Tax desk · CT
UAE corporate tax, handled end to end.
Registration, adjustments, return preparation and filing, plus the relief claims and free zone reviews that decide what you actually pay. Signed off by an FTA-registered tax agent.
- Headline rate
- 9%
- Applies above
- AED 375,000
- Return due
- 9 months after FY end
- Typical onboarding
- 10–14 days
Who this is for
If you hold a UAE licence, this applies to you.
Corporate tax is not limited to large groups. Registration is an obligation for almost every licensed business, including those that will end up paying nothing.
Check where you stand- Mainland LLCs and sole establishments
- Free zone companies, including qualifying free zone persons
- Branches of foreign companies
- Holding structures and group entities
- Natural persons with business income over AED 1m a year
- Businesses that expect to owe nothing but must still register
Falling under the AED 375,000 threshold removes the tax, not the filing. Businesses below the threshold still register and still submit a return, and late registration carries an administrative penalty in its own right.
Two-minute check
Do you have to register، and will you actually pay?
Three questions. It gives you the general position for a business like yours, which is enough to know whether this is urgent. It is not a substitute for advice on your specific structure.
Scope of work
What the engagement covers
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Register
Registration
EmaraTax registration, tax period alignment, and clearing any late-registration penalty already sitting on the account.
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Position
Tax position review
Small Business Relief eligibility, qualifying free zone income testing, group relief and transfer pricing exposure.
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Prepare
Computation
IFRS financials converted to a taxable income computation, with every add-back and exemption documented in the working papers.
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File
Filing & defence
Submission through EmaraTax, plus responses to any FTA query, clarification request or audit that follows.
The numbers
How the rate is actually applied
The headline is 9%, but the effective rate depends on your structure, your reliefs and where your income is earned. These are the bands we work from.
| Taxable income | Rate |
|---|---|
| Up to AED 375,000 | 0% |
| Above AED 375,000 | 9% |
| Qualifying free zone income | 0% |
| Non-qualifying free zone income | 9% |
Large multinational groups within scope of Pillar Two are subject to a separate domestic minimum top-up regime. Rates current at August 2026, confirm your position with us before relying on them.
Engagement options
Three ways to work with the tax desk
Fees are quoted after a scoping call, because they depend on entity count, transaction volume and the state of your books, not on a list price.
Registration only
Newly licensed businesses that are not yet trading.
- EmaraTax corporate tax registration
- Tax period confirmation
- Written summary of your obligations
- Deadline calendar for year one
Register & file
Trading businesses with one UAE entity and clean books.
- Everything in Registration only
- Annual taxable income computation
- Relief and exemption claims
- Return prepared, reviewed and filed
- Working papers retained for seven years
Group & advisory
Multi-entity groups, free zone structures and cross-border flows.
- Everything in Register & file
- Tax group formation and consolidation
- Transfer pricing documentation
- Qualifying income substantiation
- Quarterly partner review
Inside this line
What sits under Tax & Compliance Advisory
9 services on this desk. Most engagements use two or three of them.
Free Zone Corporate Tax Advisory
Qualifying income tested transaction by transaction
Read moreQuestions we get weekly
Corporate tax, answered plainly.
Yes. A return is required whether or not tax is payable. Filing a loss year also matters commercially: tax losses can generally be carried forward and set against future taxable income, but only if the loss year was properly reported.
Not automatically. A free zone entity can access the 0% rate only on income that meets the qualifying tests, and only while it maintains adequate substance in the zone. Income that falls outside those tests is taxed at 9%.
This is the single most common area where we find a filed position that will not survive review.
An election that lets a business under the revenue threshold be treated as having no taxable income for the period. It reduces the compliance burden considerably, but it is an election, it has to be claimed on the return, it is not applied for you, and taking it has consequences for carried-forward losses.
An administrative penalty is applied for late registration. It is fixed rather than proportional, so it does not grow with revenue, but it does not disappear on its own either. Where there is reasonable cause, a reconsideration request can be submitted, and we handle those. The important step is to register now: the exposure stops accruing once you are on the system.
It depends on revenue and on whether you are in a tax group or claiming free zone status. Even where an audit is not strictly required, the return has to be built on IFRS-compliant financials, so the books need to be in that shape either way.
Yes, and it is a large part of what we do. We review the prior year before we touch the current one, because an inherited position you have not verified is an inherited risk. If we find something we disagree with, you get it in writing with the options before anything is filed.
Related
Usually engaged alongside
Talk to the tax desk
Bring us your financial year end. We will tell you what is due.
A 30-minute call with a tax partner, no charge, no obligation. You leave with your filing dates and a written view of which reliefs you can claim.
Not sure of your deadline?
The deadline checker on the homepage turns your financial year end into an exact filing date in one step.
Open the deadline checker