Allocate your untaxed income across the month, in AED.
Monthly surplus
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Total expenses
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Housing fee
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Savings rate
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Worked example
Take a monthly income of AED 20,000, rent of AED 6,000, bills of AED 1,500, groceries of AED 2,000, transport of AED 1,200 and other spending of AED 2,500. The Dubai municipality housing fee is 5% of annual rent billed monthly, so on AED 6,000 rent it is 5 percent of AED 72,000 spread over 12 months, which is AED 300 a month. Total expenses including that fee come to AED 13,500. Because UAE income is untaxed, the full AED 20,000 is available, so the monthly surplus is AED 6,500. That is a savings rate of 6,500 over 20,000, or 32.5%.
| Line | Monthly |
|---|---|
| Income (untaxed) | AED 20,000 |
| Rent, bills, groceries, transport, other | AED 13,200 |
| Dubai housing fee (5% of rent) | AED 300 |
| Total expenses | AED 13,500 |
| Monthly surplus (32.5% saved) | AED 6,500 |
How it is calculated
The calculator adds up your spending categories and subtracts the total from your income to give a monthly surplus, then divides the surplus by income for a savings rate. The one government charge it builds in automatically is the Dubai municipality housing fee, which is 5 percent of annual rent collected in twelve monthly instalments on your DEWA utility bill. Since rent is entered monthly here, the annual rent is your monthly rent times twelve, the fee is 5 percent of that, and it is divided back over twelve months, which simplifies to 5 percent of the monthly rent. Crucially, the UAE has no personal income tax and no payroll withholding on employment income, so your gross salary is also your take-home pay and the surplus shown is genuine disposable money you can save or invest, not a pre-tax figure.