How to File Corporate Tax in UAE: Step by Step

What UAE corporate tax is, in plain English

UAE corporate tax is a federal tax on business profit, introduced by Federal Decree-Law No. 47 of 2022. It applies to financial years starting on or after 1 June 2023, which for most small companies means the year that began on 1 January 2024 was their first taxable period.

It is administered by the Federal Tax Authority (FTA) and everything happens inside the EmaraTax portal, the same system you already use for VAT if you are VAT registered. Corporate tax is completely separate from VAT though. Filing your quarterly or monthly VAT201 return does not cover corporate tax, and being under the VAT registration threshold does not exempt you from corporate tax.

The rate structure is simple. The first AED 375,000 of taxable income is taxed at 0%, and anything above that is taxed at 9%. A separate 15% domestic minimum top-up tax applies to very large multinational groups, which is not something a typical UAE shop, restaurant or trading company needs to worry about.

This article is general information, not tax advice. Corporate tax rules and decisions are still being updated, so confirm current rules with the Federal Tax Authority or a qualified UAE tax professional before you file.

Who has to register and file

The safe assumption is that if you run a business in the UAE, you register. Registration is not based on how much profit you make, so a company that lost money in its first year still has to register and still has to file a return.

• Mainland LLCs and other UAE incorporated companies, including single shareholder companies.
• Free zone companies, including those that expect to qualify for the 0% Qualifying Free Zone Person rate. Qualifying does not remove the obligation to register and file.
• Branches of foreign companies operating in the UAE, and foreign companies considered UAE resident because they are effectively managed and controlled here.
• Natural persons, including sole establishments and freelancers holding a licence, once their annual turnover from business activities exceeds AED 1 million.
• Not covered: salaried employment income, personal investment income and personal real estate income earned by an individual without a licence.
• Government entities, extractive businesses and qualifying public benefit or investment funds may be exempt, but usually only after applying to the FTA.

Key dates you cannot miss

Your tax period is normally your financial year. Both the return and the payment are due within nine months of the end of that period, and there is no separate later payment date, so plan cash flow for the same deadline.

Penalties are real. Late registration attracts an administrative penalty of AED 10,000. Late filing currently attracts AED 500 for each month or part month for the first twelve months, rising to AED 1,000 per month from the thirteenth month. Penalty amounts are set by Cabinet Decision and can change, so check the current schedule with the FTA.

• Financial year ending 31 December 2025: register if you have not already, file and pay by 30 September 2026.
• Financial year ending 31 March 2026: file and pay by 31 December 2026.
• Financial year ending 30 June 2026: file and pay by 31 March 2027.
• First short tax period after incorporation: still nine months from the end of that period, which often lands sooner than owners expect.
• Records supporting the return: keep for seven years after the end of the relevant tax period.

How to file your UAE corporate tax return

1. 1

   Register on EmaraTax and get your corporate tax number

   Log in to the EmaraTax portal with your UAE Pass or account credentials, open the taxable person profile for your company and start a Corporate Tax registration. You will need the trade licence, Memorandum of Association or equivalent, Emirates ID and passport copies for owners and authorised signatory, and proof of authorisation such as a Power of Attorney. Approval gives you a corporate tax registration number, which is different from your VAT number if you have one.

2. 2

   Confirm your tax period and first deadline

   Check the financial year stated in your licence or Articles. That is your tax period unless the FTA has approved a change. Write the filing deadline, exactly nine months after the year end, into your calendar with a reminder ninety days earlier so you have time to close the books.

3. 3

   Close your books for the full financial year

   Reconcile every bank and card account to the last day of the year, chase and record unpaid customer invoices, enter all supplier bills, post depreciation, count and value closing stock, and make sure owner drawings and personal spending are not sitting in business expenses. Corporate tax starts from accounting profit, so a clean trial balance is the whole job.

4. 4

   Prepare financial statements on the right basis

   UAE corporate tax works from IFRS financial statements. Businesses with revenue of AED 50 million or less may generally use IFRS for SMEs, and businesses with revenue of AED 3 million or less may apply to use the cash basis. Larger businesses above the revenue threshold set by the Ministry of Finance must have audited financial statements, so ask your accountant early whether an audit applies to you.

5. 5

   Work out taxable income from accounting profit

   Start with net profit, then apply the adjustments in the law. Common ones for small businesses are adding back the non-deductible half of entertainment costs, adding back fines and penalties, adding back any donation to a non approved body, adjusting for related party transactions that were not at market value, and applying the interest deduction limits if you carry significant borrowing.

6. 6

   Decide on reliefs and elections

   This is where you choose Small Business Relief if your revenue is AED 3 million or less, or claim the 0% Qualifying Free Zone Person rate if you genuinely meet the qualifying income and substance conditions. Some elections are irrevocable or apply for several years, so this is the step where a short conversation with a UAE tax professional pays for itself.

