How to fill VAT 201 form: a practical walk through the return

You ask in plain English, the AI does the bookkeeping work, and you or your accountant approve the result.

• You ask: “Draft the VAT 201 figures for July to September and show me anything that looks odd.”
• The AI agent: HelloBooks totals sales by emirate and VAT treatment, totals recoverable input VAT, and lists exceptions such as bills with no supplier TRN, sales lines with no emirate, and reverse-charge bills missing the self-assessed side.
• You review: Your accountant clears each exception, compares the totals to the trial balance and files on EmaraTax. HelloBooks never submits the return.

Article 64(5) of the Executive Regulation lists the minimum contents of a return. They include your name, address and TRN, the tax period, the value of standard-rated and zero-rated supplies with their output tax, the value of exempt supplies, the expenses on which input tax is recoverable, and the total tax due and recoverable.

On the FTA's filing page the form is grouped the same way. Box 1 holds VAT on sales and other outputs, broken down by emirate, and the output section runs on to cover other outputs. Box 9 starts the section on VAT on expenses and other inputs, and the final boxes produce the net VAT due or refundable.

Standard-rated sales are reported by the emirate where the supply is made, so a Dubai head office with a showroom in Al Ain reports the Al Ain sales under Abu Dhabi. Zero-rated and exempt sales go in their own boxes, valued without VAT. Supplies where you self-account under the reverse charge also sit on the output side.

Worked example for one quarter: standard-rated sales of AED 640,000 in Dubai and AED 110,000 in Abu Dhabi give output VAT of AED 32,000 and AED 5,500. Exports of AED 85,000 are reported as zero-rated with no VAT. A AED 20,000 service bought from a London consultancy adds AED 1,000 of reverse-charge output VAT.

Standard-rated expenses carry the input VAT you can recover, provided the conditions in Article 55 of the Decree-Law are met: a tax invoice is held and the consideration is paid. In the example, AED 300,000 of qualifying expenses carry AED 15,000 of input VAT, and the London service brings AED 1,000 of recoverable reverse-charge VAT on the input side. Net VAT due is AED 38,500 output less AED 16,000 input, which is AED 22,500.

Leave out VAT you cannot recover, such as tax on entertainment for customers, which Article 53 of the Executive Regulation restricts.

Reconcile output VAT to the VAT control account, agree sales by emirate to the invoice register, and confirm every reverse-charge entry has both sides. The amended penalty table sets AED 500 for submitting an incorrect return, which is waived if you correct it before the due date or through a voluntary disclosure with no tax difference.

• Output VAT per emirate agrees to the sales ledger
• Every recoverable input line has a tax invoice attached
• Reverse-charge bills show the same amount on both sides
• Exempt and zero-rated sales are reported at net value