted, and they are all handled in the skill.
- Counting cash instead of invoices. The portal says you're below the threshold. Count by invoice date.
- A hyphen in the bank account name. "ACME - FZCO" fails the Account Holder's Name field with "alpha numeric characters only". Write "ACME FZCO".
- "Export of services: No" while you bill clients abroad at 0%. It contradicts your own zero-rated invoices in step 3. If you invoice customers outside the UAE, the answer is Yes.
The rest of the gotchas, from real registrations:
- Changing the threshold date makes a "reason for change in obligation date" box mandatory. One factual line that matches your declaration letter, without commas if it complains.
- A digital bank has no branch. Write "Head Office" and the bank's head office city.
- The review page can drop a step. Bank details once showed labels with no values. Click Expand All, and re-enter and save any step that looks empty.
- Locked PDFs on a Mac. Files downloaded from a browser can refuse a signature in Preview. Export as PDF to a new file and sign that.
- Your agent may refuse some fields. Some browser agents won't answer personal declarations or type certain dates on a government form. That's expected. You click those.
#Run it in Claude Code
Get your invoices for the last 12 months (or since incorporation) and your bank's account confirmation letter. Log in to EmaraTax yourself. Then install the skill:
git clone https://github.com/Git-Agni/prod-UAE-VAT-Registration-Skill.git \
~/.claude/skills/uae-vat-registration
Open Claude Code with browser control and say "help me register my company for UAE VAT, I'm logged into EmaraTax." Give it your invoice list. It builds the table, drafts the letter for you to sign, and drives the form. With Codex or another agent, paste SKILL.md into the chat.
The FTA's stated processing time is 20 business days from a complete application. Your VAT TRN and certificate then show up in EmaraTax. The FTA assigns your tax periods, commonly quarterly, and each return is due 28 days after the period ends. From your effective date, your invoices have to show your TRN.
None of this is tax advice. Whether your sales are zero-rated, whether to apply for an exception, anything about your own position, ask a registered UAE tax agent from the FTA's list.
#FAQ
What is the VAT registration threshold in the UAE? AED 375,000 of taxable supplies in any 12 months makes registration mandatory. From AED 187,500 you can register voluntarily.
Do zero-rated export sales count toward the VAT threshold? Yes. Services exported to customers outside the UAE are taxed at 0% but are still taxable supplies, so they count toward both thresholds.
Why does EmaraTax say my supplies are below the threshold? Usually because the turnover was counted by cash received instead of by invoice date. Invoices already issued count in the month they were issued, paid or not.
What is the penalty for late VAT registration in the UAE? AED 10,000 if a mandatory registrant applies late. You have 30 days from crossing AED 375,000.
Do I need a company stamp to register for VAT? The declaration letter and sample invoices need the signatory's signature and stamp. If you don't have one, order a self-inking stamp, or the skill's tool can draw a simple seal of your own company's details.
Can an AI agent submit the VAT registration for me? It can fill every step, but the skill never logs in for you, never signs, and never ticks the declaration or presses Submit. The authorised signatory does that.
#Links
- The skill: github.com/Git-Agni/prod-UAE-VAT-Registration-Skill, MIT
- Part 1, Corporate Tax: the write-up and the skill
- EmaraTax: eservices.tax.gov.ae
- Registered tax agents: tax.gov.ae
- The launch post on X: x.com/consumerxai
