I provide legal or consultancy services — is VAT always due at 5%?

The default position is that legal, accounting, consultancy, and other professional services delivered inside the UAE are subject to the standard 5% VAT rate — regardless of who the client is, unless a specific exception genuinely applies.

The general rule for place of supply is that a service is supplied at the location where the supplier itself is established, not the customer's location — meaning the service falls inside the scope of UAE VAT to begin with. Whether it then qualifies for the zero rate as an "export of services" is a separate question entirely, and it requires every one of a set of conditions to be met together, not just one: the client must have no place of residence in the UAE or a GCC Implementing State, the client must actually be outside the UAE at the time the service is performed, the service must not relate to real estate located in the UAE, and the benefit of the service must not actually be received inside the country — for example, through a local branch or representative present here.

A practical example: a Dubai law firm advising a London-based company whose representative remains outside the UAE throughout the engagement qualifies for the zero rate. But if that same client travels to the UAE, sits in meetings here, and receives the advice while physically present in the country, that condition breaks, and the service reverts to the standard rate even if the contract and invoice are addressed to the foreign entity.

At RASEEKH, we review each professional service a client provides on a case-by-case basis before applying the zero rate, because these conditions have to hold together, not by assumption.