Corporate Tax Registration in the UAE

Corporate tax registration is a one-off application to the Federal Tax Authority (FTA), made on the EmaraTax portal, that gives your business a corporate tax registration number. It is a separate application from VAT registration, and it applies far more widely than most owners expect: free-zone companies paying 0% must register, and so must small businesses that will claim Small Business Relief. Registering late carries an administrative penalty of AED 10,000, although the FTA currently cancels or refunds it where the first return is filed within seven months of the first tax period’s end. This page sets out the deadlines that still apply, the EmaraTax steps, and what to do if yours has passed.

The deadlines that apply now:

Register now, or check whether your penalty can be waived. Call +971 56 500 6694, email info@dirhamwise.com, or send us your trade licence through our contact page. We are open Monday to Saturday, 9:00am to 6:00pm.

There is no single national deadline for corporate tax registration. The date depends on what kind of person you are and, for older companies, on when the business was first licensed. The registration timeline is set by FTA Decision 3/2024, which is separate from the filing deadline in the Corporate Tax Law.

Companies incorporated on or after 1 March 2024

A juridical person incorporated, established or otherwise recognised on or after 1 March 2024 must apply for corporate tax registration within three months of the date of incorporation or establishment. The clock runs from the date on the incorporation or licensing document, not from the date you start trading, not from your first invoice, and not from your first financial year-end.

So a company incorporated on 10 August 2026 has until 10 November 2026 to apply. This holds whether the company is on the mainland or in a free zone, whether it has started trading, and whether it expects to pay any tax at all: a company that will make no taxable profit, or that will claim relief, has the same three-month window as everyone else.

Natural persons: sole establishments and freelancers

If you conduct business in the UAE in your own name rather than through a company — a sole establishment, a freelance permit, a professional licence held personally — you are a natural person for corporate tax purposes. You are only required to register once your turnover from business activities first exceeds AED 1,000,000 in a calendar year.

The deadline is 31 March of the following year. If your business turnover first passed AED 1,000,000 during 2026, your registration deadline is 31 March 2027. The point that catches people out is that the test is turnover, not profit: a sole establishment turning over AED 1.4m on a thin margin is over the threshold even if it made very little. The figure to measure is turnover from business activities — if you are unsure what counts in your case, ask before assuming you are under the line.

Companies incorporated before 1 March 2024, and non-residents

Companies that already existed before 1 March 2024 were given staggered deadlines under FTA Decision 3/2024, based on the month in which their earliest licence was issued. Non-resident juridical persons were given their own timelines under the same decision. Every one of those dates has now passed.

We do not reproduce that table here: the dates are historic, and an incorrect row copied from a third-party page is worse than no row at all. If you need the exact date that applied to your licence, check FTA Decision 3/2024 on tax.gov.ae, or send us your trade licence and we will confirm it. What matters now is whether your late registration attracts the AED 10,000 penalty and whether the current waiver can remove it.

Corporate tax is charged at 0% on taxable income up to and including AED 375,000, and 9% above that, the threshold being set by Cabinet Decision 116/2022. Registration, though, is not tied to whether you will actually pay anything. The duty to register is separate from the duty to pay, which is why businesses that owe nothing still get fined for not applying.

Six reasons businesses wrongly assume they do not have to register

• “We are a free-zone company, we are tax free.” A Qualifying Free Zone Person pays 0% on qualifying income and 9% on non-qualifying taxable income. It is still a taxable person. There is no version of the free-zone regime that removes the duty to register and file — “tax free” describes the rate on qualifying income, not the application.
• “We have made no profit.” The penalty for late registration is a fixed amount that does not depend on the tax due. A loss-making or dormant company that misses its date is exposed to it in exactly the same way as a profitable one.
• “Our profit is under AED 375,000.” That figure is the point at which the rate changes from 0% to 9%. It is a rate band, not a registration threshold, and it has no bearing on whether you must apply.
• “We will claim Small Business Relief, so there is nothing to do.” The relief is elected in the corporate tax return. Electing it therefore requires you to be registered and to file.
• “I am a freelancer, not a company.” Correct that you are a natural person, but natural persons whose business turnover first exceeds AED 1,000,000 in a calendar year must register by 31 March of the following year. The test is turnover, not profit.
• “We are exempt.” Registration requirements vary by exemption category, according to the FTA, so being in an exempt category does not automatically mean no application is needed. Check your category on tax.gov.ae, read our page on exempt persons and Small Business Relief, or ask us first.

