What happened
The UAE’s Federal Tax Authority (FTA) has launched a new AI-powered digital platform for refunding Value Added Tax (VAT) to tourists, announced on 20 October 2026. It is now operating at Zayed International Airport in Abu Dhabi, Dubai International Airport (DXB) and Sharjah International Airport.
The platform was built with Planet, the authorised operator of the VAT Refund Scheme for Tourists. The FTA says the total time for a tourist to receive a refund is now one business day, against roughly nine days previously.
How the refund works
- Register in the app. The tourist downloads Planet’s mobile app, scans their face and saves images of their passport and bank card.
- Scan at the airport. On departure, the tourist scans a dynamic QR code shown on screens at refund service points. The refund process then starts in the app.
- Verification, only if needed. If a purchase must be inspected, the app notifies the tourist and directs them to a Planet smart gate that uses facial recognition. The gate then points them to a self-service kiosk.
Where no inspection is needed, the FTA says AI identifies the transactions as eligible for automatic refund. The tourist finishes the request in the app, with no in-person check, and the money is paid through the refund method they chose in the app.
The FTA also says the system matches invoice and travel data automatically, offers AI-driven language selection by nationality, and flags unusual patterns during verification to protect public revenue.
FTA Director General Abdulaziz Al Mulla called the launch a “significant advancement in the tourist tax refund journey”.
What it means for you
If you visit the UAE as a tourist, including family or friends travelling from India, the process is app-based and paperless. You need a smartphone, your passport and a bank card to register. Refunds apply to purchases from retail stores connected electronically to the scheme, which issue tourist tax refund tags.
The sources do not give refund rates, minimum spend or eligibility conditions, so check the scheme’s rules before you shop. The FTA says tourists can complete the procedures within minutes before departure. To estimate VAT on a purchase, you can use our GST Calculator for the general method, though UAE rules differ from India’s.
For retailers, the FTA says about 16,700 points of sale are registered and connected to the scheme.
Background
The digital Tourist Tax Refund Scheme began in 2018. Until October 2026 it has refunded about AED 4.2 billion in VAT through 25 million transactions, the FTA said. In 2025, the value of refunds grew 8% and transaction volumes rose 5% from 2024.
A total of 769 retail outlets joined in the first nine months of 2026, after 1,326 in 2025. There are 98 self-service kiosks in shopping centres, hotels and departure points, handling 22.4% of transactions.
Tourist satisfaction was 93% in the first nine months of 2026, versus 92% a year earlier. The FTA expects about four million transactions worth roughly AED 692 million between November 2026 and October 2027.
The authority says the platform builds on earlier steps: a fully digital refund system that is updated regularly, and a separate refund system covering online purchases tourists make while staying in the UAE, which it describes as the first of its kind anywhere.
Other tax authority news in the region is covered in our report on Qatar’s tax authority.