7. 7

   Complete and submit the return in EmaraTax

   Open the Corporate Tax tile, start the return for the relevant period and work through the schedules: taxable person details, accounting figures, adjustments, reliefs, tax liability and any carried forward losses. Save as you go, review the summary against your own workings, tick the declaration and submit. Download the confirmation and reference number for your records.

8. 8

   Pay any tax due before the deadline

   Pay through EmaraTax using GIBAN bank transfer, card or an approved channel, allowing several working days for a bank transfer to clear. The payment must reach the FTA by the same nine month deadline, not simply be initiated by it.

9. 9

   File your supporting records and start the next year clean

   Save the submitted return, financial statements, adjustment workings and payment proof in one folder for seven years. Then set up the coming year so month end is closed every month, which turns the next filing into a review instead of a rescue mission.

Small Business Relief: the shortcut most shops qualify for

Small Business Relief lets a resident business elect to be treated as having no taxable income for a tax period. If your revenue is AED 3 million or less in the current tax period and in every previous tax period, and you are not part of a large multinational group or a Qualifying Free Zone Person, you can elect for it. As currently legislated, the relief is available for tax periods ending on or before 31 December 2026.

Two things trip owners up. First, the AED 3 million test is on revenue, meaning total sales, not profit, so a busy grocery or restaurant with thin margins can easily fall outside it. Second, the relief does not remove the paperwork. You still register, you still file a return on time, and you still tick the election inside that return. Skipping the return because you owe nothing is exactly how businesses collect late filing penalties.

If you elect the relief you also cannot use tax losses or excess interest from that period later on, so if you had a genuinely loss making year it is worth checking whether carrying the loss forward is worth more than the simplicity. Again, confirm the current thresholds and end date with the Federal Tax Authority or a qualified local tax professional, because these are the details most likely to be extended or changed.

Records the FTA expects you to have

The FTA can ask you to support any figure on the return. In practice that means being able to produce the underlying document within a reasonable time, for seven years after the tax period ends.

• Sales invoices, POS daily sales summaries and credit notes, matched to what actually landed in the bank.
• Supplier invoices and receipts for every expense claimed, including small cash purchases.
• Bank and card statements with a documented reconciliation to your ledger.
• Payroll records, WPS files, and any end of service provision workings.
• Fixed asset register with purchase dates, cost and depreciation.
• Stock counts and valuation workings at the year end.
• Related party and connected person transactions, including anything paid to owners or to another company you control, with evidence the pricing was at market value.
• The transfer pricing disclosure form and, for larger groups, documentation supporting it.

Mistakes that cost UAE small businesses money

• Assuming a free zone licence means nothing to file. Free zone companies register and file like everyone else, and the 0% rate has conditions to prove.
• Assuming no profit means no return. A zero liability return is still a return, and missing it starts the monthly penalty clock.
• Mixing personal and business spending in one account, which forces messy add backs and weakens your position if the FTA asks questions.
• Paying yourself or a related company a fee that is not at market value and not documented.
• Leaving the accounts untouched for twelve months, then trying to reconstruct them in the final weeks before the deadline.
• Treating VAT and corporate tax as one job. They use different rules, different returns and different deadlines.
• Initiating a bank transfer on the deadline day and assuming it counts as paid on time.

Staying filing ready all year with Tallium AI

Corporate tax filing is a bookkeeping problem wearing a tax costume. If your sales, purchases, stock and bank movements are recorded accurately as they happen, the return becomes a review. If they are not, you are paying someone to rebuild a year of history under deadline pressure.

Tallium AI is one app that holds the whole picture. Accounting, invoicing, VAT handling, expenses, POS, inventory, e-commerce, plus Marketing and CRM from the Tallium AI suite, all sit under a single account, so your shop till, your online store and your ledger are the same set of numbers rather than three exports that never quite agree.

The AI side does the tedious part. Snap a supplier receipt with the mobile app and it is read, categorised and attached to the transaction, so the evidence trail the FTA expects is built as you go instead of being hunted down later. Bank reconciliation, aged receivables, profit and loss and balance sheet reports are there whenever your accountant asks, and AI insights flag the odd movements that usually turn into year end adjustments.

Pricing is one flat monthly price per unit in US dollars, billed monthly from signup, cancel anytime: $79 for a shop or store, $159 for an online store, $99 for a warehouse and $269 for a factory. Every unit includes the full core, and every plan includes unlimited users with no per-seat fees, so your accountant, your manager and your cashiers can all be in the system without the bill moving. See the full breakdown on the pricing page, and email support@tallium.online if you want help mapping your chart of accounts before your next filing.