UAE Corporate Tax is no longer new — but it remains unforgiving. The regime under Federal Decree-Law No. 47 of 2022 runs on fixed statutory deadlines, and the Federal Tax Authority applies administrative penalties automatically when they pass. Here are the dates that matter and what they mean in practice.
Registration: the AED 10,000 mistake
Every taxable person must register for Corporate Tax with the FTA, regardless of whether any tax will actually be payable. Registration deadlines are tied to licence issuance dates, and late registration carries a fixed AED 10,000 administrative penalty — levied before a single return is due. If your business holds a UAE licence and has not confirmed its registration position, that is the first item on the list.
The return: nine months, no extensions
Corporate Tax returns must be filed — and any tax paid — within nine months of the end of the relevant financial year. For a business with a December year end, that means the following 30 September. There is no extension mechanism; the date is the date. The practical consequence: your books need to close, reconcile and convert into a tax computation well before the deadline, not during the final month.
Elections are deadline-driven too
Several of the regime's most valuable choices — small business relief, tax grouping, certain free zone positions — must be made in or before the first return in which they apply. Treat the first filing as a strategic event, not an administrative one: positions set now become the baseline the FTA measures you against for years.
Records: seven years of evidence
Taxable persons must retain records and documentation supporting their returns for seven years. In an audit, the burden of evidence sits with you — contemporaneous records, reconciled accounts and documented positions are the difference between a query and an assessment.
What to do now
- Confirm your registration status and deadline — today, if it isn't already done.
- Map your financial year to your filing deadline and build the close timetable backwards from it.
- Assess elections before the first return locks them in.
- Get the books to IFRS standard — the return is only as good as the numbers underneath it.
Valunxt manages the complete corporate tax lifecycle — registration, impact assessment, return filing and FTA support — on transparent fixed fees. If any deadline above is unclear for your business, that conversation is worth having this week, not next quarter.
