Tax and accounting for UAE e-commerce businesses.

Common tax challenges

E-commerce generates more tax questions per dirham of revenue than almost any other sector, because the transactions cross borders, the platforms sit between you and the customer, and the volume makes manual handling impossible.

• Place of supply. Whether VAT applies at all depends on where the customer is and what you are selling. Goods shipped within the UAE, goods exported, and digital services to overseas customers are treated differently, and exports only qualify for zero-rating where the evidence requirements are met.
• Marketplace and gateway fees. Commission charged by an overseas marketplace or payment processor is typically an imported service, which brings the reverse charge into play. It is one of the most commonly missed entries in the sector.
• Gross versus net settlement. Platforms pay you net of commission, refunds and advertising. Booking only the net deposit understates both revenue and expenses, distorts your VAT position and produces a taxable income figure that will not survive review.
• Imports and customs. Goods brought in carry duty and import VAT, and the customs documentation has to reconcile to what you claim.
• Returns and credit notes. High return rates mean credit notes have to flow through properly or output VAT is overstated.

What we provide

• Reconciliation of platform settlement reports to your ledgers, gross rather than net
• VAT treatment mapped by product and destination
• Reverse charge handling on marketplace, advertising and software costs
• Import VAT and customs reconciliation
• Inventory tracking across warehouses and fulfilment centres
• Monthly bookkeeping built for volume, and quarterly VAT filing
• Corporate Tax computation and filing

Typical documents

• Platform settlement reports for the full period
• Payment gateway statements
• Supplier and import invoices with customs documentation
• Advertising and software invoices
• Bank statements for every account and currency
• Inventory records

Our process

We start by mapping revenue streams by channel and destination, because that determines VAT treatment. Then we build a monthly reconciliation between platform reports, the gateway, and the bank. Once that runs cleanly, both VAT returns and the Corporate Tax computation become routine.

Questions we are asked

We only sell to customers outside the UAE. Do we still register? Possibly. Exports can be zero-rated, but zero-rated supplies still count towards the AED 375,000 registration threshold, and Corporate Tax registration follows your licence regardless.

Our platform already reports our sales. Is that enough? No. A settlement report is not a set of books and does not carry the VAT treatment or the expense side.

Getting started

Tell us your licence type and what is outstanding, and we will confirm which returns apply and what the deadlines are before any work begins. Send us your details, or check your position with the tax status tool.