United Arab Emirates MOF Posts Federal Decree Law Amending VAT Framework

The Emirati Ministry of Finance Dec. 5 posted Federal Decree-Law No. 16 of 2025, amending some provisions of Federal Decree-Law No. 8 of 2017 on the VAT framework, effective Jan. 1, 2026. The decree-law includes measures: 1) exempting a taxable person importing goods or services for purposes of their business from issuing self-invoices when applying the reverse charge mechanism, but requiring them to be able to account for the tax due, such as by maintaining documentation; 2) specifying up to five years from the end of the tax period in which a VAT surplus arose, for submitting a refund request ...