MoF holds a Tax Treaty Workshop

MoF holds a Tax Treaty Workshop about Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS)

The Ministry of Finance (MoF) in collaboration with the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) organized the Tax Treaty Workshop.

On December 8, 2014, a Tax Treaty Workshop was held in Dubai, which was hosted by the MoF. The workshop intended to reconfirm the MoF’s commitment in cooperating closely with both regional and international partners. The workshop was co-hosted by the OECD and was named ‘Taking tax treaty work related to BEPS forward.’

The workshop covered a range of important issues. Some of these topics included a legal and logistic study of the process linked with creating introducing new tax treaties, the challenges entailed in e-commerce, BEPS discussions, the crediting of profits to establishments, manners in which to improve exchanging information amongst countries as well as OECD models concerning tax treaties and modifications and explanations about memorandums. The workshop that was held is the eighth in total that has been co-organized by the MoF and OECD.

Besides MoF employees, representatives around the world including Bahrain, Kuwait, Bermuda, Romania, Kosovo, Sri Lanka, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Nigeria, Malta, Cameroon and Sudan attended the workshop. Additionally, local UAE entities also were present at the workshop including representatives from the UAE Central Bank, UAE Free Zones, UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and various finance departments, the Emirates and the Abu Dhabi National Energy Company (TAQA) and Etihad Airways.

Since 1987, the UAE has created a large tax treaty network with multiple trading partners throughout the world. At present, it has established 78 tax treaty agreements. Its immense experience in the field has helped the MoF to obtain logistical and legal expertise concerning closing agreements and conforming to all the necessary requirements.