Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, 24 February 2023: The Ministry of Finance (MoF) issued a Ministerial Decision on the Criteria and Conditions for Electronic Commerce for Record Keeping of the Supplies Made. The decision came following the issuance of Cabinet Decision No. 99 of 2022 on the amendment of some provisions of Cabinet Decision No. (52) of 2017 on the Executive Regulation of Federal Decree-Law No. (8) of 2017 on VAT, which has amended Article 72 of the Executive Regulation and introduced for some taxable persons (whose value of e-commerce supplies of goods and services exceeds AED 100 million) the requirement to keep records of e-commerce transactions according to the Emirate in which these supplies are received. As per the decision, a supply of goods and services shall be considered to be an electronic commerce supply made via an electronic commerce medium where all of the following criteria and conditions are met:
● The goods and services are listed or advertised on an electronic commerce medium;
● The goods and services are ordered through the electronic commerce medium, regardless of whether the payment is made online or not;
● In the case of a supply of goods, the goods are delivered to a location specified by the customer whereby this location is not owned by the supplier nor operated by that supplier.
● In the case of a supply of services, the services are provided, or the right to receive the services is granted to the customer with minimal or no human intervention.
The decision defines an electronic commerce medium as “A website, portal, gateway, interface, platform, marketplace, programme interface (API), or similar application which facilitates the sale of Goods or Services, including electronic means, electronic platform, a store in social media and electronic applications or similar applications.” The decision defining the criteria and conditions for electronic commerce for record keeping of the supplies made, the Federal Decree-Law No. (8) of 2017 regarding value-added tax and its amendments, and the Cabinet Decision No. (52) of 2017 regarding the executive regulations of Federal Decree-Law No. (8) for the year 2017 regarding value-added tax and its amendments are accessible in their full form through the website of the Ministry of Finance on: www.mof.gov.ae