If your company's financial year ended on 31 December 2025, your first corporate tax return and the payment that goes with it are due on 30 September 2026. That is about a month away as this is written, and the deadline is not a soft one: the penalty starts accruing the day after.
This is the first time most UAE companies have had to do this. Corporate tax has existed since June 2023, but the first return only falls due nine months after the first full tax period ends, which for the majority of businesses means now.
Who this applies to
Almost everyone. Corporate tax registration is required of every company that holds a UAE trade licence, and the return is required of every registered taxable person, including the ones that made no profit, made a loss, or did not trade at all in the period.
That last point is the one that catches people. A dormant company with a live licence still files. So does a company whose profit came in under the AED 375,000 threshold and therefore owes nothing. The threshold decides what you pay, not whether you file.
- Mainland companies, on any legal form
- Free zone companies, including ones expecting the 0% qualifying rate (see below)
- Branches of foreign companies registered in the UAE
- Natural persons carrying on a business above the turnover threshold
The date, and how it is worked out
The rule is nine months from the end of your tax period. The Federal Tax Authority states it that way rather than as a fixed calendar date, because tax periods differ. For the overwhelming majority of UAE companies the financial year is the calendar year, which produces the 30 September date everyone is talking about.
| Your financial year ended | Return and payment due |
|---|---|
| 31 December 2025 | 30 September 2026 |
| 31 March 2026 | 31 December 2026 |
| 30 June 2026 | 31 March 2027 |
| 30 September 2026 | 30 June 2027 |
Both the return and the payment are due on that date. Filing on time and paying late is still late, and it carries its own penalty.
The seven-month trap nobody mentions
This is the single most misread part of the first filing round. The nine-month rule is the general deadline. The seven-month rule is a condition on a specific concession, and the two get quoted interchangeably by people who have not read either.
What it costs to miss it
The penalties are set out in Cabinet Decision No. 75 of 2023 and they are mechanical. There is no discretion applied at the counter:
| What happened | Penalty |
|---|---|
| Late registration | AED 10,000 |
| Late filing, first 12 months | AED 500 for each month or part month |
| Late filing, from month 13 | AED 1,000 for each month or part month |
| Late payment of tax due | 14% per annum on the unpaid amount |
A dormant company that owes nothing and files six months late still pays AED 3,000 for the privilege. The filing obligation is separate from the paying obligation, and the penalty for ignoring it does not scale with your profit.
Free zone companies file too
A Qualifying Free Zone Person in one of the UAE free zones can access a 0% rate on qualifying income, and a great deal of content online reads that as an exemption from the whole regime. It is not. A qualifying free zone company registers, files, and claims the rate — the 0% is an outcome of the return, not a reason to skip it.
What counts as qualifying income also changed. Ministerial Decision No. 229 of 2025 repealed and replaced Ministerial Decision No. 265 of 2023, which is the decision most articles on this subject still cite. If your adviser is quoting 265, they are quoting a decision that no longer exists. The trade-offs that come with a free zone licence are covered separately in the disadvantages of a free zone company.
How to actually file
- Log in to EmaraTax with the UAE Pass or credentials tied to the taxable person, not to an individual's personal account.
- Confirm your tax period on the registration record. A wrong period end produces a wrong deadline, and it is more common than it sounds on companies whose licence year and financial year differ.
- Prepare financial statements for the period. The return draws from them; it is not a form you can answer from memory.
- Decide on any elections before filing — Small Business Relief being the obvious one, and it is an election you make in the return rather than something applied automatically.
- File and pay together. Two deadlines, one date.
Small Business Relief, if your revenue is under AED 3 million
If revenue was AED 3 million or less in this period and in every previous one, you can elect Small Business Relief and be treated as having no taxable income. You still register and you still file — you elect the relief inside the return.
This was due to end after 2026. On 7 August 2026 the Ministry of Finance announced it has been extended to tax periods ending on or before 31 December 2029, under Ministerial Decision No. 131 of 2026. The threshold is unchanged. Qualifying Free Zone Persons cannot elect it, and neither can members of multinational groups above AED 3.15 billion in consolidated revenue.
What we do
We handle corporate tax registration and filing as part of tax and VAT registration, and for companies we set up it is usually already done. If you are coming to us mid-deadline with a licence and no registration, say so when you write. The order in which things get fixed matters and it is not the order most people assume. If you are still deciding where to register at all, the full cost of starting a business in Dubai sets out what the first year holds, and the cost calculator prices your own case.
Corporate tax filing questions we get asked
Yes. The return is required of every registered taxable person regardless of profit, loss or inactivity. The AED 375,000 threshold decides what you pay, not whether you file.
Same answer. A live trade licence means a live filing obligation. Dormancy is not deregistration, and the AED 500 per month penalty applies to a nil return exactly as it applies to a profitable one.
Nine months from the end of your tax period. A 31 March year end files by 31 December; a 30 June year end files by 31 March. Check the period on your EmaraTax registration rather than assuming it matches your licence year.
No. You register, you file, and you claim it, and you have to meet the conditions for a Qualifying Free Zone Person including on what counts as qualifying income. Ministerial Decision No. 229 of 2025 is the current rule there. It replaced Ministerial Decision No. 265 of 2023, which most articles still quote.
The waiver required the first return to be filed within seven months of the end of the first tax period. For a December year end that window closed on 31 July 2026. If you are outside it, the AED 10,000 penalty stands and the question becomes whether to apply for a waiver on other grounds — which is a separate process with its own evidence requirements.
No. It is an election made inside the return, so filing is how you get it. Revenue must be AED 3 million or less in this period and in every earlier one, and it now runs to tax periods ending on or before 31 December 2029.
File anyway. Late filing and late payment are separate penalties, and filing on time removes one of them. The FTA has an instalment and penalty-waiver request process; it is a real route, but it starts from a filed return.
Accurate as of 29 August 2026. Every figure and date above is from the Federal Tax Authority and the Ministry of Finance. Corporate tax rules have been amended several times since 2023 and will be again, so check the source before acting on anything you read about UAE tax, this page included.
