A Structured Approach to VAT Implementation

Expert guidance from Ashfaque Patel, General Manager (International Tax) of the Al Futtaim Group

The Al-Futtaim Group made a good faith effort to ensure that its Businesses are ready for VAT on January 1st 2018 in the UAE and KSA. Laying the groundwork for VAT compliance has been a 20-month-long journey for the Al Futtaim Group.

As a large conglomerate with its Headquarters in the UAE, the Group employs more than 42,000 people and comprises a broad range of businesses in the automotive, retail, real estate and finance sectors. With such a vast and diverse organization to plan for, Group Tax took a structured and collaborative approach to VAT preparation, establishing working committees and a core VAT team that represents every single business in the Group. Through a host of training sessions, workshops and webcasts internally, all stakeholders have been exposed to education and training – and they continue to stay informed thanks to a VAT knowledge base that is continually updated.

The VAT readiness Project at the Al Futtaim Group has also delivered significant business benefits.

“When looking at every transaction in every business, we developed a level of intelligence into how business processes are happening. Through this process of mapping transactions and the VAT treatment of them, we identified processes that required improvement. This not only enables us to be VAT compliant, but also allows us to refine and improve our processes to the general betterment of the Group as a whole,” Mr Patel explains.

Learn how your business can use VAT preparation as an opportunity to improve corporate performance and financial transparency.