The UAE Cabinet of ministers issued its resolution No. (82) of 2022 on August 16, 2022, concerning the mechanism for recovering the inputs VAT incurred on the construction and operation of Mosques, which was published in the Official Gazette on August 30, 2022, and will come into effect after 60 days of the date of its publication.
The eligibility to recover the input VAT incurred for the construction and operation of mosques is effective from 01 January 2018.
Important Highlights
- The donor has the right to request the refund of the input VAT incurred for the construction of the mosque in the event that the construction is approved by the competent authority , incurred input VAT directly related to the construction of the mosque and obtains a certificate of the start of operation of the mosque, and that the mosque has been handed over or the mosque has been operated in accordance with the approval issued by the competent authority. For the retention amounts, the decision allowed the donor to submit a subsequent application to the Authority for the refund of input VAT on retained payments related to the construction of the mosque within a calendar year from the date of payment of these payments with proof of payment.
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The decision specified the conditions to be met in the input VAT for goods and services directly related to the construction of the mosque provided that they are not related to the commercial annexes of the mosque or its operation, and the mosque must be registered as a mosque with the competent authority and the operator must hold a written permit of limited duration from the competent authority to operate the mosque for the period for which he applies for refund.
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For the purposes of the above-mentioned operating permit, the competent authority will provide the operator with a fixed-term and renewable written permit for the operation and maintenance of the mosque within (60) days from the date on which the person assumes responsibility for the operation and maintenance of the mosque, the date of entry into force of this decision or the date of renewal of the written permit.
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The competent authority will issue a certificate of start-up within (60) days from the date of completion of the mosque or the date of entry into force of this decision which will include data on the identity of the donor and confirmation of the completion of the mosque in accordance with the conditions specified by it, sufficient information about the mosque that has been built, the date of operation and the date of issuance of the certificate of start-up if they are different.
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Once the refund request is submitted and in accordance with the deadline and periodicity of the request which will be issued by a subsequent decision of the Minister to determine it, the Authority will audit the refund request and verify that the request meets the above conditions and the amount of input VAT incurred by the operator to determine the amount to be refunded to the operator. Also, the Authority can reject the refund request in case the above conditions are not met, and the Authority will issue its final decision on the refund request by accepting or rejecting and doing the necessary to refund the amounts due, if any.
