The FTA by the numbers: awareness, inspections and tourist VAT refunds

The Federal Tax Authority’s recent releases give a useful picture of where its attention sits.

• Awareness: events drew nearly 34,000 participants in the first half of 2026, up 23.3%.
• Inspections: 103,680 visits in six months, up 21%.
• Excise enforcement: 8.5 million non-compliant excise products seized, tied to AED 174 million in tax liabilities and administrative penalties.
• Tourist VAT refunds: more than 19,300 retail outlets are now connected to the digital tourist refund system.

The direction is plain: more education, more checking, and more digital connection between taxpayers and the Authority. For finance teams that means clean records, timely returns and systems that can share data.