The Federal Tax Authority recognises the pivotal role small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) play in ensuring the success of income diversification policies and the development of national human resources, and with that in mind, have made supporting this vital sector a top priority. The FTA provides various forms of assistance to facilitate business operations and seamless tax compliance, and enable SMEs to contribute to government efforts aimed at empowering the youth and ensuring their active participation across all sectors. This is critical given that SMEs constitute the majority of businesses operating in the UAE.

Furthermore, the Authority adopts a comprehensive strategy across multiple fronts to offer continuous support and implement innovative solutions that ensure tax compliance for companies. The Authority is offering services in line with the "Zero Government Bureaucracy" or the ZGB programme, which aims to simply the administrative process. The ZGB programme aims to enhance the levels of government efficiency, quality and flexibility by eliminating redundant procedures and requirements.

A key initiative in this area is the Muwafaq Package, launched to facilitate business operations and ensure tax compliance. The package offers a range of services, incentives, and benefits, including expedited tax registration processes for entrepreneurs, appointing tax agents for SMEs (based on their classification), supplying SMEs with tax accounting software at competitive prices, prioritising SMEs for certain services provided by the FTA, and a variety of features encouraging tax compliance, including discounted services from Tax Agents. These incentives have led to an increased demand for the Muwafaq Package which witnessed a substantial increase in the number of registrations resulting in more than 54,000 beneficiaries. The Authority made more than 43,990 calls to the package subscribers raising the happiness index of its users to 96%. The promotional videos for the package also generated a lot of interest among the users with more than 1.23 million views.

The Federal Tax Authority is keen to promote a tax culture, and to that end, it allocates a significant portion of its awareness activities and programmes to SME owners. Following the introduction of the Corporate Tax Law, which went into effect in June 2023, the Authority launched a comprehensive campaign to raise awareness about Corporate Tax among business sectors. As part of this campaign, a series of workshops and informational sessions were held targeting SMEs. The sessions highlighted the facilities provided for SMEs under the Corporate Tax Law, along with the process for implementing provisions in the Law regarding eligibility for facilities designed to support startups and micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) and reduce their Corporate Tax burdens and compliance costs.

The Federal Tax Authority will continue to provide technical and educational support, offering unlimited assistance through proactive facilities and services that encourage tax compliance in the SMEs sector, which offers fertile ground for creating promising employment and investment opportunities that support economic development and enhance the UAE's competitiveness across all sectors.

Khalid Ali Al Bustani

Director General of the Federal Tax Authority