The Federal Tax Authority (FTA) must have confirmed that Cabinet Decision No.49 of 2021 on revising some provisions of the Administrative Penalties for Violation of Tax Laws in the UAE is intended to support tax registrants and assist them in fulfilling everyone's tax obligations, thus also increasing the State's competitiveness in the field of conducting business.

In a news statement released on Saturday, Khalid Ali Al Bustani, Director-General of the FTA, stated, "The new amendment will become effective on June 28, 2021, and would lessen various administrative fines imposed for breaking tax regulations." These are following the smart leadership's directives to incorporate the tax system in line with the appropriate standards, guaranteeing additional growth for the national economy and assisting in achieving transparency and economic impetus, by providing an ideal and resilient tax legislative environment that promotes self-compliance and keeps pace with transformation through consistent issuance of decisions in compliance with ph

Al Bustani urged tax registrants to take advantage of the new amendment's significant benefits, which give additional assistance to business sectors to encourage their significant contributions to strengthening the national economy's growth.

He stated that the revision decreased or changed the method of computation for 16 categories of administrative fines, including fines for administrative violations of Tax Procedures, Federal Decree-Law on Excise Tax, and Federal Decree-Law on Value Added Tax.

"The amendment comprises basic revisions that give greater facilities to enable taxable people achieve self-compliance and encourage the acceleration of voluntary reporting," Al Bustani stated. A late payment fine would not be enforced on voluntary reporting if payment is made within 20 business days of submitting the voluntary disclosure, and the sooner the taxable person announces and pays due tax within the time frames mentioned by the decision, the smaller the value of the fines will be. This is an incentive and an excellent chance for tax registrants who've had problems in declarations, tax assessments, or tax refund requests to expedite the execution of voluntary disclosure processes and avoid growing fines."

As per the amendment, the FTA must also re-determine the administrative penalties imposed on the tax registrant before the effective date of the new amendment that has not been completely paid, to be equivalent to 30% of the total of these unpaid fines, emphasizing that can profit from that scheme, The tax registrant must clear their owed tax in full by December 31, 2021, and 30% of the total administrative fines due and unpaid by June 27, 2021, by December 31, 2021. The methods for implementing this will be determined by the FTA.

As part of its continued awareness-raising efforts, the FTA has released two new extensive public explanations on the modification through the FTA's website's public explanation service. These public explanations are intended to acquaint people with tax problems that require simple explanations, allowing them to implement tax concepts effectively and effectively.

The first public explanation outlines several of the key changes to the table of administrative infractions and fines connected to the implementation of Federal Law on Tax Procedures, to guarantee the right administration of these updated fines. The second public explanation describes the methodology utilized to re-determine some administrative fines issued before the new amendment's implementation date of June 28, 2021.