Designated Zone VAT for Trampoline Parks in the UAE: Suspending Import VAT on Park Equipment

Designated zone VAT for trampoline parks in the UAE is one of the few planning tools that genuinely fits the business model. A trampoline park is built from imported equipment — trampoline beds and frames, foam pit cubes, airbags, climbing walls, safety netting, padding systems — typically arriving in a small number of large consignments before opening, with replacement parts and expansion modules following over the years. Cabinet Decision No. 52 of 2017 lets a park route those consignments through a designated zone so that 5% import VAT is suspended rather than paid at the port, and only crystallises if and when the equipment is released to the mainland.

Why parks are a natural fit

Three features align: the imports are large, lumpy and planned months ahead; the equipment often sits in storage before the park fit-out begins, which maps neatly onto zone warehousing; and multi-park operators move equipment between sites, which can use the between-zones treatment. A mainland retail business importing weekly stock gains little from a zone; a park importing a whole attraction in three containers gains a great deal.

What this guide is not

It is not a claim that designated zones remove VAT — they defer it, and the release event collects it. It is not a customs-duty holiday either: duty treatment at zone entry and at release must be confirmed with the specific zone's customs administration, because zones are not interchangeable for customs purposes. And it is not a substitute for the park's wider VAT position — ticketing VAT, food-and-beverage VAT, and the corporate tax on park profits all run on their own tracks, covered in our trampoline park tax hub.

Cabinet Decision No. 52 of 2017 is the instrument that makes designated zones work for VAT. It defines a designated zone as a specific fenced area, controlled by customs, designated by the Cabinet as such — and treats supplies of goods connected with the zone as taking place outside the UAE for VAT purposes, provided the Decision's conditions are met. Three consequences follow for a trampoline park.

Consequence 1: entry without import VAT

Goods imported directly into a designated zone enter without the 5% import VAT that a mainland clearance would collect. The VAT is not forgiven; it is suspended for as long as the goods remain in the zone under the Decision's conditions.

Consequence 2: movements within and between zones

Supplies of goods within a single designated zone, or between two designated zones, can be treated as outside the UAE for VAT where the conditions are met — no VAT charged on the transfer. For a park operator staging equipment in one zone and fitting out a second site from it, this keeps the internal logistics VAT-neutral.

Consequence 3: release to the mainland is an import

The moment the equipment leaves the zone for a mainland park, the release is treated as an import: 5% VAT applies on the release value, and the customs treatment at release — including any duty — must be settled with the zone's customs administration.

Conditions are everything

The Decision's conditions — the fenced and controlled nature of the zone, the customs procedures for movements, the documentation — are what the FTA tests when it audits a zone claim. A zone movement without the supporting customs paperwork is not a suspended import; it is an undocumented domestic supply in the FTA's eyes. Keep every movement document.

Trampoline park equipment — trampoline frames, beds, springs, foam cubes, airbags, climbing walls, netting — must be classified under the Harmonised System, and the duty rate follows the classification. The GCC common external tariff sets a common 5% baseline for most goods, but duty is HS-code dependent: never state or assume a flat 5% as universal. Park equipment generally falls across sports, playground and structural classifications, and the rate on each line item must be verified against the current tariff.

Why classification matters more for parks than for shops

A park's consignment mixes categories: steel frames, textile netting, foam products, electronic scoring systems, HVAC for the hall. Each category can carry a different duty line. A broker who defaults the whole container to one rate is either overpaying your duty or underpaying it — and the underpayment version surfaces as a reassessment with penalties.

The worked duty position

Take a AED 200,000 equipment consignment, all lines verified at the common 5% rate: duty is AED 10,000 (200,000 × 5% = 10,000). If released to the mainland, import VAT is 5% on the duty-inclusive value: 5% × 210,000 = AED 10,500. Total clearance cost at release: AED 20,500. Through a designated zone, both figures are suspended at entry and only the release event collects them.

