Jigar Shah

Corporate Tax, Withholding Tax, Transfer pricing, Tax residency certificate:

• Implementation of corporate tax for UAE entities of organization (Total turnover of AED 200 million) through qualitative and quantitative assessments, while also ensuring compliance with Transfer Pricing regulations for related and connected persons.
• Successfully interpreted and applied Double Taxation Avoidance Agreements (DTAA) to minimize tax liabilities for organization in cross-border transactions.
• Facilitated issuance of tax residence certificates requested by clients to avail of reduced withholding tax rates, ensuring compliance and liaisoning with relevant tax authorities.
• Implementation of transfer pricing policies for MENA region for inter-company transactions and liaisoning with consultants for benchmarking of specific transactions.

Country-by-country Reporting(CbCR) and Economic Substance Reporting (ESR):

- Providing support to management for gathering information required for submission of CbCR notification of group entities and submitting information to UPE for submission of CbCR report.

- Preparation and gathering relevant information for timely submission of ESR notifications and reports to the tax authority on an annual basis.

Value-Added Tax:

• Timely preparing, review and submitting VAT returns to Federal Tax Authority for all group entities in UAE.
• Monitoring operational business units with their day-to-day VAT compliance queries, contracts, Terms of Business contracts, specific client related issues in UAE.
• Developed VAT Controls and conducted quarterly compliance checks to ensure smooth business processes.
• Preparation of VAT Manual for the MENA region as an easy reference for all the business units.
• Introduction of new reconciliation process to streamline the VAT reconciliation on monthly basis
• Ensuring the organization is up to date on amendments in tax legislations and timely updating the company VAT manual
• Maintaining the FATF format of each VAT submissions for all UAE entities as mandated by the tax authority.
• Supported financial director with special projects and additional job duties

UAE VAT Implementation:

• High level analysis of tax implications on proposed transaction to be undertaken in various GCC countries;
• Assisted in VAT Implementation of listed companies in UAE including eminent insurance and reinsurance companies and other sectors implementation including retail and reinsurance brokers, Education, Retail Sector and banking;
• Deep-dive understanding of transactions of the business for various clients and their transaction flow;
• Identification of hidden transactions due to the accounting structure adopted by the companies in pre-tax period in the region and advising on VAT implication of such transactions.

Ongoing compliance and post-implementation support:

• Submission of VAT refunds application in FAF format for clients (refund amount - AED 25million).
• Assisting clients in submission of voluntary disclosures due to errors and omission identified in past VAT returns submitted to the Tax Authority;
• Assisting clients in litigation process at various stages including reconsideration, Tax Dispute Resolution Committee, Federal Primary Court for specific issues raised by the authority;
• Preparation of SOPs for guidance and imparting training to all the departments of the clients regarding VAT & relevant regulations;
• Drafting clarifications and memo's for specific queries raised by clients and assisted them for correct submission of such request to Federal Tax Authority.