I run an e-learning platform — does VAT apply the same way to a customer outside the UAE as to one inside it?
We sell online courses to customers both inside and outside the UAE — how do I actually tell them apart for VAT?
E-learning platforms sell courses to customers inside and outside the UAE at the same time, and that raises two separate questions that each need their own answer: is the course itself an exempt or zero-rated 'educational service', or is it an ordinary commercial service? And where is the service actually supplied?
On the nature of the service: the special tax treatment (zero-rate or exemption) is limited to qualifying educational services delivered by a formally recognised educational institution teaching an approved curriculum — schools and licensed universities, essentially. A commercial platform selling general online courses (marketing, coding, skills training) without being a recognised institution with an accredited curriculum has its courses treated like any other commercial service, standard-rated at 5%, even if the content is 'educational' in the everyday sense.
On place of supply, electronically delivered services get special treatment: the key test isn't simply where the customer is registered, but where the service is actually used and enjoyed. If the learner genuinely resides outside the UAE and uses the course from outside the country, that opens the door to treating the supply as an export outside the scope of UAE VAT, provided the conditions for export of services are met — that the customer has no residence or presence in the UAE, and that the benefit is genuinely received outside the country.
The practical difficulty is that the platform needs to hold real evidence of the customer's location — billing address, the payment method's country, and sometimes IP address — to be able to demonstrate to the authority that a given sale genuinely went to a customer outside the country, rather than simply assuming it. A common mistake is platforms assuming that any customer taking a course online is automatically 'out of scope' just because delivery is digital — that isn't correct; if the customer is actually a UAE resident, the sale is standard-rated at 5% like any domestic sale.
The practical takeaway: assume every sale to a customer inside the UAE is standard-rated at 5% unless your platform is genuinely a recognised educational institution running an accredited curriculum, and keep documented evidence separating your customers abroad so you can confidently apply export treatment to them. RASEEKH helps e-learning platforms build a billing and documentation system that draws this line correctly, without exposing the business to risk at a later tax review.