I'm registered for VAT as a freelancer — what exactly is expected of me every period?

Once registered, the FTA assigns you a tax period — usually quarterly for most freelance permit holders, though it can be monthly if turnover is large — and returns are due within 28 days of each period's end. That includes periods with no activity and no invoices at all: a nil return is still required on time, not skipped because there was no income.

The mistakes that show up most often among freelancers specifically: not issuing a full tax invoice with the TRN even for a single steady client, forgetting the reverse charge on services imported from outside the UAE (foreign software subscriptions, ad spend on platforms billed from abroad), mixing personal and business expenses when trying to recover input VAT, and not re-checking the AED 375,000 threshold each time a new client or income stream is added.

One point many freelancers overlook: taxable supplies aren't limited to cash payments. If you're paid in a product or service instead of money (a barter arrangement), that's still a taxable supply valued at market price — and income across every client and platform is aggregated together for threshold purposes, not calculated client by client.

RASEEKH tracks your filing deadlines and income types from the first period onward, so compliance stays an ongoing habit rather than a box ticked once at registration.