Can I Invoice in USD Instead of AED in the UAE?

Quick answers

Can I invoice in USD instead of AED in the UAE?

Yes — you can issue invoices in USD, EUR or any other currency, but if you are VAT registered the invoice must also show the VAT amount in AED and the exchange rate you used, converted at the UAE Central Bank rate on the date of supply.

Which date governs the exchange rate?

The date of supply. Not the invoice date. Not the payment date. Not the date the money landed in your account.

Which exchange rate must I use?

The rate approved by the UAE Central Bank. Not your bank's rate, not the rate your payment processor applied, not the mid-market rate you found online.

Does the exchange rate have to appear on the invoice?

Yes. The tax amount in AED and the rate applied are both required particulars where a conversion has taken place.

Does this apply if I am not VAT registered?

None of this applies to you. Without a TRN you charge no VAT, so there is no tax amount to convert. You can invoice in any currency you like, with no AED figure and no exchange rate required.

Is this tax advice?

No. This is general information about foreign-currency invoicing and VAT in AED in the UAE. Confirm your obligations with the Federal Tax Authority or a qualified tax advisor.

What the law actually says

Article 69 of Federal Decree-Law No. 8 of 2017 states that where a supply is made in a currency other than the UAE dirham, the amount stated on the tax invoice must be converted into dirhams at the exchange rate approved by the Central Bank at the date of supply.

Article 59(1)(k) of the Executive Regulation goes one step further, and this is the part most guidance leaves out: the invoice must show both the tax amount in AED and the exchange rate applied. Showing the converted figure without the rate leaves the requirement incomplete.

The date is the date of supply

Not the invoice date. Not the payment date. Not the date the money landed in your account.

If you delivered the work on the 3rd and invoiced on the 10th, the rate you use is the rate for the 3rd. For most service businesses these dates are close together, but they are not the same date, and the rate moves.

The rate must come from the Central Bank

The FTA accepts the UAE Central Bank's published rates. Not your bank's rate, not the rate your payment processor applied, not the mid-market rate you found online.

Two practical details worth knowing:

• The Central Bank publishes updated rates each day after 6pm. If you issue an invoice before 6pm, using the previous day's published rate is acceptable.
• Use the rate exactly as published, with every decimal place. If the published rate is 2.65436, you use 2.65436 — not 2.65. Rounding the exchange rate itself is not permitted, even though the resulting amounts are rounded normally.

What this looks like on the invoice

Your invoice can be denominated entirely in USD: line items, subtotal and total. What must additionally appear is the VAT amount in AED, the invoice total in AED, and the rate you applied together with its date.

If your invoice is in AED throughout, no rate needs to be shown.

Why the rate has to be recorded, not looked up later

The rate belongs to the moment the invoice was issued. Recalculating it later — from today's rate, or from an average — produces a different AED figure than the one your client received, which is exactly the mismatch an audit looks for.

This also matters for your VAT return. Returns are filed in AED. If your books hold foreign-currency invoices without a stored rate, there is no way to produce an AED total you can actually file, and a VAT report that quietly omits those invoices looks complete while being wrong.

In Fatura Go the rate and its date are stored on the invoice itself when you issue it, printed on the document, and used by the VAT report so the AED totals stay consistent with what the client was sent. You enter the rate from the Central Bank page yourself — the invoice is where the rate is legally required to live, so it is captured at issue rather than fetched afterwards.

If you are not VAT registered

None of this applies to you. Without a TRN you charge no VAT, so there is no tax amount to convert. You can invoice in any currency you like, with no AED figure and no exchange rate required.

A separate question people confuse with this one

Whether you charge VAT at all on a foreign client is a different question with a different answer, and it depends on where the client is and where the service is consumed — not on which currency you bill in. Choosing USD does not make a supply zero-rated.

Frequently asked questions