Clearing out all the mess, simple test is if you business made more than AED 375,000 in last 12 years than your business should register for VAT.
If above condition is not met than consider if your business is expecting to make revenue of more than AED 375,000 in upcoming month than your business should register.
After considering above two points, refer to some VAT consultant to inquire if you business activity is “exempt from VAT”, if your main business activity is exempt than you don’t need to register for VAT regardless of revenue.
If your annual revenue is more than AED150 million than you must have been registered by 31st Oct 2017.
The business with revenue exceeding AED 10 million must be registered by 30th Nov 2017-11-17.
All other business are required to submit the vat registration request to Government of UAE before 4th of Dec.
Yes every business has to keep accounting records so that FTA is able to access whether business was supposed to register or not. So, yes every business has to do proper bookkeeping and accounting records.
FTA has announced fines for non compliance that range from AED 10,000 to AED 50,000.