Part 2 · The VAT desk · Chapter 5

Your first VAT201: VAT201 return filing, box by box

Sales, expenses, and the net VAT due calculation

The quarter has closed. Meera emails a spreadsheet of her invoices, and Rashid sends a box file of purchase invoices and customs papers. "The return is due 28 days after the period ends," Fatima says. "Do Meera's first, it's the simplest. Then Al Dahi. Watch the imports."

You open the VAT201. Fourteen boxes. Every number in them has to trace back to a line in the client's records.

Your mission

• Fill Meera's VAT201: Dubai sales, a zero-rated export and her business costs.
• Fill Al Dahi's VAT201, including import VAT in Box 6 and its recovery in Box 9.
• Check Box 12, 13 and 14 yourself before Smart Auto-fill confirms them.

Rules settled in this chapter

• Meera's laptop: Input VAT on business costs is recovered in Box 9 when you hold valid tax invoices. Box 14 = output VAT (Box 12) minus recoverable VAT (Box 13).
• The import trap: Import VAT is declared in Box 6 and, when the goods are for taxable business use, recovered in Box 9. Forgetting the recovery overpays the tax.
• "Who filled in Box 6?": Some figures arrive from government systems: Box 6 from UAE Customs, Box 2 from the tourist refund operator. Check them, don't just accept them. Goods taken for personal use are a deemed supply.
• One clinic, two VAT rates: Zero-rated healthcare covers preventive and basic treatment, not elective cosmetics. Both are taxable supplies, so input VAT stays recoverable.

VAT on sales — boxes 1 to 8

• Standard-rated supplies, broken down by emirate

VAT on expenses, and the net position

• Boxes 9-11: your input tax
• Boxes 12-14: what you actually owe

Filing offline: the Excel template

• The only way to set Boxes 1a-1g, 2 and 6

The full notes, client files and practice for this chapter unlock with the Course + Practice Pack.

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