How to Fill the FTA VAT Refund Excel Template — Sheet-by-Sheet Guide (2026)

The FTA VAT refund Excel template (the “VAT Refund Excel Summary”) is the mandatory invoice-level attachment for every Form VAT 311 refund application filed on EmaraTax. It has 11 sheets, dozens of columns and strict formatting rules, and the Federal Tax Authority uses it to cross-check your refund claim against the VAT 201 return it relates to. Get a total wrong, use the wrong date format, or leave an applicable sheet empty and the application is rejected. This guide walks through every sheet, explains how to answer the Required Information questions, and lists the documents that go with it. If you would rather hand the whole thing over, Fastlane’s UAE VAT refund service prepares the template, compiles the evidence and submits VAT 311 for AED 499.

What is the FTA VAT refund Excel template and where do I download it?

The FTA VAT refund Excel template is a workbook the Federal Tax Authority requires with every VAT 311 refund application. It lists, invoice by invoice, the transactions behind each box of the VAT 201 return for the refund period, so the FTA can verify that the excess input VAT you are claiming is real. Download it only from the VAT Refunds section of tax.gov.ae, and use the current version.

Do not use a third-party copy or a version saved from an earlier refund. The FTA periodically updates the workbook (column headers, the Required Information questions, validation rules), and an outdated layout is one of the quieter reasons an otherwise correct claim comes back with a query. Save a fresh copy for each refund period and name it clearly, e.g. CompanyName_VAT311_Q2-2026.xlsx.

The template is uploaded together with Form VAT 311 on EmaraTax, alongside the supporting documents described in section 8. Everything in it must tie back to a VAT 201 return that has already been filed on EmaraTax and that shows a net refundable balance. You cannot use the workbook to claim amounts that were never reported on a return.

Which of the 11 sheets in the VAT refund Excel template do I need to fill?

You must fill every sheet that corresponds to a non-zero box on your VAT 201 return for the refund period, plus the Required Information sheet, which is mandatory on every application. If a box on the return is AED 0, the matching sheet can be left blank. For most refund claims the three critical sheets are Required Information, Zero Rated Sales (Box 4) and Std Rated Purchases (Box 9).

Two practical rules apply across all sheets. First, every sheet uses the same core columns (serial number, your TRN, company name, invoice number, invoice date, reporting period, amounts, counterparty name and TRN, description), so build your invoice export from your accounting software once and split it by box. Second, each sheet’s VAT total must equal the VAT 201 box it maps to. If your Box 9 sheet totals AED 41,205 but the return shows AED 41,250, the FTA treats it as an unmatched summary. Reconcile before you upload, not after the query arrives.

How do I fill the Required Information sheet of the FTA VAT refund Excel template?

The Required Information sheet is the first thing the FTA reviewer reads. It has two parts: your registrant details at the top, and a set of questions about your business and its refund position. Enter your legal name and TRN exactly as they appear on your VAT registration certificate, state the exact tax period, and answer every question specifically; generic answers invite queries.

Q1 – Summary of your products/services and nature of business. Write two or three sentences that explain what you do and why it produces a refund. Example: “We distribute IT hardware and software licences to customers in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Egypt. Around 90% of revenue is zero-rated export supplies, while rent, IT services and professional fees are charged 5% VAT, so input VAT structurally exceeds output VAT.” A reviewer who understands your model in one paragraph asks fewer questions.

Q2 – Does the nature of your business always require a negative (refund) balance? Answer Yes or No, then one sentence of reasoning. Exporters, international service providers and businesses in a capital-expenditure phase typically answer Yes. A business that is normally in a payable position but had a one-off refund quarter (a large asset purchase, a fit-out, a big bad-debt adjustment) should answer No and explain the one-off. Recurring refund positions are normal for exporters; what the FTA wants is consistency between this answer and your filing history.

Q3 – Total VAT paid on employees’ medical insurance (AED). Enter the VAT charged on health insurance premiums for your employees during the period. Where employer-provided cover is a legal requirement (Dubai and Abu Dhabi both mandate employee health cover), the input VAT is generally recoverable as a business expense. If the annual premium invoice was AED 60,000 plus VAT, the VAT is AED 3,000; enter 3000.

Q4 – Total VAT paid on dependents’ medical insurance (AED). Enter the VAT on premiums for spouses and children. Recovery here depends on whether providing the cover is a legal or documented contractual obligation, or a discretionary benefit. Abu Dhabi’s health insurance rules require cover for certain dependents, which supports recovery; in Dubai, dependents’ cover is usually a voluntary benefit and the input VAT is blocked unless there is a documented policy or contractual obligation. Enter the figure honestly and let the FTA assess; do not roll it into Q3.

