Every UAE tax rule your business faces — linked to the law.
Corporate Tax, VAT, e-invoicing and the Wage Protection System, explained in plain English. Every figure below is dated and carries a link to the FTA, Ministry of Finance or MOHRE page it comes from — so you can check it yourself, not take our word for it.
Your accounting profit is not your tax bill.
UAE Corporate Tax is charged at 0% on the first AED 375,000 of taxable income and 9% above it, under Federal Decree-Law No. 47 of 2022. But taxable income isn’t the profit in your accounts — it’s that profit after the adjustments the law requires (disallowed expenses added back, exempt income taken out).
Registration is mandatory for taxable persons, and records must be kept for seven years. The point of good books isn’t to file — it’s to defend the number if the FTA asks.
Read the Corporate Tax deep-dive → Keep books audit-ready →Small Business Relief isn’t automatic — and it’s on a clock.
- Revenue cap of AED 3 million per tax period — exceed it once and relief is gone for that period.
- Applies only to tax periods ending on or before 31 December 2026. No extension has been announced.
- You must elect it every period — it is not applied for you.
- Free-zone qualifying persons and members of multinational groups are excluded.
Basis: Ministerial Decision No. 73 of 2023. See the FTA topic page and the MoF decision.
VAT is 5% — the question is when you must register.
The standard VAT rate is 5%. Registration becomes mandatory once taxable supplies reach AED 375,000, and is available voluntarily from AED 187,500. Once you cross the threshold you have 30 days to register.
From 2026 the invoice itself changes: the UAE is moving to structured e-invoicing (PINT AE / Peppol). A voluntary pilot opens 1 July 2026; larger businesses appoint an accredited provider by 30 October 2026, with Phase 1 go-live 1 January 2027 and smaller businesses following on 1 July 2027. A plain PDF stops being a compliant tax invoice.
See how AITS issues FTA-compliant invoices →Paying staff is a compliance event, not just a transfer.
Private-sector wages must be paid electronically through the Wage Protection System (WPS) via a Central Bank-approved channel, under Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021. In 2026 the timing rules tightened: salaries are due on the 1st of each Gregorian month, the old 15-day grace period has been abolished, and an employer is treated as compliant when at least 85% of wages are paid on time.
That makes the payroll run, the SIF file and the timing all part of one obligation — not three separate admin tasks.
See how AITS runs UAE payroll & WPS →Two rules that catch bigger and slower businesses.
Most SMEs won’t hit these — but they’re the two most commonly missed, so they belong on the map.
Domestic Minimum Top-up Tax — 15%
Multinational groups with consolidated revenue of €750M+ (about AED 3.15B) face a 15% minimum effective rate for financial years starting on or after 1 January 2025 — above the standard 9%.
Federal Decree-Law 60 of 2023 ↗The 9-month filing deadline
The Corporate Tax return and payment are due within nine months of the end of the tax period. For a calendar-year business that means 30 September — the year before you file is the year to get the books right.
Tax administration ↗Sources
Every figure on this page traces to one of these primary references. Rules change — confirm against the source before acting.
- Corporate Tax overviewFederal Tax Authoritytax.gov.ae ↗
- Corporate Tax registrationFederal Tax Authoritytax.gov.ae ↗
- Small Business Relief decisionMinistry of Financemof.gov.ae ↗
- Small Business Relief topicFederal Tax Authoritytax.gov.ae ↗
- VAT registration thresholdsFederal Tax Authoritytax.gov.ae ↗
- E-invoicing programmeMinistry of Financemof.gov.ae ↗
- E-invoicing timeline amendmentMinistry of Financemof.gov.ae ↗
- Wage Protection SystemMOHREmohre.gov.ae ↗
- Payment of wagesu.ae (UAE Government portal)u.ae ↗
- Corporate tax administration & DMTTPwC Tax Summaries (secondary)pwc.com ↗
Not tax or legal advice. This page is general information, reviewed July 2026, to help UAE business owners understand the rules in plain English. Thresholds, dates and treatments change and depend on your specific circumstances — confirm against the primary sources above, or with a qualified tax adviser, before you act. Advanced IT Services builds software that helps you keep compliant records; it does not determine your tax position for you.
Done right. From your ledger to return-ready.
AITS is a UAE-native ERP: accounting, VAT invoicing, payroll and WPS in one place, capturing the right figures as you work — so when a deadline above arrives, the numbers are already sitting in your books.