Picture used for illustrative purpose only.

During its ninth session of the first ordinary session of the 18th legislative chapter, held on Wednesday in Federal National Council (FNC’s) Zayed Hall in Abu Dhabi, the FNC adopted a number of recommendations during a discussion of the Federal Tax Authority’s (FTA’s) policy with respect to applying the value added tax and the excise tax.

The session, which was chaired by Saqr Ghobash, Speaker of FNC, also posed four questions to Minister of State for Financial Affairs.

The FNC stressed the necessity of facilitating the refund of value-added tax on building a citizen’s first house by allowing documents to be attached and saved on the FTA’s website from the date of issuance of the building licence and giving the customer a tax number, provided that the tax is refunded only after a completion certificate is attached.

The FNC also considered the possibility of extending the tax refund period in the event of a legal dispute between the citizen, who owns the house, and the contractor.

The possibility of speeding up the electronic linking procedures of the FTA with all land and economic development departments was also considered with a view to ensuring prompt audit and real-time verification and facilitating all tax procedures.

The recommendations called for speeding up implementation of the FTA’s future projects including the adoption of the e-invoicing project between the FTA and the Ministry of Finance, which would further increase customers’ tax compliance.

They also considered how possible for the tax refund to cover the houses that a citizen builds to house his family members, regardless of their number, instead of a tax refund for the first new home only.

The FNC decided to refer the recommendations to the Financial, Economic and Industrial Affairs Committee to be reformulated in accordance with the discussions of the members before being submitted to FNC for approval.

Meanwhile, the FNC members asked four questions to Mohamed Bin Hadi Al Hussaini, Minister of State for Financial Affairs. Najla Ali Al Shamsi asked a question about insurance companies’ coverage of some industrial and commercial establishments, while Dr. Adnan Hamad Al Hammadi asked three questions about long-term real estate loans, digital insurance providers and citizens’ health insurance.