BUSINESSES
UAE Corporate Tax Filing 2026: Your Deadline, What to Submit, and What Late Costs
If your financial year ended on 31 December 2025, your corporate tax return and payment are due on 30 September 2026. That is weeks away, not months.
The deadline is not the work. The work is everything before it; closing the books, agreeing the tax adjustments, assembling schedules and settling the payment. Businesses that start in the last week of September are the ones that miss the deadline.
Working Out Your Own Deadline
Under Federal Decree-Law No. 47 of 2022, the return must be filed and any tax paid within nine months of your tax period end. Your date depends on your financial year end, not a single national date.
Filing and payment share the same date, and extensions are not routine.
Who Has to File
If you hold a corporate tax registration number, you file; whatever the result:
- Companies making a loss, and dormant or holding entities with no activity
- Free Zone companies, including Qualifying Free Zone Persons that may benefit from a 0% rate on qualifying income, must still file a corporate tax return.
- Businesses electing Small Business Relief, which is claimed inside the return and never applied automatically
- Natural persons conducting business activities in the UAE with annual business turnover exceeding AED 1 million may be subject to Corporate Tax registration and filing obligations.
A nil result is still a filing obligation, and the penalty applies whether or not tax was due. That is how dormant companies accumulate real money on a return that would have taken an hour.
What Actually Goes Into the Return
Corporate tax is not 9% of accounting profit. The computation starts there, then applies the adjustments the law prescribes: non-deductible expenditure such as fines, the restricted portion of entertainment costs, interest deduction limits, exempt income, related party transactions, brought-forward losses, and any elections you are making.
Only then do the two bands apply, 0% on taxable income up to AED 375,000, 9% above. Free zone businesses have an extra layer: a 0% rate should never be assumed from holding a licence, because qualifying income has to be tested. All of it depends on clean bookkeeping and reliable financial reporting.
What Filing Late Costs
| Failure | Penalty |
| Late filing, first 12 months | AED 500 for each month or part month |
| Late filing, from month 13 | AED 1,000 for each month or part month |
| Late payment | A late payment penalty of 14% per annum applies to unpaid tax and is calculated monthly on the outstanding balance. |
Part months count in full, so a return one day late still costs AED 500. Filing on time without paying does not stop the late-payment charge; both obligations fall due on the same date. Current penalties are published by the Federal Tax Authority.
Where September Filings Go Wrong
- Books needing three months of clean-up, discovered in the final fortnight
- Auditors fully booked, because every calendar year businesses shares your deadline
- Schedules nobody prepared; related party disclosures, adjustments, elections
- An incorrect financial year start date in EmaraTax, which makes your due date wrong and needs a formal amendment
- Assuming no profit means no filing
How nAlyze Helps
We close the books, prepare the computation, make the elections that apply and file through EmaraTax; inside the window, not in deadline week. See our corporate tax and financial and tax advisory services.
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Your deadline is 30 September. If your books are not closed yet, message the nAlyze team on WhatsApp today, we will tell you straight away whether you can still file comfortably, and what it takes. Speak to a corporate tax adviser
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Frequently Asked Questions
When is the UAE corporate tax filing deadline?
Nine months after your tax period ends. For a financial year ending 31 December 2025, the return and payment are both due by 30 September 2026.
Do I have to file if my company made no profit?
Yes. Every registered taxable person files for every tax period, including loss-making, dormant and holding companies. The late-filing penalty applies even where no tax is due.
What is the penalty for filing late in the UAE?
AED 500 for each month or part month for the first twelve months, rising to AED 1,000 per month from the thirteenth, plus a late payment charge of 14% annually on any unsettled tax.
Can I get an extension?
The UAE Corporate Tax Law does not generally provide routine filing extensions. Businesses should plan to submit returns and settle tax within the statutory deadline.
What if I find a mistake after filing?
Submit a voluntary disclosure through EmaraTax. Self-correction carries a lower penalty than the same error found in an FTA review, and small differences can sometimes be corrected in the next return.
