Rising tax registrations and digital innovation drive higher transactions and customer engagement
Dubai: The Federal Tax Authority confirmed that it achieved significant growth in its operations during the past year, noting an increase in the number of registration transactions, driven by a substantial rise in corporate tax registrants, alongside continued growth in value-added tax and excise tax registrations. The expansion of the Authority’s services was positively reflected in the volume of transactions completed across all sectors, while it strengthened interaction with customers through its innovative digital channels.
This was highlighted in the Federal Tax Authority’s annual report for 2025, issued on its website. The report presented the Authority’s achievements and operational results across all sectors, as well as legislative, procedural and technical tax developments during the past year. These efforts align with the Authority’s policies to encourage creativity and innovation, based on a clear understanding of customer needs and aspirations, through accelerating digital transformation to reinforce the foundations of a smart tax system, while continuing to enhance the efficiency of supervisory procedures to help protect markets and maintain tax fairness.
The report also reviewed the Authority’s achievements in digital transformation, including its intensive efforts to expand the use of artificial intelligence technologies to deliver a qualitative shift in operational efficiency, service quality and transaction speed, alongside various related initiatives.
Revenue
The report revealed that total tax revenues collected from value-added tax and excise tax increased to AED 46 billion in 2025, compared to AED 41 billion in 2024. The total number of transactions completed through the tax registration department rose by more than 20%, reaching approximately 1.7 million transactions. Completed corporate tax registration applications exceeded 245,000, while VAT registration applications reached 98,000 in 2025, and 206 applications for excise tax registration were completed.
It noted that, regarding tax refunds in 2025, the total number of VAT refund requests for tourists reached about 1.7 million, while VAT refund requests for newly constructed citizens’ homes exceeded 7,000. In addition, 289 applications were submitted by retail stores to register in the electronic system for VAT refunds for tourists.
The report explained that the Authority’s continuous development of its services and ongoing efforts to meet client expectations have led to increased engagement across tax knowledge support channels. The total number of transactions received through all communication channels exceeded 625,000 during the past year, marking a 12% increase compared to 2024. Visitors to support centres in Abu Dhabi and Dubai surpassed 21,000, up 10% year-on-year, while the average customer satisfaction rate across all communication channels reached 93%, an improvement of 1.5% compared to 2024.
Inspection visit
According to the report, the Authority continued implementing its monitoring plans, in cooperation with relevant entities, to protect consumer rights, combat tax evasion and enhance tax compliance. It carried out 175,500 field inspection visits across local markets in all emirates during 2025, seizing 29.5 million non-compliant packs of tobacco products that lacked digital tax stamps and were not registered in the Authority’s electronic system. It also seized 7.6 million non-compliant packages of other excise goods, including soft drinks, energy drinks and sweetened beverages.
The report further highlighted the Authority’s continued development of awareness campaigns and diversification of outreach channels to increase beneficiaries across all emirates and reach target groups in the tax sector. A total of 210 tax awareness workshops were conducted, benefiting 122,700 participants.
