Dubai: Under the Federal Tax Law, all businesses in the UAE will need to record their financial transactions and ensure that their financial records are accurate and up to date.
The law requires any person conducting any type of business to keep accounting records and commercial books, as well as any tax-related information as determined by the law. Tax returns, data, information, records and documents must be submitted to the Authority in Arabic. The Federal Tax Authority (FTA) may, however, accept documents in any other language, as long as the person provides a translated copy into Arabic at their expense and responsibility if so requested.
Any person under the tax law, required to register for taxation must do so, as stipulated by the law. Registrants must include their Tax Registration Number (TRN), in all correspondence and transactions with the Authority or with others. They must also inform the FTA by filling the form of any circumstance that might require the amendment of information related to their tax record within 20 working days of the occurrence of said circumstance.
Businesses that meet the minimum annual turnover requirement (as evidenced by their financial records) will be required to register for VAT. Businesses that do not think that they should be VAT registered should maintain their financial records in any event, in case the Federal Tax Authority needs to establish whether they should be registered.
Taxable persons/entities are mandated by the tax law to retain the records relating to capital assets for at least ten years. A registrant making a taxable or deemed supply shall issue an original tax invoice and deliver it to a recipient of goods or services or keep it in his records in the event of a lack of recipient.
