Every day
To the tax authority, with all due appreciation and thanks!
Sami Al Riyami
reyami@emaratalyoum.comsamialreyami
March 17, 2021
A pivotal and effective role, and a huge effort, that the Federal Tax Authority has been doing since the beginning of the application of the tax system in the UAE, there is no doubt about that at all. He thinks about its applicability, and this work is no doubt not easy at all.
The authority also ably undertook the creation of a world-class legislative and technical structure that adopts the most recent systems in force, to implement the new tax system in the country, in a manner that guarantees protection of rights and transparency of transactions.
It has also developed its electronic systems, in line with the development and renaissance of the Emirates, all of this and the most appreciated effort that no fairer can ignore, but as it is said, the matter is not without "flaws", here and there, it may be unrelated and has nothing to do with the tax law, Or its executive regulations, but it can be traced back to another reason, related to an old legacy, and known practices from long years, and still in existence, such as that (old) sponsor who trusts his sponsor for many reasons, and makes him act completely, and in a way that may expose the guarantor to accountability or the fine!
Many citizens, and even older female citizens, no longer have the ability to start work, or even follow it on their own, due to their old age, satisfactory conditions or other reasons, and they give all the powers to the sponsored person, who acts in behaviors and practices that violate the authority’s instructions and laws, and require imposing fines.
A realistic example of this, says a female citizen, an elderly woman: “I have a grocery store that I leave running to a worker of Asian nationality, who sold cigarettes without a tax stamp and tampered with the tax number, without my knowledge of course, which exposed me to fines of approximately 150,000 dirhams.”
She explains that she submitted to the Authority a request for reconsideration, but the response came with the necessity to pay the fine, and then resort to the tax court.
Legally, the commission and its employees cannot be blamed, for what they did is identical and legally correct, but the matter has a human dimension that must be taken into account in such cases, which are certainly not individual, and not limited to this citizenship only, but is very likely to be repeated in other models, under what It is called the "sleeping sponsor"!
Therefore, society first needs comprehensive awareness, especially this group that guarantees and does not know what the sponsored person is doing, and when every employer who does not engage in it himself knows that he is liable to a fine or imprisonment in relation to his tax obligations, he will inevitably follow the matter himself.
Secondly, we also need to reconsider the issue of the violator paying the tax fines in full, and then referring to the court, especially in light of the current circumstances, and it is better to postpone the collection until after a final judgment is issued by the court, and this is the best solution for everyone!
The third important matter is the necessity of forming a committee to look into the difficult and humanitarian cases of elderly citizens, or others who have been subjected to large fines, as a result of the practices of their sponsors, without guilt, but they have given their confidence to those who are not worthy.
We hope that the Commission and its officials, who are of great competence and human sense, will find a way to apply the spirit of law to such cases, with compassion for the elderly citizens and citizens who may constitute a "grocery" or a small business, their main income.
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reyami@emaratalyoum.com
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reyami@emaratalyoum.com