You asked, experts answered

How do you treat sponsorship fee for VAT and can this be paid as dividend?

Sponsorship fee and dividend are two different things; VAT is applicable on sponsorship fee. Will Web hosting services utilised in the UAE (servers based outside the UAE) be coming under VAT?

VAT will be applicable. How should a staff meal, given as complimentary option, be treated? The labour contract is silent and it is customary practice to give a one time meal to staff on duty in the restaurant business.

If it is a common practice, then the business can avail VAT on those expenses. It is a common practice to provide a meal to staff on duty in the restaurant business and therefore input credit can be taken on VAT paid. Is there is VAT on a 20 per cent tax on warehouse rental, which is paid to a Dubai real estate corporation?

VAT will be applicable on the warehouse rent. How should you treat VAT on a gift voucher that is issued before December 31, 2017, but is redeemed in 2018? Also, how should you treat VAT on a gift voucher sold in 2018, but not redeemed before its validity?

If a voucher is sold in 2017, there won’t be any VAT on that but when the supply is made against this voucher, VAT will be charged against that supply. For a voucher sold in 2018, VAT will be charged on the difference between the consideration received by the supplier and advertised monetary value of the voucher. Do we need the original tax invoice to claim input VAT? Can we accept a photocopy of the invoices?

We need to collect the original tax invoice. Do we need to keep a record of the supplier in the case of cash purchase?

We need to keep the records in order to get the input credit.