This week the spotlight is on enhancements to our UAE Federal Laws coverage where with the permission of ProConsult Advocates & Legal Consultants we have published an unofficial translation of the UAE’s new VAT Federal Decree-Law (Federal Decree-Law No. 8/2017). It can be found here: http://www.lexismiddleeast.com/doc/3938304C495F4C4E5F323031372D30382D32335F30303030385F4D61724B616E5F456E.

We are still awaiting the official publication of the Decree-Law and are still monitoring this legislative development with our Publishing Partners, SADER Legal Publishing.

In other developments in this area, the UAE’s Federal Tax Authority board have approved changes to the UAE tax system, including new procedures to adopt a selective tax system in October and VAT in January 2018. The board went on to approve the proposed fees and fines in line with the Authority's remit as laid out in Federal Decree-Law No. 13/2016. Finally they approved the penalties to be applied for breaches of Federal Law No. 7/2017 and Federal Decree-Law No. 8/2017. The Minister of State for Financial Affairs said work on issuing executive regulations to these laws to provide specific details about their implementation is underway.