That is rather my point, DCS - without the large state burdens of universal "free at point of service" education and healthcare, housing, nursing homes or pensions for the 90% expat community, the state doesn't need the same levels of revenue as the EU. European style national economics don't apply here, so why is she meddling unless she's trying to put a spanner in the works to benefit the EU?

the government doesn't want you here after age 60.... its simply run up a big deficit since banking on oil revenues based on an avg of 100 dollars per barrel... the good old days where based upto 160 per barrel but now the price is way under 50.. the big problem is the bond prices..and us based etf's basically the government will soon be broke as they have one main resource to produce a plastic city (oil) and are not upto critical mass, so in the mean time you will pay for it via...salik vat parking fees/fines/ dreamt up reasons including cutting an a4 page in half for a birth cerfifircate.. making you ( expats only) renew your drivers and pilots licenses more often.( and eida etc etc etc ..... etc writing is on the wall hope all potential expats read between the lines 'CAREFULLY' gross salary may look great but by the time u envision remittence tax etc etc.. you are basically stuffed!

What’s everyone’s experience of VAT implementation so far? 5 dhs on a bag of groceries, 10 dhs extra to fill up on fuel. Hardly noticeable perhaps. But for a large part, many prices have increased 20-25% and not just the 1 dhs items rounded up to 1.25. 🙄

Home delivery curry from CurryBox up 11% for exactly the same order since 24 Dec when last ordered. Prices seem to have generally gone up more than the 5% somehow or other

That is interesting, as the price of bacon is up exactly 11% at Spinneys.

That will be correct though. 5% tax plus 5% admin fee for administering said tax plus 20% tax on the admin tax as a reflection of the cost of administering the tax - ergo 11% Tax doesn’t grow on trees you know.

Your conspiracy theories are simply insulting to the Ministry of Taxable Tax Taxing.

But the price of Bacon at Sainsbury is still the same 👍🏼😎

They haven’t got enough expensive Nitrates added in their bacon though, which means you aren’t contributing to supporting the local oncology units at hospital. Have some morals man!

I understand that it is not a pleasure to hear that from 0% VAT there is going to be a 5%. Not saying it's something nice to hear (especially if you work there), but Dubai has realized that their expenses are getting higher and higher and they don't want to waste more of their money. To me a 5% VAT is reasonable, especially nowadays that taxes (in Europe) are between 15-25%.
But yes, they are just getting started. The UAE is inflated af and salaries are not as high as they should be.

Not our fault Dubai inc. has spent so much so 5%, when you come here for a 'tax free' life, IS unreasonable!

What happens in Euroland has nothing to do with what happens here!

We need an immediate and significant pay rise if the company hopes to stem the flow and attract new people!

The difference is that in Europe one would get some benefit from the tax generated. The UAE Government has stated that at least 70% ofthe revenue raised by VAT will be used for social projects to benefit the countries citizens In a nutshell money extracted from 100% of the population will be used to improve the lives of less than 5%. The remaining 30% will be used by the Federal Government. Probably to continue the war in Yemen which they planned to have done and dusted in 6 weeks. The average expat employee in UAE will get nothing back from VAT.