VAT Rules not yet finalized: UAE Ministry of Finance
by UnitedVat
Oct 17, 2017 Oct 17, 2017
by UnitedVat
Posted on Oct 17, 2017
The UAE Ministry of Finance is still in the process of preparing the executive regulation of value-added tax (VAT) and tax rates on supply of goods and/or services and exports are yet to be determined, a top official said.
The UAE Ministry of Finance urged people to follow only the official website and the media updates for any kind of information on VAT. A top official of the ministry said that the process of preparing the executive regulation of value-added tax (VAT) and tax rates on the supply of goods and/or services and exports are yet to be determined.
Younis Haji Al Khoori, undersecretary of the ministry informed people that the ministry's website is the only official source for any information related to VAT and excise tax. Any information that is not published on the ministry’s official website or official gazette and is incorrectly attributed to the ministry and circulated on social media channels and messengers should be disregarded.
Further, he assured that the ministry is committed to working with the highest levels of transparency and disclosure, and will publish all information related to VAT and taxable supplies once the executive regulation is issued in Official Gazette and published on the ministry's website. All concerned parties will be informed through official channels including the Ministry’s website, Official Gazette and media publications.
Ministry of finance published the executive regulation of federal law No. (7) of 2017 on tax procedures, which aims to clarify several topics, including keeping accounting records and commercial books related to tax purposes, the period of record-keeping mechanism and saving. In addition to this ministry of finance also announced the executive regulation of Federal Law No. (7) of 2017 on excise tax, which identifies liability to tax, tax registration and exception methods, rules of tax payment, with a detailed explanation about the exemption for selective goods.
Moreover, the UAE Cabinet issued the Decision No. (38) of 2017 on Excise Goods, Excise tax rates and the methods of calculating the Excise price.
Recently an announcement was made by federal authority of tax that the businesses can now go for online registration of VAT, which is scheduled to start from January 1, 2018, at a standard rate of 5 percent. As per the announcement every business unit whose annual turnover of Dh375,000 must go for online registration. However, taxpayers can register voluntarily if the total value of their taxable supplies exceeded Dh187,500, or if the business expects to exceed that threshold within the next 30 days.
Also, the business units with an annual turnover of over Dh150 million were recommended by the authority to register before October 31, 2017, while businesses with an annual turnover exceeding Dh10 million are allowed to register before November 30, 2017.
Further, all business are advised to be registered by January 1, 2018, and to submit their registration applications before December 4, 2017 in order to minimize the risk of not being registered in time for the beginning of 2018.
According to the tax experts in UAE 5% VAT will not be levied on amount withdrawn from ATMs of banks other than their own bank - but only on the Dh2 fee will be charged by the banks.
Declining the news of the delay in implementation of VAT in UAE Khalid Ali Al Bustani, director general of the Federal Tax Authority, says VAT will start as planned on Jan 1 2018.
Executive Regulations for the Federal Decree-Law No. (8) of 2017 on Value Added Tax, VAT were signed and approved by the Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE.
