What the VAT account number is
The VAT account number is the number National Bureau for Revenue (NBR) assigns to a taxpayer in Bahrain. It follows you across every tax you deal with: VAT, income tax and withholding. Businesses that pay you will ask for it before they release payment, because they report their suppliers to National Bureau for Revenue (NBR) by this number.
Who needs one
A resident business registers once annual supplies pass 37,500 BHD, and may register voluntarily from 18,750 BHD of supplies or of expenses. A non-resident has no threshold at all: one dinar of taxable supply on which nobody else accounts for the VAT triggers registration. There is no personal or general corporate income tax, so VAT is the only registration most businesses need.
How to register, step by step
- Create an NBR profile on the NBR website and wait for the confirmation email.
- Complete the registration form with the legal details, the commercial registration and the financial figures: annual supplies, expenses, imports and exports.
- Once the profile is approved the NBR issues login details; finish the registration form in the portal.
- The NBR issues a VAT registration certificate with the effective date and the VAT account number. It has to be displayed at the premises.
How to find or check a VAT account number
The NBR runs a VAT payer search, and the QR code on any VAT certificate it issues resolves to that lookup.