At the end of each tax period, VAT registered businesses or the ‘taxable persons’ must submit a ‘VAT return’ to Federal Tax Authority (FTA). A VAT return summarizes the value of the supplies and purchases a taxable person has made during the tax period, and shows the taxable person’s VAT liability.
Liability of VAT: The liability of VAT is the difference between the output tax payable (VAT charged on supplies of goods and services) for a given tax period and the input tax (VAT incurred on purchases) recoverable for the same tax period.
Where the output tax exceeds the input tax amount, the difference must be paid to FTA. Where the input tax exceeds the output tax, a taxable person will have the excess input tax recovered; he will be entitled to set this off against subsequent payment due to FTA.