Q5 – Which emirate issued the visas of non-local employees? Enter the emirate(s), e.g. “Dubai” or “Abu Dhabi”. This is how the reviewer checks Q3 and Q4 against the insurance rules that actually apply to your workforce. If you have staff on visas from more than one emirate, list all of them and, ideally, split the Q3/Q4 figures accordingly in a note.

How do I fill the Std Rated Sales sheet (Box 1)?

The Std Rated Sales sheet lists every invoice on which you charged 5% VAT during the refund period. The sum of its VAT Amount column must equal Box 1 output VAT on the VAT 201. Most errors on this sheet come from entering the customer’s TRN in the taxpayer column, entering VAT-inclusive totals as the taxable amount, or forgetting credit notes.

On the date column: Excel silently reformats dates according to your system locale. Select the column, set a custom format of dd/mm/yyyy, and check a date such as 03/07/2026 reads as 3 July, not 7 March. On credit notes: enter them as negative adjustments against the original invoice so that the net matches the return. If you issued a credit note in the period against an invoice from an earlier period, it still belongs on this sheet because it reduced Box 1 in this period.

How do I fill the Zero Rated Sales sheet (Box 4) for exports?

The Zero Rated Sales sheet lists every zero-rated supply in the period: exports of goods, qualifying international services, and other zero-rated categories under the VAT Decree-Law. There is no VAT column because the rate is 0%, but the taxable value must equal Box 4 on the VAT 201. For most refund applicants this is the largest sheet and the reason the return is in a refund position.

Zero-rating an export of goods is conditional: the goods must physically leave the UAE within the statutory period (generally 90 days from the date of supply) and you must hold official evidence (a customs exit declaration) plus commercial evidence (airway bill, bill of lading, consignment note). Zero-rating a service to an overseas customer requires that the customer has no place of residence in the UAE and is outside the country when the service is performed. If the evidence is missing, the supply is not zero-rated, the sheet is wrong, and the refund is reduced or denied. Read the eligibility rules in our UAE VAT refund guide before relying on Box 4.

How do I fill the Std Rated Purchases sheet (Box 9)?

The Std Rated Purchases sheet lists every purchase on which you paid 5% VAT and are recovering it as input tax. It is the sheet the FTA scrutinises hardest because it drives the refund amount directly. It has two columns the other sheets do not: Tax Invoice Received Date and VAT Amount Recovered, and its Recovered total must equal Box 9 on the return.

The received date matters because input tax is recoverable in the first tax period in which you hold a valid tax invoice and have paid or intend to pay within six months of the due date, or in the immediately following period. Older invoices that were missed cannot simply be dropped into the current sheet; they need a voluntary disclosure for the correct period. The Recovered column is where apportionment lives: if you make exempt supplies (Box 5) your recoverable percentage is below 100%, and if an expense is partly blocked (entertainment, certain vehicles, some employee benefits) the recovered amount is lower than the invoice VAT. Both the Std Rated Purchases sheet and Box 9 should carry the recovered figure, not the gross figure. Our VAT 311 claim guide covers blocked input tax in more detail.

What goes in the other sheets: Boxes 3, 5, 6, 7 and 10?

The remaining sheets follow the same column pattern with one or two additional fields each. Fill them whenever the matching VAT 201 box is non-zero; reverse-charge sheets must be completed even though the VAT nets to zero, because the FTA reconciles them to both the output and input sides of the return.

Import of Services (Box 3). Services bought from suppliers outside the UAE on which you self-accounted under the reverse charge mechanism. Extra columns: supplier location (country) and a transaction description. The output VAT here appears in Box 3 and, if fully recoverable, the same amount appears in Box 10 input tax.

Exempt Supplies (Box 5). Certain financial services, residential property beyond the first supply, bare land and local passenger transport. Any figure here triggers input tax apportionment, so the reviewer will compare Box 5 with the Recovered column on your Box 9 sheet.

Goods Imported into UAE (Box 6) and Adjustment (Box 7). Physical imports cleared through UAE customs. Extra columns: name of the customs authority and the customs declaration number. Every line must carry a declaration reference the FTA can match to its customs data feed. Box 7 records corrections to auto-populated import figures.

