Yes — Fully Claimable
Can I Claim Software Subscriptions as a Business Expense in United Arab Emirates?
Yes — SaaS subscriptions used in the business are fully deductible against Corporate Tax. VAT recoverable on UAE-supplied software at 5%; reverse charge applies to non-UAE supplied digital services.
Typical claim: AED 10,000 – AED 50,000 per year
What Federal Tax Authority (FTA) says
Software subscriptions are ordinary trading expenses. Reverse charge VAT applies to digital services from non-UAE suppliers — record both output and input VAT (net zero) on the VAT return.
When you can claim
- Monthly/annual SaaS (Slack, Notion, AccountsOS, Adobe, Xero)
- Cloud hosting (AWS, Azure, GCP)
- Domain names and website hosting
- Stock photography, design assets
When you cannot claim
- Personal subscriptions (Netflix, personal use Spotify)
- Mixed-use subscriptions without apportionment
- Software bought outright above capitalisation threshold
Related expenses
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