UAE Corporate Tax Filing Deadline 2026: 30 September

19 June 2026 — Insight Advisory — insightadvisory.ae

Businesses with a financial year ending 31 December 2025 must file their first UAE corporate tax return and settle any tax due by 30 September 2026, the same date by which any transfer pricing disclosure must reach the Federal Tax Authority. This briefing sets out the UAE corporate tax filing deadline 2026, what has to be submitted alongside the return, the transfer pricing documentation thresholds, the Small Business Relief election, and the penalties for filing or paying late.

Background

Corporate tax has applied in the UAE since financial years beginning on or after 1 June 2023, under Federal Decree-Law No. 47 of 2022. The rate is nil on taxable income up to AED 375,000 and nine percent above that figure, with a separate fifteen percent domestic minimum top-up tax for the largest multinational groups. A taxable person must register with the Federal Tax Authority (FTA), then file one return for each tax period. For a company whose first full tax period ran the 2025 calendar year, that first return is now due, and the registration window for most businesses has already closed.

The UAE corporate tax filing deadline 2026 is 30 September

The return for a tax period must be filed, and any tax paid, within nine months of the end of that period. For the common 31 December year-end, that places the UAE corporate tax filing deadline 2026 on 30 September 2026. The same nine-month window applies to payment, so there is no separate, later date for settling the liability. A business with a different year-end counts nine months from its own period end instead. Filing is done through the FTA’s EmaraTax portal, and the return cannot be amended casually once submitted, so accuracy on the first filing matters.

What you file: the return and the transfer pricing disclosure

Alongside the return itself, many taxpayers must submit a transfer pricing disclosure form within the same nine-month window. The form is required where the aggregate value of transactions with related parties exceeds AED 40 million, with only categories above AED 4 million needing to be disclosed. A separate threshold applies to dealings with connected persons, such as owners and directors and their relatives, where the aggregate value exceeds AED 500,000. These disclosures sit on top of the return and are easy to overlook for groups that transact internally.

Transfer pricing master file and local file thresholds

A taxpayer must also maintain a master file and a local file where its own revenue in the tax period is AED 200 million or more, or where it is a constituent entity of a multinational group with total consolidated revenue of AED 3.15 billion or more. These documents are not filed with the return; they must be produced within 30 days of a request from the FTA. Maintaining them is therefore a year-round discipline rather than a filing-season task, because a business that waits for the request will rarely be able to assemble compliant documentation inside the 30-day window.

Small Business Relief: the AED 3 million election

Smaller resident businesses can elect Small Business Relief where revenue is AED 3 million or less in the current and every previous tax period. The relief treats the business as having no taxable income for the period, and it removes the transfer pricing documentation burden, although the arm’s length principle still applies. The trade-off is that other exemptions, reliefs and deductions, including the carry-forward of tax losses, are given up while the relief is elected, and it must be claimed actively for each period rather than applying automatically. The relief is not available to qualifying free zone persons or to members of large multinational groups, and on current rules it is available for tax periods ending on or before 31 December 2026.

Penalties for filing or paying late

Missing the deadline is costly. A late return attracts an administrative penalty of AED 500 for each month in the first year of delay, rising to AED 1,000 a month thereafter. Late payment of the tax due carries a separate annual penalty of 14 percent on the outstanding amount, introduced under Cabinet Decision No. 129 of 2025 in place of the former daily charge. Because the filing and payment dates coincide, a business that misses 30 September can find itself exposed to both penalties at once.

Action steps

• Confirm your tax period end and count nine months forward to fix your exact filing and payment date.
• Reconcile your financial statements and compute taxable income now, rather than in September, so any adjustments can be checked.
• Map your related-party and connected-person transactions against the AED 40 million and AED 500,000 thresholds to see whether a transfer pricing disclosure is due.
• If your revenue is AED 200 million or more, or you are in a large group, make sure a master file and local file can be produced within 30 days.
• If revenue is AED 3 million or less, weigh the Small Business Relief election against the loss of loss carry-forward before claiming it.

Sources

• Federal Tax Authority – Small Business Relief
• Federal Tax Authority – Corporate Tax legislation
• PwC – UAE transfer pricing documentation thresholds
• PwC – UAE corporate tax administration and filing
• DLA Piper – UAE Tax Procedures Law changes from 1 January 2026