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For UAE businesses with a 31 December financial year-end, September 30 is an important Corporate Tax compliance checkpoint. The Federal Tax Authority generally requires a taxable person to submit its Corporate Tax return and settle any Corporate Tax due within nine months from the end of the relevant Tax Period. For a 31 December 2025 Tax Period, that means the deadline falls on September 30, 2026.

The deadline is not just an administrative date. It is the point at which the business confirms its tax treatment for the year, reports taxable income, claims available reliefs and exemptions, and makes elections that may affect future periods.

The first step is to confirm the Tax Period and deadline rather than relying on a calendar reminder. Companies with a different financial year-end will normally have a different filing date. The FTA has also reminded taxpayers that the return and payment should be completed within the applicable legal timeframe.

Next, finance teams should reconcile accounting profit to taxable income. This means reviewing exempt income, non-deductible expenditure, entertainment costs, interest limitation rules, related-party transactions, and any adjustments required under the UAE Corporate Tax Law. The accounting profit in the financial statements is not automatically the taxable income reported in the return.

Businesses should then review whether they qualify for Small Business Relief. The relief can apply where revenue does not exceed AED 3 million in the relevant Tax Period and each previous Tax Period, subject to the detailed conditions. It is not available to a Qualifying Free Zone Person or to a member of a multinational enterprise group that is required to prepare a Country-by-Country Report.

Small Business Relief should not be selected automatically. A company may have no current Corporate Tax to pay under the ordinary rules because taxable income is within the AED 375,000 zero-rate band, while still preserving tax losses and other future benefits by filing under the normal regime. Tax losses and net interest expenditure incurred during a Small Business Relief period are not available for future carry-forward, so the decision needs to be modelled rather than treated as a simple zero-tax choice.

The return should also be checked for elections. Options relating to qualifying Free Zone status, the realisation basis, tax groups, and other treatments may create consequences beyond the current year. The FTA has stated that elections made in a Corporate Tax return are generally final upon submission, subject to the applicable rules and correction processes.

A practical pre-submission review should include:

The FTA’s official guidance should be checked for the latest requirements, and businesses should retain the records supporting their return. A disciplined review before submission is usually far less expensive than correcting an unsupported position after filing.

Source: Federal Tax Authority, “Corporate Tax returns and settlement of Corporate Tax liabilities within nine months from the end of the Tax Period”: https://tax.gov.ae/en/media.centre/news/federal.tax.authority.urges.submission.of.corporate.tax.returns.and.settlement.of.corporate.tax.liabilities.within.nine.months.from.the.end.of.the.tax.period.aspx

This article is general information and is not a substitute for advice on a specific business or Tax Period.

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