Do-not-rely: verify every HS code

Tariff lines change, and sports-equipment classifications have genuine boundary disputes (a climbing wall is not obviously the same line as a trampoline). Confirm every classification with your licensed customs broker against the current tariff before budgeting — do not rely on this page, or on the equipment vendor's shipping paperwork, for your duty position.

The practical question is how a park operator actually uses a zone. The answer depends on where the park sits and how the equipment moves, and there are three realistic patterns.

Pattern 1: stage in the zone, fit out on the mainland

The operator imports the full fit-out into a designated zone, stores it while the premises are prepared, then releases it to the mainland park in stages as installation proceeds. Import VAT and duty are suspended at entry; each release to the mainland triggers 5% VAT on the released value. The benefit is cash-flow timing — the VAT is paid as the park consumes the equipment, not months earlier at the port — plus warehousing inside the customs boundary.

Pattern 2: multi-site logistics through zones

An operator building two parks stages all equipment in one zone and moves consignments between zones as each site's fit-out schedule demands. Zone-to-zone movements can be VAT-neutral under the Decision's conditions, with the 5% applying only on final release to each mainland site.

Pattern 3: re-export and touring equipment

Equipment imported for a temporary installation — a touring attraction, a seasonal park — can enter the zone and leave the UAE without ever triggering mainland import VAT, provided the re-export is evidenced. This is where the re-export evidence discipline matters most.

What the zone does not do

It does not change the park's VAT recovery: a mainland VAT-registered park recovers import VAT on equipment used for taxable supplies as input tax whether the VAT was paid at the port or at zone release. The zone changes when the VAT is due, not whether it is recoverable. And it does not touch the services side — foreign installation crews and commissioning engineers attract 5% reverse-charge VAT on the park regardless of where the hardware sits.

Re-export is the cleanest exit from the zone system: equipment that leaves the UAE never triggers the mainland import VAT. But 'leaves the UAE' is a fact the park must prove, and the FTA treats unevidenced re-exports as domestic supplies.

The evidence pack

For every re-exported consignment keep: the export customs declaration, the bill of lading or airway bill showing the UAE as origin, proof of the goods' exit (port or airport exit records), and the commercial documentation linking the export to the original zone entry. The chain must be complete — entry declaration to exit declaration, with the goods identifiable throughout.

Touring attractions

A touring trampoline or inflatable attraction that enters a UAE zone for a season and then ships to the next country is the textbook case: zone entry suspends VAT, the documented re-export closes the file with no mainland charge. The discipline is in the paperwork, not the law — the law is straightforward, but only the evidence makes it real.

The failure mode

Equipment that was 'going to be re-exported' but is instead sold to a mainland buyer, or simply disappears from the zone records, triggers the release treatment: 5% VAT on the value, plus duty questions, plus penalties for the undocumented movement. If plans change, formalise the release and pay the VAT — the informal alternative is always more expensive.

Record-keeping standard

Maintain a zone stock ledger: every item, entry date and declaration number, movements with dates and documents, release or re-export with the corresponding declaration. The ledger is the document the FTA asks for first in a zone audit.

The zone is a timing tool, not a tax exemption, and the park's wider VAT position continues around it. Three points connect the zone strategy to the park's everyday compliance.

Ticketing and F&B VAT

The park's ticket sales, party packages and food-and-beverage revenue carry 5% VAT as standard-rated supplies. The input VAT on equipment — whether paid at the port or at zone release — is recovered against that output VAT. The zone defers the input-VAT claim to the release period, which can actually help: the recovery lands in the same period the park starts generating ticket revenue.

VAT registration

A park crossing AED 375,000 in taxable supplies and imports over the previous 12 months (or expecting to in the next 30 days) must register and notify the FTA within 30 days. Most parks cross the threshold before opening day on the strength of the equipment imports alone — the import programme itself creates the registration obligation.

E-invoicing

The e-invoicing mandate — voluntary and pilot from 1 July 2026, mandatory from 1 January 2027 for turnover of AED 50 million or more and 1 July 2027 for everyone else — will require structured invoice data. Zone movements with clean declaration references will feed that regime far more easily than a drawer of broker emails.

