UAE FTA Audit File (FAF) & 5-Year Record Retention: How to Prepare for a Tax Audit

What Is the UAE FTA Audit File (FAF)?

During a tax review or audit conducted under Federal Decree-Law No. 28 of 2022 on Tax Procedures, the UAE Federal Tax Authority (FTA) requires the taxable person to submit transactional accounting data in the standardized FTA Audit File (FAF) format (CSV or XML).

The FAF specification consists of five core data tables:

  1. Company Information (CompInfo): Taxable person legal name, 15-digit VAT TRN, Corporate Tax TRN, and audit period start/end dates.
  2. Customer & Supplier Master Files (CustSup): Counterparty names, countries, Emirates, and 15-digit TRNs.
  3. Purchase Listings (PurcList): Line-by-line input invoices, import declarations, supplier TRNs, AED net amounts, and recoverable input VAT.
  4. Supply Listings (SuppList): Line-by-line output Tax Invoices, invoice dates, buyer TRNs, Emirate codes (AUH, DXB, SHJ, AJM, UAQ, RAK, FUJ), foreign currency amounts, and AED VAT amounts.
  5. General Ledger (GL): Complete debit/credit journal entries tying back to Form VAT 201.

Mandatory Record Retention Periods in the UAE

  • 5 Years after the end of the tax period to which they relate (standard VAT rule under Article 78 of the VAT Executive Regulations).
  • 7 Years from the end of the relevant tax period for Corporate Tax records (Article 56 of Federal Decree-Law No. 47 of 2022).
  • 15 Years for records relating to real estate and capital assets scheme adjustments.

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