Dubai: The Youth Council at the Federal Tax Authority (FTA), in partnership with the Federal Youth Authority (FYA), recently held 3 youth circles on Tax Culture to Support Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) as part of the FTA’s programs to improve tax awareness and support tax compliance through direct engagement with youth business.
The discussions which were held at the Youth Centers in Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Ajman, were attended by 100+ Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) representatives.
Apart from several federal and local authority officials, senior officers who attended the sessions include;
- Khalid Ali Al Bustani, Director-General, Federal Tax Authority
- Saeed Al Nazari, Director-General, Federal Youth Authority
- Rashid Al Balooshi, Under-Secretary, Abu Dhabi Department of Economic Development (ADDED) and
- Saeed Al Marri, Executive Vice President, Mohammed bin Rashid Establishment for Small and Medium Enterprise Development
YOUTH CIRCLES
The sessions, moderated by Mr. Eissa Ibrahim Al Raeesi, an FTA Tax Enforcement Specialist, dealt with a set of main themes, including the services provided by the authority, its future directions, enhancing the youth tax culture in the SME sector and the most prominent challenges facing young people at SMEs and their perceptions of facing and overcoming these challenges.
The panels also engaged participants on their innovative ideas, suggestions and opinions for developing and modernizing the processes carried out by the authority, to continuously improve services and procedures.
The holding of these youth circles came as part of the authority’s educational and awareness plan, with the aim of supporting UAE youth in the SME sector and enabling them to achieve tax self-compliance smoothly and easily, during which, the focus was placed on listening to their opinions, suggestions and observations on the procedures and services provided to develop and modernize the authority’s services.
Mr. Khalid Ali Al Bustani remarked about the Youth Circle initiatives
The FTA Director-General further added that, “The authority’s approach of direct engagement with the youth in the business sector by interacting with their opinions and responding to them comes within the framework of the government directives of youth empowerment and activate their role in various sectors, including the economic sector, for the next fifty years, by adopting and supporting the youth’s creative ideas to build the nation’s future, and achieving sustainable growth for the national economy.”
Mr. Al Bustani highlighted that the Authority aims, through these engagements, to spread tax awareness, help businesses overcome challenges, and provide information through specialized teams due to the increased number of inquiries from the SME sector.
The FTA has placed SMEs, which represent a large segment of companies in the UAE that are of strategic importance, amongst its priorities for awareness increase over the past and current years, with a majority of awareness panels focusing on the SME sector.
During the 3 youth panels, a large number of topics were discussed and clarified, including procedures and documents required for registration and deregistration, procedures for submitting reconsideration requests, requests for voluntary disclosures, and documents required to submit refund requests, and stressing the importance of adhering to the requirements of forms approved by the authority. Also, there were matters related to common errors during registration, filing tax returns and paying tax dues, and explaining how to avoid those mistakes.