VAT power of attorney
VAT Power of Attorney in the UAE: What the Text Must Name
A VAT power of attorney lets a person you name deal with a tax authority on your behalf, and UAE agency law decides how far that wording reaches. We draft it, arrange the Arabic and attend the notary public with you.
- Every act named separately
- Arabic drafting and translation
- Drafting, not tax advice
A VAT power of attorney, and where its limits are
A power of attorney for tax work is an ordinary agency document: written in Arabic, ratified before a notary public, and effective only as far as its own wording reaches. What any tax authority will accept from a representative is set by that authority, so put the question to it before a word is drafted, because we draft documents and we do not give tax advice.
Wording needed
A special agency naming each act
Language of the deed
Arabic, with certified legal translation
Tax rules and forms
Set by the authority
An admission has to be authorised in its own right
Article 870 does not treat every act alike. It singles out a short list that general words cannot carry, and acknowledgment is on it. An admission made to a tax authority, agreeing that something is owed or that a record is correct, is that kind of act. So it cannot ride in on a power to handle tax matters generally. It has to be named, in its own line, or the agent does not hold it.
Federal Decree-Law 25/2025, Article 870(1)
Any act that is not an act of management and preservation requires a special agency specifying the type of act and the dispositions it entails, particularly in donations, sale, settlement, mortgage, acknowledgment, arbitration, administering and accepting an oath, and pleading before the court.
Why this is an agency document before it is anything else
There is nothing special in law about appointing someone to deal with a tax authority. It is an agency, and the same articles govern it as govern a sale or a court case. The current text is Federal Decree-Law 25/2025, in force since 1 June 2026, with agency at Articles 866 to 903. The 1985 Civil Code is repealed, so the Article 955 citation still copied across the market points at a law that no longer exists.
That matters because agency law, not tax law, is what we can speak to. Article 871 says an agency written in general terms grants acts of management only. A document that says the agent may look after the principal’s tax affairs is written in general terms. It will carry routine handling and little else, which is why the drafting question on this page is which acts get named.
Naming the acts instead of leaving them to general words
General words are the commonest fault in a document like this. A line giving the agent power over the principal’s tax affairs reads as if it covers everything, and Article 871 says it does not. The fix is dull and it works: list the acts, one at a time, and say what the agent is not being given as well.
- The authority itself, named in full, so there is no argument about which body is meant
- Making an acknowledgment or admission to that authority, written out as a power in its own right
- Signing and submitting documents to the authority in the principal’s name
- Receiving letters, notices and decisions from the authority, and answering them
- Attending before the authority and answering what it puts to the agent
- Anything held back, any ceiling on sums, and the date the authority ends
What we do, and what needs your own tax adviser
We are lawyers and legal consultants. We draft the instrument, provide the Arabic and attend the notary public with you, and the notarial ratification is carried out before the notary. We are not tax advisers and we do not hold ourselves out as any authority’s representative. Whether a given authority will act on the document is that authority’s decision, and you should confirm it there.
- Draft the authority so each act, including any acknowledgment, is named on its own
- Arrange the Arabic and the certified legal translation of anything in another language
- Check the identity papers and attend the notary public with you for ratification
- Whether a representative may act for you at all, and on what terms
- Any form, registration or wording a tax authority requires of a representative
- What to admit, what to dispute, and what any of it will cost you
Four steps, in order
The order matters here more than it does on most documents. The question of what a tax authority accepts has to be settled first, because it decides what the wording has to carry. Once that is known, the drafting and the notary appointment are the ordinary route.
1
You put the question to the authority
Ask the tax authority what it needs from a representative and in what form. We cannot answer that, and nothing in our sources settles it. Bring back what it tells you.
2
We turn the answer into a list
We turn that answer into a list of acts. Each one is written separately, an acknowledgment gets its own line, and anything you are keeping back is written down too.
3
We draft it and arrange the Arabic
The instrument is drawn in Arabic. Where a document is in another language, a legal translator registered with the Ministry of Justice produces the Arabic, and both versions are signed.
4
Attending the notary public
The notary checks identity from an Emirates ID, a passport or another official State document, confirms capacity and consent, and reads the content out before the deed is ratified.
Papers to gather before any drafting starts
None of this is a tax authority’s list, because we do not have one and will not invent one. It is what the notarial side of the job needs: who you are, who the agent is, and how a document made abroad reaches a UAE notary in usable form.