Supplies subject to RCM (Box 10). The input-side listing for reverse-charge purchases, mirroring Box 3 with supplier location and description. Out of Scope Sales and Tourist Refund Adj (Box 2) are only relevant to businesses with those transaction types; leave them blank otherwise.

What supporting documents must I attach with the FTA VAT refund Excel template?

The Excel workbook is never accepted on its own. The FTA requires an output/input reconciliation, the 5 highest invoices for each of Box 1, Box 4 and Box 9, and evidence behind each of those invoices: proof of payment for expenses, customs documents for exported goods and contracts for exported services. Compile everything into one bookmarked PDF.

1. Output/Input VAT summary — a one-page reconciliation showing total output VAT, total recoverable input VAT and the net refund, matching the VAT 201 exactly.
2. Top 5 standard-rated expense invoices (Box 9) — sorted by VAT value, each with proof of payment: a bank statement line, transfer confirmation or receipt. The FTA wants to see the invoice was actually settled.
3. Top 5 standard-rated sales invoices (Box 1) — your largest output invoices, showing your TRN, the customer details and the VAT charged.
4. Top 5 zero-rated invoices (Box 4) — for goods, the customs exit declaration and transport document; for services, the contract or engagement letter evidencing an overseas customer.
5. Bank details and any FTA-requested extras — a bank letter or IBAN certificate in the registrant’s name, plus anything requested in a prior query.

Organise the PDF with dividers: “Box 1 – Top 5 sales”, “Box 4 – Top 5 exports + customs”, “Box 9 – Top 5 expenses + payment proofs”. A reviewer who can find every document in under a minute processes the file rather than raising a query. Keep the combined file within the EmaraTax upload limit; compress scans rather than splitting into many uploads.

Worked example: reconciling the Excel template to a VAT 201 refund

A Dubai free-zone software exporter files its Q2 2026 return (1 April to 30 June 2026) and ends in a refund position. The Excel sheets must reproduce the return box by box; here is how the numbers tie.

Note two details that decide the outcome. The credit note is entered as a negative adjustment on the Box 1 sheet, so the sheet total equals the return rather than overstating it by AED 250. And the Box 9 sheet shows the gross VAT of AED 32,000 alongside a Recovered figure of AED 30,500, because AED 1,500 of client-entertainment VAT is blocked and was correctly excluded from Box 9. Had the business entered AED 32,000 on both the sheet and the return, the reviewer would have asked for the entertainment invoices, found the block, and reduced or rejected the claim. Fastlane’s fee for preparing this workbook, the evidence pack and the VAT 311 submission is AED 499; the refund is AED 24,500.

Why do FTA VAT refund Excel templates get rejected?

Refund applications are rejected for a small set of recurring reasons: sheet totals that do not match the VAT 201, wrong date formats, missing supplier TRNs, no customs evidence for exports, no proof of payment for the top expenses, applicable sheets left blank, and unanswered FTA queries. Every one of them is avoidable with a reconciliation step before upload.

Two further habits reduce queries. Verify the buyer and supplier TRN on every invoice above the simplified-invoice threshold, because an invoice with an invalid or missing TRN does not support input tax recovery. And keep the description column specific: “services” tells the reviewer nothing, while “IT support retainer, June 2026” tells them the expense is a normal, recoverable business cost.

What are the VAT refund deadlines, timelines and penalties in 2026?

The VAT 201 return and any payment are due within 28 days of the end of the tax period; the VAT 311 refund can be filed any time after a return shows a refundable balance. The FTA typically issues a decision on a complete refund application within about 20 business days and pays approved amounts shortly afterwards, and its queries carry a 5-working-day response window. Late returns and late payments attract penalties under Cabinet Decision No. 129 of 2025, in force from 14 April 2026.

The FTA may also offset an approved refund against any outstanding VAT, excise or corporate tax liabilities and penalties before paying the balance, so settle open amounts first. Note that the penalty figures above are VAT penalties under Cabinet Decision 129/2025; corporate tax penalties fall under Cabinet Decision 75/2023 (as amended by 10/2024) and are a separate regime. If you are winding down and deregistering, the final return and refund interact; see how to deregister from VAT in the UAE and our VAT deregistration service (AED 499).

Key terms used in the FTA VAT refund Excel template

If you are new to VAT or registering for the first time to reclaim set-up costs, start with VAT registration (AED 199) and the mandatory threshold of AED 375,000 (voluntary AED 187,500). Refund claims are only possible once you are registered and filing, and businesses moving to structured invoicing under the UAE e-invoicing programme will find the invoice-level data the template demands far easier to produce.