Small Business Relief deserves one more line because it is the most common reason a small business believes it is outside the system. It is available to resident persons whose revenue is AED 3,000,000 or less in the current tax period and in every previous tax period, and Ministerial Decision 131/2026 extended it to tax periods ending on or before 31 December 2029. Qualifying Free Zone Persons and constituent companies of large multinational groups cannot elect it. A claimant still registers and still files, using a simplified return, by the same deadline as everyone else.

If you are setting up now, you may cross the VAT threshold at the same time — VAT registration is a separate application on the same portal, so see VAT registration if that applies to you.

The application is completed entirely online. In broad terms it asks for four things: details of the entity, identification documents, the details and authorisation of the person signing on the entity’s behalf, and business contact details. Free-zone entities, mainland companies and natural persons are asked for slightly different supporting documents, and the FTA updates its requirements from time to time.

Rather than publish a list that may drift out of date, we work from the FTA’s current EmaraTax corporate tax registration user guide on tax.gov.ae and send you a checklist matched to your entity type before you upload anything. Whatever the list, the documents must be legible, current and consistent with one another: a name or licence number on the application that does not match the document behind it is an avoidable reason for a query. If your licence details have changed recently, update them before you apply rather than after.

1. Create an EmaraTax account, or log in to the one you already have. If your business is already registered for VAT, use the same account rather than opening a second one — the taxable person profile should sit under one login.
2. Select or add the taxable person. Existing registrants select the relevant taxable person from the dashboard. A new business creates the taxable person profile first.
3. Start the corporate tax registration. Choose corporate tax from the list of tax types available for that taxable person and begin a new registration.
4. Complete the entity details. The form asks what kind of person you are and how the business is licensed, so have the trade licence in front of you and copy the details exactly as they appear on it.
5. Complete the identification details. The supporting identification the form asks for varies with entity type, which is why the checklist should be settled before you start.
6. Add the business contact details. Use an address and an email address you actually monitor — FTA correspondence and any queries on the application go there.
7. Add the authorised signatory and the proof of authorisation. The signatory must be the person legally entitled to act for the entity, and the authorisation evidence must support that.
8. Review the declaration and submit. Check every field against the source documents first; corrections after submission take longer than getting it right once.
9. Receive your corporate tax registration number. The FTA issues it once the application is approved. Save the certificate and record the number in your accounting system.

Screen labels and field order change as the FTA updates the portal, so treat the above as the shape of the application rather than a fixed script, and check each screen against the FTA’s current user guide as you go. We do not quote an FTA processing time, because the FTA does not publish one.

Failing to submit a corporate tax registration application within the deadline is an administrative violation carrying a penalty of AED 10,000, under Cabinet Decision 75/2023 as amended by Cabinet Decision 10/2024. It is a fixed amount, and it applies to a business that would have owed no tax just as it does to a profitable one, because the duty to register does not depend on the tax due.

Since April 2025 the FTA has run an initiative that cancels this penalty, or refunds it if it has already been paid, where the taxable person files its first corporate tax return — or its first annual declaration — within seven months of the end of its first tax period, instead of the usual nine. The cancellation is applied by the FTA rather than claimed through an appeal. On 14 May 2026 the FTA reported that more than 68,600 taxable persons had already benefited.

Three conditions are worth reading twice:

• It covers the first tax period only. The relief attaches to the first return a business files. A late registration penalty connected to any later period is outside the initiative.
• Seven months, not nine. You must file two months earlier than the normal deadline. Waiting for the ordinary nine-month date forfeits the waiver, even though the return itself is still on time.
• It is an administrative initiative, not a statutory right. The FTA has published no end date, but it is not a permanent entitlement written into the law. Treat it as something to use now rather than something that will still be there later.

Each of those dates is simply the end of the first tax period plus seven months, and each falls two months before the ordinary nine-month return deadline for the same period. You can check your own position using the FTA’s corporate tax late registration penalty waiver eligibility check.

In practice this turns a penalty problem into a bookkeeping problem: filing two months early means closing the accounts two months early. That is the part we handle. Call +971 56 500 6694 or email info@dirhamwise.com and we will tell you whether your waiver window is still open and what has to be ready to meet it.

Registration starts an annual cycle rather than ending a job.

