The UAE Corporate Tax return is generally due within nine months of the end of the relevant tax period, and payment is due on the same date. That single sentence produces a different deadline for almost every business, because it counts from your financial year end rather than from a fixed national date.
Working out your date
Count nine months forward from the last day of your financial year:
- Year end 31 December means a deadline around 30 September the following year
- Year end 31 March means a deadline around 31 December
- Year end 30 June means a deadline around 31 March the following year
Businesses with a December year end are the largest group, which means a heavy concentration of work in the third quarter. If you are in that group and you use an accountant, the practical implication is that August and September are the worst possible months to arrive with unreconciled books.
Payment is not a separate deadline
Filing and payment fall together. There is no comfortable gap in which the return is submitted and the money is found afterwards. If your return produces a liability, that amount needs to be available on the same date, which makes the Corporate Tax payment a cash flow event that belongs in your forecast. We cover this in cash-flow planning.
Your first tax period is often not twelve months
Newly incorporated companies frequently have a first period that is longer or shorter than a year, depending on incorporation date and the financial year they adopt. The nine month count runs from the end of that first period, whatever its length. Do not assume a standard calendar simply because the company is new.
What to do six months out
Three months before the deadline is late to start. At the six month mark the useful actions are:
- Confirm the books are closed and reconciled to the year end
- Identify the adjustments needed to move from accounting profit to taxable income
- Confirm whether any elections or reliefs apply, and whether they are worth taking
- Establish the likely liability so the cash can be planned rather than found
The businesses that find filing painless are not the ones with simple affairs. They are the ones whose bookkeeping was maintained monthly, so the return is a summary of records that already exist.
Missing the date
Late Corporate Tax payment currently attracts AED 500 for each month or part month during the first twelve months, rising to AED 1,000 per month from the thirteenth month onward. Penalties accumulate. If a deadline has passed, the priority is to file rather than to keep refining. A filed return with a small correction later is a better position than an unfiled one.
This guide is general information about UAE tax compliance, not advice on a specific business. Rates, thresholds and deadlines change. Check current Federal Tax Authority guidance, or ask us to review your position, before acting on anything here.