How are marketing and advertising agency services taxed in the UAE?

Marketing and advertising services (strategy, content, campaign management) are taxed at the standard 5% like any other service. The complexity comes in when the agency buys ad space (e.g. Google or Meta ads) on behalf of a client — here you need to determine: is the agency buying that space in its own name and reselling it to the client (the tax base is the full value), or buying it as a disclosed agent in the client's name and only keeping a commission (the tax base is just the commission)? That distinction is set by the contract and whose name appears on the ad platform's invoice — not a verbal understanding.

Many platforms like Google and Meta bill from outside the UAE, which triggers the reverse charge mechanism if the agency is VAT-registered — meaning the agency self-accounts for VAT on the imported service instead of waiting for a foreign supplier to charge it. At RASEEKH, we help marketing agencies pin down the correct invoicing structure (principal vs. agent) from the contract itself, and apply reverse charge correctly on ad spend bought from outside the country.