The principal’s own papers
Identity and standing
- Emirates ID, passport, or another official document issued by the State
- The trade licence, if the authority is being granted by a company
- The memorandum, or the resolution that shows who may sign for the company
- Your legal name and address exactly as the authority holds them
The person being appointed
Named, not described
- Full name as it appears in the passport, with no shortened version
- Emirates ID number, or a copy of the Emirates ID or the passport
- Whether the agent is inside the UAE when the deed is ratified
- A second named agent, if you want cover when the first is away
If the document is made abroad
The legalisation chain
- Attestation by the foreign ministry of the country that issued it
- Then attestation by the UAE embassy or consulate in that country
- Then attestation by MOFAIC once the document reaches the UAE
- The original in Arabic or English, or with a legally certified translation, and not laminated
Frequently asked questions
The questions we are asked most often on this one.
Can one document cover everything an agent might need to do about tax?
It can try, and Article 871 is the reason it usually fails. An agency written in general terms grants acts of management only. Anything beyond that, an acknowledgment above all, has to be named as its own power. So the useful document is the long, specific one, not the short, sweeping one.
What does the tax authority actually require from a representative?
We cannot tell you. Nothing we have verified covers what any tax authority requires of a representative, and we will not guess at it. That question belongs to the authority itself, and the answer you get from it should shape the wording before we draft. Ask it first, then come to us.
Why does an admission need naming when the rest of the wording is wide?
Because Article 870 pulls acknowledgment out and treats it separately, alongside sale, mortgage, settlement and arbitration. Those are acts a general agency does not reach. An admission to a tax authority, that a sum is owed or a record is right, is an acknowledgment, so it needs its own words or the agent does not have it.
Our books and correspondence are in English. What has to be in Arabic?
The notarised instrument is in Arabic. Federal law sets Arabic as the language of the deed, and in Dubai a foreign language document is accepted only with an Arabic translation by a certified translator, both versions signed. Supporting papers in another language go through a legal translator registered with the Ministry of Justice.
What will the notary charge for one of these?
Under the federal schedule a general or special power of attorney is AED 100 per party, and a private notary charges that plus thirty per cent, so AED 130 per party. Notarising a translation carried in the instrument is AED 50 a page. That schedule is federal. Dubai Courts sits outside it under Dubai Law 4/2013 and publishes its own.
Does it run out on its own?
No general rule in UAE law fixes a number of years. Article 897 ends an agency when the work is done, when the term written into it expires, or on the death or loss of capacity of either party. So the term is whatever the document says, which is a reason to write one in rather than leave it open.
The agent has left the company. Can the authority be pulled back?
Yes. Article 898 lets the principal revoke or restrict the agent’s authority at any time, unless a third party’s right is bound up in it or it was issued in the agent’s own interest. Article 903 then treats any sub-agency taken from it as revoked by law. Tell the authority holding a copy as well.
We signed one abroad with an apostille. Is that enough?
No. The UAE is not a party to the Apostille Convention, so an apostille does not carry a document in. The chain is attestation by the issuing country’s foreign ministry, then by the UAE embassy or consulate there, then by MOFAIC here. MOFAIC charges AED 150 on individual documents and AED 2,000 on commercial ones.
Start here
Tell us which authority, and what the agent must do
Send us the list of acts you want covered, the name of the person you want to appoint, and whatever the authority has told you it needs from a representative. We will draft the wording around those acts, name the acknowledgment separately if one is wanted, arrange the Arabic and attend the notary public with you. We draft and translate. We provide notary services, and we do not advise on tax.
Tell us what the document has to do
Say who will receive it and what you need it to allow, and you will get a straight answer on the wording, the government fees and what to bring. You can also send it through the contact form.
Call us
Speak to the person who will handle your file and get an answer on the same call.
Send photographs of your passport, your Emirates ID and anything the matter attaches to.
Best for a company matter, or anything that runs to several documents.
Visit the office
Jebel Ali area, Sheikh Zayed Road, Dubai. Come in, or have it handled remotely and only turn up to sign.
Opening hours. Monday to Thursday, 9:00 to 18:00. Friday, 9:00 to 12:00. Saturday, 9:00 to 18:00. Sunday, closed.