Dhruva Consultants Real Estate, VAT Health Check & Hospitality Services

VAT health check, advisory and compliance

Sector: Real Estate & Hospitality

Why is it important?
The Group is one of the largest and most renowned real estate conglomerates in the UAE. The Group is diversified into various sectors such as construction, real estate, hospitality, entertainment, etc.

The project involves providing assistance relating to 16 VAT registrations which comprise over 35 entities in terms of advisory, VAT health check, and compliance support. As a part of the project, we assisted in filing clarification before the Federal Tax Authority, provided VAT implications on various transactions carried out by the group, advised on the eligibility of VAT recoverability, advised on the queries related to VAT registration, carried out sample review of contracts/agreements/invoices, reviewed VAT workings and returns, provided assistance for filing refund claims, provided assistance in litigation (reconsideration application) for waiving off penalties, etc.

The project is comparatively complex due to involvement of large volume of transaction scenarios, diversified businesses and multi-divisional operations and multiple VAT registrations.

The project also included deputing staff at the company location for two months. The key task carried out involved providing responses to the queries raised by stakeholders, preparing VAT workings and returns, preparation & filing of VAT refund claims, applying/ carrying out amendment to VAT registrations, assisting the new VAT team settle into the VAT process, reviewing the communication with the tax authorities and also guiding the company’s VAT team, etc.

In addition to above, the project also included VAT health check of companies having complex, voluminous and multi-divisional business operations. The companies for which VAT health check was carried out were different from the
business segments for which routine VAT compliance was done. The health check was conducted for three of the largest entities of the Group which had to be completed in a very short span of two weeks. Dhruva Consultants placed a
dedicated team of more than ten professionals to ensure compliance this was completed in the shortest possible span of time.

As a part of VAT health check, various activities were carried out which included validating the tax position adopted by companies in relation to revenue and expenses, review of sample documents, review of AR & AP process from IT
perspective, review of VAT workings and returns, etc.

We have actively assisted the client in not only obtaining favourable VAT refund orders but also receiving the refund amount of millions of Dirhams into their bank account. During the past one year, we have received encouraging and favourable feedback from the Group.