With a standard tax period of three calendar months, a registered business files four returns a year, each due with its payment 28 days after the period ends. Advertised prices for preparing a return start at from AED 499. Most small businesses do not buy that separately: it sits inside a bookkeeping fee of AED 500–2,500 a month.
Why the quoted filing fee is misleading on its own
Submitting a VAT return is data entry against a form. Everything expensive happens before it: matching supplier invoices, classifying supplies, reconciling the bank, checking that input tax is recoverable. A firm quoting a low per-return price is quoting for the submission, on the assumption that the books arrive clean. If they do not, the price is rebuilt around the cleanup.
Chart data
| What you are buying | Cost a year |
|---|---|
| Four VAT returns prepared for you | from AED 1,996 |
| Bookkeeping for a year, VAT work included | AED 6,000–30,000 |
Four deadlines, not one
The rhythm matters more than the fee. A business with quarters ending in March, June, September and December files on 28 April, 28 July, 28 October and 28 January. Each of those dates needs a closed quarter behind it, which in practice means the books must be current within three or four weeks all year. That is the real commitment VAT registration creates, and it is why the monthly bookkeeping price, not the filing price, is the number to negotiate.
The FTA assigns your tax period, so do not assume the calendar quarters above are yours. Check the period on your own registration before setting reminders.
What moves the price
- Transaction volume. A café with 900 card settlements a month is a different job from a consultancy with nine invoices, at identical revenue.
- Number of bank accounts. Each one is another reconciliation, every period.
- Mixed rates. Standard-rated, zero-rated and exempt supplies in one business means classification work on every line, and it is where errors that lead to voluntary disclosures start.
- Imports. Reverse charge entries have to be right, and they are a common source of corrections.
Doing it yourself
Filing is done on EmaraTax and nothing stops an owner submitting the return. The judgement call is not the form, it is whether your classifications hold up. If your business is one revenue stream, one bank account and standard-rated sales, self-filing is a defensible choice. With mixed rates, imports, or a history of corrections, paying a firm is cheaper than a disclosure.
Note also that the rules underneath the form keep moving: the VAT Executive Regulation was most recently amended by Cabinet Decision No. 149 of 2026, including provisions on input tax recovery. That is an argument for someone whose job it is to track the changes.
Before you accept a quote
Ask three questions: how many transactions a month is the price based on, whether the VAT return is inside the monthly fee or billed per period, and what happens to the price if a quarter arrives unreconciled. The answers separate a fixed fee from an opening fee.
To see the four returns alongside the rest of your year, use the compliance cost calculator. If you are not registered yet, the threshold guide covers when you have to be.