UAE Federal Tax Authority Unveils Digital VAT Refund Scheme for Tourists

The UAE Federal Tax Authority (FTA) has partnered with Planet Tax Free to launch a fully digital Value Added Tax (VAT) refund scheme for tourists.

Switching 3.5 million traditional paper invoices to digital format, according to FTA and Planet Tax Free, will save merchants up to five minutes per customer, preserve more than 16,800 trees a year and reduce carbon emissions by more than 4,000 tonnes.

Khalid Ali Al Bustani, FTA director-general, said:

The system achieves high satisfaction rates by users for its simple, efficient and smooth tax-refund process for eligible tourists. Tourist VAT refund transactions increased by 104.15 per cent during 2022 as the number of transactions doubled to 2.31 million transactions during the first eight months of this year.

The total value of Tourist VAT refunds increased by 113.48 per cent from January to the end of August 2022 compared to the same period in 2021.