Dubai: 30% alcohol sales tax to be reinstated from January 2025
Dubai reintroduced 30 per cent alcohol tax on 1 January 2025. By email, the liquor store African + Eastern let bars and restaurants know.
"Recall that the Dubai Government informed us that 30 per cent municipality tax will be restored on purchase of alcoholic beverages starting January 2025," it said in an email.
"It will be applicable for all orders invoicing beginning Wednesday, January 1, 2025. Dubai Municipality asks all the processes to be done in order to completely pay this fee.
It is being done as confirmed by some restaurateurs, and will change purchasing patterns. "A tax to be reimposed is a window for outlets inside hotels," said Eti Bhasin, Executive Director at Majestic Retreat City Hotel and Permit Room.
"Here, in ours, maybe they come back to visit more now [than] purchase straight from a retailer because we’ll still have the lower rates and offers on the alcohol".
In January 2023, Dubai Municipality proposed lifting the 30 per cent alcohol tax on emirate liquor sales for one year and then renewed until December 2024.
A non-solicited restauranteur told me they were "looking at 15 per cent" tax. "But it has been confirmed now by liquor stores that the tax has been brought back to the old 30 per cent," they said.
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