UAE reporting tax free purchases?

[jkk]

Hello,

I’m from EU and was shopping in the Dubai mall. The shops offered to get the 5% VAT back in the airport.

Are these purchases reported to the home country? Are there any catches, for example my home country potentially asking for the local VAT?

 

[CaptK]

It all depends on what your countries customs laws are for items brought in and the limit imposed on the amount of a particular item per person.

For instance you could get away with 2 laptops but not 10

 

[Fred]

Hello,

I’m from EU and was shopping in the Dubai mall. The shops offered to get the 5% VAT back in the airport.

Are these purchases reported to the home country? Are there any catches, for example my home country potentially asking for the local VAT?

Yes they can go after you at the airport in your home country to collect the VAT of your home country.

There is no reporting of the purchases from the UAE side. It's case by case if the customs is looking after you or not in your home country airport.

 

[jkk]

Thanks. I just checked and the limit of value is around 400 EUR in my country above which the customs duty and VAT has to be paid. Given that, for example, Hermes items are 20% more expensive than in the EU it does not make sense to be shopping here especially with the risk of having to pay VAT and customs duty on top of that.

Unless you find a good price (surprisingly hard even with the 5% VAT) and ship the receipts seperatey.

 

[Fred]

Thanks. I just checked and the limit of value is around 400 EUR in my country above which the customs duty and VAT has to be paid. Given that, for example, Hermes items are 20% more expensive than in the EU it does not make sense to be shopping here especially with the risk of having to pay VAT and customs duty on top of that.

Unless you find a good price (surprisingly hard even with the 5% VAT) and ship the receipts seperatey.

That's right. It's just marketing. I assume you are coming from a tax hell country like Germany that has a 400 EUR limit as well. It's not worth it to risk.

 

[Davis123]

Yes they can go after you at the airport in your home country to collect the VAT of your home country.

There is no reporting of the purchases from the UAE side. It's case by case if the customs is looking after you or not in your home country airport.

I doubt it would be ridiculous to report such purchases to other countries. It's more of a vat refund or maybe some statstics report as to what the customers shopping at airports are purchasing? Unless I see a promo for chocolate/wine deals I don't buy anything at airport. Things are much cheaper outside the airport.

 

[Fred]

I doubt it would be ridiculous to report such purchases to other countries. It's more of a vat refund or maybe some statstics report as to what the customers shopping at airports are purchasing? Unless I see a promo for chocolate/wine deals I don't buy anything at airport. Things are much cheaper outside the airport.

That's right in general but for DXB I always had looked at the Rolex store because of the high frequency (before COVID-19) they had sometimes good hunts for frequently flyers. Hunted already 2 steal models at Rolex DXB. For Rolex it makes sense buying it without any VAT and for the list price beside of the fact that it's close to impossible to get this models by walk-in outside of Airports.