• Your first tax period. It follows your financial year and determines every later deadline — the return date, the waiver date and your accounting close all hang off it, so get it right at registration.
• Your first return. The corporate tax return must be filed, and any tax paid, no later than nine months after the end of the tax period (Article 53, Federal Decree-Law 47/2022). See corporate tax return filing for the full picture, including the penalties that follow a late return.
• Your records. Corporate tax records must be kept for seven years after the end of the tax period they relate to (Article 56, Federal Decree-Law 47/2022) — longer than the general five-year period under the Tax Procedures Law. In practice that means maintained, reconciled bookkeeping from day one, not a folder of invoices assembled the month before filing.
• Keep your details current. If your licence, address, activity or authorised signatory changes, the registration record has to be updated.
• Closing down. If the business ceases, registration has to be unwound rather than abandoned — see corporate tax deregistration.

We handle the registration end to end from our office in Business Bay:

• An eligibility and deadline check: which deadline applied to your entity, and whether it has passed.
• A document checklist matched to your entity type, prepared from the FTA’s current guidance.
• Preparation and submission of the EmaraTax application, including the authorised signatory section.
• Handling FTA queries on the application until the registration number is issued.
• For late registrants, a waiver-eligibility review: whether the seven-month route is still open, the date you have to hit, and what must be closed in your books to hit it.
• Selection of the first tax period and the diary of deadlines that follows from it.

We quote a fixed fee for registration before any work begins, so you know the cost before you commit. If you also need the underlying accounting kept in order, our monthly accounting and bookkeeping packages are published at AED 950, AED 1,650 and AED 2,150.

How do I register for corporate tax in the UAE?

You apply online through the FTA’s EmaraTax portal. Log in or create an account, select or add the taxable person, start a corporate tax registration, complete the entity, identification, contact and authorised-signatory sections, upload the supporting documents, and submit the declaration. The FTA issues a corporate tax registration number once the application is approved. The step-by-step section above sets out the order.

What is the last date for corporate tax registration in the UAE?

It depends on the type of person. A company incorporated on or after 1 March 2024 must apply within three months of incorporation. A resident natural person must apply by 31 March of the year after the calendar year in which business turnover first exceeded AED 1,000,000. Companies that existed before 1 March 2024, and non-residents, had staggered dates under FTA Decision 3/2024 that have all now passed — if that is you, go straight to the penalty and waiver section.

What is the corporate tax registration deadline for a new company?

Three months from the date of incorporation or establishment, for any juridical person incorporated on or after 1 March 2024. The three months run from the date on the incorporation or licensing document, not from when trading starts. It applies equally to mainland and free-zone companies, and to companies that expect to pay no tax.

Do freelancers and sole establishments need to register for corporate tax?

Only once business turnover first exceeds AED 1,000,000 in a calendar year. From that point, the deadline to register is 31 March of the following year. The test is turnover from business activities, not profit, so a low-margin business can be over the threshold while earning very little.

Do I need to register if I qualify for Small Business Relief?

Yes. Small Business Relief is elected in the corporate tax return, which means the business must be registered and must file. The relief is available to resident persons with revenue of AED 3,000,000 or less in the current tax period and in every previous one, and it now runs to tax periods ending on or before 31 December 2029 following Ministerial Decision 131/2026. Claimants file a simplified return by the normal nine-month deadline. Registering is not optional because the relief applies.

What happens if I registered late for corporate tax? Can the AED 10,000 penalty be waived?

Late registration attracts an administrative penalty of AED 10,000 under Cabinet Decision 75/2023 as amended by Cabinet Decision 10/2024. Under an FTA initiative running since April 2025, that penalty is cancelled — or refunded, if you have already paid it — where the first corporate tax return or annual declaration is filed within seven months of the end of the first tax period, rather than the usual nine. It applies to the first tax period only. The FTA reported more than 68,600 beneficiaries on 14 May 2026 and has published no end date, but it is an administrative initiative rather than a statutory right. You can check your position on the FTA’s waiver eligibility checker.

What documents are required for corporate tax registration?

The application asks for entity details, identification and licensing documents, proof of the authorised signatory’s authority to act for the entity, and business contact details — with some variation between mainland companies, free-zone entities and natural persons. Because the FTA updates its requirements, we work from the current EmaraTax corporate tax registration user guide on tax.gov.ae and send you a checklist for your specific entity type rather than a generic list. Consistency matters as much as completeness: the details on the application should match the documents uploaded with it exactly.

Three weeks past incorporation or two years past your deadline, the next step is the same: a short call to establish which date applies to you and what it takes to put right. Call +971 56 500 6694, email info@dirhamwise.com, or use our contact form. We are at ParkLane Tower, Park Regis, Business Bay, Dubai, open Monday to Saturday, 9:00am to 6:00pm. Once you are registered, we can also take on your corporate tax return filing.