Dubai: Fta Board Approves Vat, Selective Tax Systems

The board of the Federal Tax Authority, FTA, has approved planned future changes to the UAE tax system, including new procedures to adopt a selective tax system next month and value added tax, VAT, at the start of next year.

The board approved these changes during its second meeting, which was chaired by H.H. Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Deputy Ruler of Dubai and UAE Minister of Finance, with the attendance of its members from the Ministry of Finance in Dubai The FTA board reviewed developments related to the issuance of laws that will regulate federal taxes in the country, such as Federal Law No. 7 2017 on selective taxes, and Federal Law No. 8 of 2017 on VAT.

Obaid bin Humaid Al Tayer, Minister of State for Financial Affairs, said that they are working on issuing executive regulations for these laws, to provide specific details about their implementation.

"We are moving forward confidently with our preparations to implement the new tax system in the UAE, which was developed to support the country’s social and economic development process, by diversifying proceeds and providing sustainable income that will allow the UAE government to develop an efficient future tax infrastructure, enabling it to provide high quality services to members of the community," Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid said.

"We are starting a new phase in implementing the new tax system, as we are preparing to begin the registration of relevant companies, after completing the required legislative and regulatory procedures and preparing the new infrastructure and systems, through the electronic services on the FTA website that was created according to the best technical standards, with the aim of facilitating registration procedures for those subject to taxes, and for other services provided by the authority," he added.

During the meeting, the board members approved the proposed fees and fines as per the authority’s competences and powers, as stated in Federal Law No.13 of 2016 on the establishment of the FTA, as well as for the violations stated in Federal Law No.7 of 2017 on selective taxes, and the decree of Federal Law No.8 of 2017 on VAT.

They also discussed the proposed options for the FTA’s new logo and reviewed the work of the completed workshops and awareness programmes about the tax system, in co-operation with local chambers of commerce and industry.

The first series of the awareness workshops on the principles of implementing a selective tax system and on VAT took place between March and May 2017, with 25 workshops being conducted with the participation of over 15,000 participants from various national business sectors.

The FTA started the second series of workshops in August 2017, in coordination with chambers of commerce and industry from various emirates, targeting the various business sectors of the country.

Separate workshops were conducted for each sector, including real estate, retail, import and export, as well as for companies that are subject to selective taxes.

Ten workshops were already held, which saw the attendance of over 5,000 participants.