How it works
Not a search box that hands you ten documents, and not a chatbot answering from memory. TI reads the way a good adviser reads.
Ask in your own words
“Can we reclaim VAT on staff housing?” The law says “input tax”, “employees” and “personal benefit” — TI matches the meaning, not only the words, in English and Arabic.
It finds the governing article
It searches the legislation first, and follows the FTA's own citations: when a guide points to Article 53 of the Executive Regulation, TI opens that article and brings it to the answer.
The answer is checked, then shown
Every citation must resolve to a provision TI holds. If one does not, the answer is withheld rather than shown with a warning.
What comes back
A question a Dubai finance team asked on 12 September, and TI's answer — unedited.
Because you charge the engineers AED 500 a month, the block in Article 53(1)(c) for goods given to employees for no charge does not apply. This is a supply of accommodation for consideration, so recovery turns on whether that supply is taxable, and on the usual conditions in Article 55.1 2 3
The rule
- Input tax on goods or services given to employees free of charge for their personal benefit is blocked, subject to four listed exceptions.1
- Input tax is recoverable to the extent the goods and services are used to make taxable supplies.2
Confirm in your facts
- Whether the AED 500 recharge is treated as a taxable or an exempt supply.
- That you hold tax invoices for the rent and the DEWA charges.
1. Input Tax shall be non-recoverable if it is incurred by a Person in the following cases: c. Where Goods or Services were purchased to be used by employees for no charge to them and for their personal benefit, except in the following cases: 1) Where it is a legal obligation to provide those Services or Goods to those employees under any applicable labour law in the State or Designated Zone.