Voluntary disclosure

A zone movement misreported in an earlier period — a release treated as a zone transfer, a re-export without evidence — is corrected by voluntary disclosure within 20 business days of discovery. The 14% per annum late-payment penalty (in force since 14 April 2026) makes early correction materially cheaper than waiting for the audit.

Not every park grows. Where a park downsizes or closes, the VAT position must be unwound deliberately — and leftover zone stock is part of that unwind.

Deregistration mechanics

A VAT-registered park that ceases making taxable supplies must apply for VAT deregistration, settle outstanding returns and payments, and account for VAT on assets still held — the FTA treats retained business assets on deregistration as a deemed supply in the standard framework. Our trampoline park VAT deregistration guide walks the full sequence.

Zone stock on closure

Equipment still sitting in the designated zone at closure has never triggered mainland import VAT. The operator's options are: re-export it with full evidence (no mainland VAT), release it to the mainland and pay the 5% (then deal with it as a mainland asset), or sell it to another zone operator as a zone-to-zone movement. Each option needs its customs documentation completed before the operating company is wound down — a deregistered company with undocumented zone stock is an audit magnet.

The dispute ladder

A zone-related assessment — a denied suspension, a reassessed release value — follows the standard route: reconsideration within 40 business days of the FTA decision (Federal Decree-Law No. 28 of 2022, Article 29), the FTA deciding within 40 business days, then objection to the Tax Disputes Resolution Committee within 40 business days, decided within 20. Zone disputes turn on documents, so the reconsideration filing should attach the complete movement file.

A final checklist for the park operator considering the zone route.

Before the first consignment

Confirm the zone's designated status and its customs administration's entry procedures; appoint a broker experienced in zone movements; verify every HS code and the duty position at entry and at release; and open the zone stock ledger.

During the programme

Record every movement with its customs declaration; reconcile the ledger monthly against broker statements; keep re-export evidence packs complete as you go, not at year-end; and align zone releases with the VAT return periods so the input-VAT recovery is claimed in the right period.

The corporate tax backdrop

The park's profits face the standard framework: 0% on taxable income up to AED 375,000, 9% above — AED 146,250 on AED 2,000,000 of profit ((2,000,000 − 375,000) × 9% = 146,250). Small Business Relief is available for eligible businesses through 31 December 2029. The zone strategy does not change the profit computation; it changes the timing of the VAT on the equipment that generates the profit.

When to get advice

Use the zone route when the import programme is large, lumpy and planned — a new park fit-out, a multi-site expansion. For routine replacement parts, standard mainland clearance is usually simpler and cheaper once broker and administration costs are counted. The right answer is arithmetic, not ideology: model both routes with verified duty rates before committing.

The zone route is not automatically the right route. For a trampoline park operator, the choice between designated-zone staging and standard mainland clearance is an arithmetic decision with three variables: the size of the import programme, the storage timeline, and the administration cost.

When standard clearance wins

Routine replacement parts — springs, pads, a few foam cubes — clear faster and cheaper through the mainland port. The duty and import VAT on a AED 15,000 parts order are AED 750 and AED 787.50 respectively (at 5% lines: duty 15,000 × 5% = 750; VAT 5% × 15,750 = 787.50), and the input VAT is recovered on the next return. Routing that order through a zone adds broker movements, ledger entries and release paperwork that cost more than the timing benefit.

When the zone wins

A full park fit-out — AED 500,000 to several million in equipment arriving months before opening — is the zone's textbook case. Suspending AED 25,000-plus of import VAT per AED 500,000 consignment (at 5% lines, duty-inclusive) for the months between arrival and installation is a genuine cash-flow saving, and zone warehousing inside the customs boundary avoids double handling.

The decision rule

Model both routes with verified duty rates before the first shipment: total duty and VAT under each route, the broker and administration cost of the zone movements, and the value of the deferred cash at the business's cost of capital. If the zone does not pay for its own paperwork, clear at the port. The right answer is the cheaper one, not the cleverer one.