VAT in UAE: Ill-prepared retailers face difficulties

Groceries and other small-scale retailers who were ill-prepared to implement VAT from January 1, 2018, have been facing hiccups with regard to charging the tax on consumers.

"Not only are the retailers having diverse practices of charging or not charging and showing or not showing VAT separately, but some of them are also charging VAT on their invoices without mentioning their tax registration number which is completely unacceptable," said Mayank Sawhney, director, MaxGrowth Consulting.

He said the retailers who were open on Monday were issuing invoices as per their whims.

"Some were issuing invoices without mentioning VAT at all, some are mentioning in the invoices that the price is inclusive of VAT and some are mentioning the VAT separately," he said. As per UAE laws, an entity or an individual who doesn't have a TRN cannot collect VAT from customers.

The UAE's Federal Tax Authority had given enough time to companies to register and obtain their TRNs by the December 4, 2017, deadline.
The Authority later issued provisional TRNs to those companies which missed the deadline.

- waheedabbas@khaleejtimes.com