Written by Gérard Al-Fil, Dubai

The Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA) of the ADGM imposed fines totalling 610,000 dirhams (approximately 166,000 dollars) on 23 companies. According to the FSRA, some of these firms violated accounting standards established in 2017. Additionally, a group of the penalised companies failed to comply with regulations concerning foreign tax compliance introduced in 2022.

No Tax Haven

The FSRA made its position clear on its website, which also reveals the names of the fined firms: «The regulations implement international frameworks that require reportable entities to collect and report information on foreign account holders to combat international tax evasion. The measures taken by the FSRA of the ADGM address a series of violations related to CRS and FATCA compliance.»

The Common Reporting Standard (CRS) is a global standard developed by the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) for the automatic exchange of financial account information for tax purposes.

The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) is a U.S. system for reporting tax information, requiring financial institutions to identify their U.S. accounts through enhanced due diligence and report them regularly to the U.S. tax authority. Additionally, the FSRA stated: «The underlying intergovernmental agreements of the UAE enhance global tax transparency by facilitating the automatic exchange of financial account data between countries.»

«Robust Regulations»

Emmanuel Givanakis, Chief Executive Officer of the FSRA at ADGM, stated: «We are committed to identifying and addressing practices that fall short of our efforts to combat tax evasion by implementing robust and effective regulations in line with leading global compliance and reporting standards.»