How long must UAE VAT records be kept?

Five years for most businesses. Records relating to real estate must be kept for fifteen years. The Federal Tax Authority can request them at any point in that window.

What must a UAE tax invoice show?

The words 'Tax Invoice', the supplier's name, address and TRN, the date of issue, a description of the goods or services, the amount excluding tax, the VAT rate and amount, and the gross total. Where the recipient is registered, their name, address and TRN are required too.

What is a simplified tax invoice?

A shorter form permitted where the supply is under AED 10,000 or the customer is not VAT-registered. It still needs the words 'Tax Invoice', the supplier's name, address and TRN, the date, a description of the supply, and the total with the VAT amount shown.

A Tax Registration Number: the 15-digit number the Federal Tax Authority issues to a VAT-registered business. It must appear on the tax invoices that business issues, and it is the marker that identifies a receipt as a UAE one.

Guide · UAE VAT

What records UAE VAT actually requires you to keep

1 September 2026 · Dune Apps

VAT arrived in the UAE in 2018 at 5%, and with it a record-keeping regime that is stricter than the paperwork habits most small businesses had before. The rules themselves are not complicated. The retention periods are longer than people expect.

How long

Record type	Retention
General business and VAT records	5 years
Records relating to real estate	15 years

Fifteen years is long enough that the storage question is a real one. Whatever holds those records has to outlast a phone, an app subscription, and possibly the company that made the app.

What a full tax invoice must show

The words "Tax Invoice", clearly displayed
The supplier's name, address and TRN
Where the recipient is registered, their name, address and TRN
A sequential invoice number and the date of issue
A description of the goods or services
The amount excluding VAT, the rate, the VAT amount, and the gross total

When a simplified invoice is enough

A shorter form is permitted where the supply is under AED 10,000, or the customer is not VAT-registered. It still has to carry the words "Tax Invoice", the supplier's name, address and TRN, the date, a description of the supply, and the total with the VAT amount shown. Most retail receipts you collect in Dubai are simplified tax invoices.

The TRN is the thing worth noticing

The Tax Registration Number is a 15-digit number issued by the Federal Tax Authority. It has to appear on every tax invoice a registered business issues — which makes it the most reliable marker that a receipt is a UAE one.

Plenty of UAE receipts print no currency symbol at all. The TRN is what tells you the amount is in dirhams. It is a better signal than the symbol, because it is legally required to be there.

The same logic holds elsewhere: a GSTIN means India, a UK postcode means sterling. Reading the registration number is more dependable than looking for a symbol that may never have been printed.

Electronic records are fine

The FTA accepts electronic records provided they are complete, legible and producible on request. A clear photograph of an entire simplified tax invoice satisfies that — but photograph the whole thing. A crop that cuts off the TRN or the VAT line removes the elements that make it a tax invoice at all.

Where Receipt Snap fits

Receipt Snap reads UAE receipts on the device, recognises the TRN, and uses it to set the currency to dirhams even when no symbol is printed. Merchant, date, total and VAT are captured on the phone by Apple's text recognition — no account, no upload, nothing retained by anyone else.

Given a fifteen-year retention rule for property records, the fact that the archive lives on hardware you own rather than a service that might not exist in 2041 is not a small detail.

Get Receipt Snap on the App Store — free · How it works

General information, not tax advice. Verify current requirements with the Federal Tax Authority or your accountant.

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