Dubai, UAE – His Excellency Khalid Ali Al Bustani, Director-General of the Federal Tax Authority (FTA), affirmed that the Authority achieved a number of qualitative milestones during 2025, and continued to advance its development efforts in line with its policies aimed at fostering creativity and innovation, in order to meet the expectations of all categories of customers.

His Excellency made these remarks during the opening of the third Strategic Partners Forum of the Federal Tax Authority for 2025, held in Dubai, stating:

“Thanks to the cooperation and joint efforts of all concerned entities, the development plans of the UAE’s tax ecosystem – of which we are all proud – continue to progress, with the FTA having become a key contributor to achieving national financial sustainability objectives. The Authority is implementing comprehensive plans for the continuous modernisation of its systems and services, expanding digital transformation in line with the government’s strategy to facilitate people’s lives, adopt highly efficient operating models, and deliver a future-ready generation of proactive services, ensuring that UAE government services are the best in the world.”

His Excellency expressed his appreciation and thanks to all the Authority’s partners, affirming that since its establishment, the FTA has been keen to build effective strategic partnerships with relevant federal and local government entities, as well as private sector organisations across all areas of the Authority’s work.

These partnerships have played a key role in the successful implementation of the tax system, the continuous enhancement of the Authority’s services, and the increase of tax awareness. He noted that the number of Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) signed by the Authority with government and private entities has risen to more than 55 MoUs, aimed at strengthening cooperation across several areas. This included the exchange of information and data, electronic integration, enhancement of audit mechanisms, support for tax awareness plans, and the exchange of expertise to improve joint operations.

His Excellency added: “The Authority has approved 100 new processes to eliminate digital bureaucracy across its services through the ‘EmaraTax’ platform, most of which have already been implemented, with the remaining approved zero-bureaucracy processes currently being completed.

In addition, several initiatives have been launched to accelerate tax procedures within the framework of effective partnerships with the private sector. These efforts were crowned by the Authority’s winning of the ‘Zero Government Bureaucracy Award’ in its first edition, achieving first place in the ‘Impact on the Business Sector’ category. The UAE also ranked first globally in the Tax and Low Bureaucracy Index, and the Tax Evasion Index.”

He further stated: “The current year has witnessed a significant increase in corporate tax compliance rates, with a large number of taxable persons registering with the FTA within the legally specified periods for each category. Hundreds of thousands of tax returns and annual declarations received from corporate tax registrants have been processed. The number of corporate tax registrants has exceeded 680,000, while the number of VAT registrants has surpassed 520,000.”

His Excellency, the Director-General of the FTA, attributed the increase in compliance rates to the growing level of tax awareness among business sectors, as well as to the ease of procedures provided by the Authority for filing returns and settling due taxes through the EmaraTax platform.

The platform delivers digital tax services around the clock through clear, fast, and efficient processes, with thousands of applications received and processed daily with high efficiency. This reflects the excellence of the legislative and procedural tax framework, which aligns with best practices and is among the most advanced of its kind globally.

His Excellency also affirmed that, in implementation of the wise leadership’s vision to develop a modern housing ecosystem for citizens, the Authority has continued its efforts to continuously enhance the VAT refund service for the construction of citizens’ Residences. More than 44,000 VAT refund transactions have been completed for male and female citizens who recovered the VAT paid on the construction of their newly built homes.

In parallel, the Authority has reinforced its position in institutional excellence and enhanced its competitiveness through its ongoing plans to develop its human capital, via diverse training programmes and by encouraging and incentivising academic development and the upskilling of its workforce. As a result, 100% of the Authority’s employees received training courses and professional development programmes during the past year.

He stated that the Authority looks forward to a new phase of growth and expansion in its services and in the tax sector customer base. His Excellency noted that the upcoming period will witness the implementation of the new mechanism for calculating Excise Tax on sweetened beverages, in accordance with the “tiered volumetric model”, which links the value of the tax imposed to the sugar content of the beverage. This comes as part of ongoing efforts to accelerate the building of a safe and healthy society, improve consumption patterns, and combat diseases resulting from consumption behaviours that are harmful to public health.

His Excellency added that the FTA is also preparing, in cooperation with the Ministry of Finance, to implement the e-invoicing project, which will make an effective contribution to the continued development of the tax ecosystem and the enhancement of tax compliance through the automation of tax returns and the facilitation of procedures delivered via the EmaraTax digital tax services platform.

The Authority is also ready to implement the Domestic Minimum Top-up Tax, in line with the rules of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), as part of the UAE’s commitment to implementing the OECD’s Two-Pillar Solution, which aims to establish a fair and transparent global tax system in line with international standards.

During the third Strategic Partners Forum of the Federal Tax Authority, representatives of the Authority’s partners from the government and private sectors were honoured in recognition of their efforts, cooperation, and active contributions in supporting the Authority’s journey towards excellence.

About Federal Tax Authority:

The Federal Tax Authority was established by Federal Decree-Law No. 13 of 2016 to help diversify the national economy and increase non-oil revenues in the UAE through the management and collection of federal taxes based on international best practices and standards, as well as to provide all means of support to enable taxpayers to comply with the tax laws and procedures.

Since its inception in 2017, the FTA has been committed to cooperate with the competent authorities to establish a comprehensive and balanced system to make the UAE one of the first countries in the world to implement a fully electronic tax system that encourages voluntary compliance, with simple procedures based on the highest standards of transparency and accuracy – beginning from registration, to the submission of tax returns, to the payment of due taxes through the Authority’s website: www.tax.gov.ae.