Consilium Labs

Compliance · United Arab Emirates

UAE Corporate Tax and Small Business Relief

When your return is due, whether you can elect Small Business Relief, and what to set aside if you cannot. Worked in your browser from the published rules, with the article behind every answer.

Your figures

Nothing here is uploaded. Taxable income is never derived from revenue.

Person

Revenue in every previous Tax Period

The test covers all of them, and a breach is permanent. A period left blank blocks the answer rather than being read as nil.

Number format
Your figures are processed locally in your browser and are not uploaded to Consilium.

Return and payment due

2026-09-30

9 months after the Tax Period end. The Authority may direct another date, and has before — Federal Tax Authority Decision No. 7 of 2024.

Must register and file

Yes

Small Business Relief

Not answered

Set aside

—

Small Business Relief

The revenue test covers this Tax Period and every previous one. A breach is permanent.

Revenue for this Tax Period has not been entered, so the threshold cannot be tested.

  • Revenue for this Tax Period has not been entered, so the threshold cannot be tested.
  • Revenue for 2024 has not been entered. The test covers every previous Tax Period, so this one cannot be assumed to have been under the threshold.
  • Revenue for 2023 has not been entered. The test covers every previous Tax Period, so this one cannot be assumed to have been under the threshold.

Relief available to

2029-12-31

Ministerial Decision No. 131 of 2026, published by the Ministry of Finance.

What the unamended FTA guide still says

2026-12-31

Its guide is the first version and has not been amended. Both are shown so you can see why this tool differs from it.

What to set aside

0% up to 375,000 AED of taxable income, 9% above it. Never applied to revenue.

Taxable income has not been entered. It is never derived from revenue, so no figure can be shown.

What this tool will not tell you

Not omissions. Each is something no retrieved official source establishes.

  • Ministerial Decision No. 131 of 2026 extends the relief to Tax Periods ending on or before 2029-12-31. It commences the day following its publication, and no retrieved source gives that publication date, so this tool states no date from which the extension takes effect.
  • Whether an election once made can be undone is not established by any retrieved source, in either direction, so this tool says nothing about it.
  • Penalty amounts are not carried by this build, so no penalty figure is stated anywhere.
  • Whether the revenue threshold is apportioned for a Tax Period shorter than a year is not established.
  • How a deadline falling on a weekend or public holiday is treated is not established.
  • The published texts are the government’s own unofficial English translations. The Arabic governs.

Exactly what this does

Method and limits

Every rate, threshold and article here was read from the Federal Decree-Law, the Cabinet and Ministerial Decisions, or the Authority’s own published guidance. Nothing came from a summary.

Constants retrieved 2026-08-28

Federal Decree-Law No. 47 of 2022, Ministerial Decisions 73 of 2023 and 131 of 2026, Cabinet Decisions 116 of 2022, 44 of 2020 and 49 of 2023, and FTA Decisions 3 and 7 of 2024 are quoted here from the English versions published by the Ministry of Finance and the Federal Tax Authority. Those documents label themselves "Unofficial translation" or "This is not an official translation". The Arabic originals were not read.

The revenue test

“1. For the purposes of the Small Business Relief referred to in Article 21 of the Corporate Tax Law (“Small Business Relief”), the Taxable Person’s Revenue threshold for the relevant Tax Period and previous Tax Periods shall be AED 3,000,000 (three million dirhams) for each Tax Period.”

“3. A Taxable Person shall not be able to elect to apply the Small Business Relief if their Revenue in any relevant or previous Tax Period has exceeded the threshold set out in Clause (1) of this Article.”

Who is excluded

  • · A Constituent Company of a Multinational Enterprises Group
  • · A Qualifying Free Zone Person

Why this tool disagrees with the Authority’s guide

CTGSBR1, section 4.1: "Small Business Relief will be available for Tax Periods that begin on or after 1 June 2023. Small Business Relief will be available for Tax Periods that end before or on 31 December 2026 in which the Revenue in the relevant Tax Period and all previous Tax Periods was less than or equal to AED 3,000,000." Its Updates and Amendments table has one row: "August 2023 — First version".

The FTA Small Business Relief topic page states no end date for the relief at all — neither 31 December 2026 nor 31 December 2029 appears on it. Its worked example uses a Tax Period ending 31 December 2026.

The FTA press release of 3 August 2026 discusses Small Business Relief and the 30 September 2026 deadline without mentioning any end date for the relief.

What could not be established

  • UNVERIFIEDThe publication date of Ministerial Decision No. 131 of 2026, and therefore the date it came into effect. Article Two says it comes into effect "the day following the date of its publication". The decision is dated 29 July 2026 and the MOF file path contains /2026/08/, but no retrieved source gives a publication date. The tool must not state an effective date for the 2029 extension.
  • UNVERIFIEDWhether an election for Small Business Relief, once made in a filed return, is irrevocable for that Tax Period. No retrieved source says so in either direction. Only the opposite case is established — a return filed WITHOUT the election cannot be cured later.
  • UNVERIFIEDHow "(9) nine months from the end of the relevant Tax Period" resolves for a Tax Period that does not end on the last day of a month, and what happens when the arithmetic produces a date that does not exist. Two official worked examples establish the month-end case only.
  • UNVERIFIEDWhether a filing or payment deadline falling on a weekend or a UAE public holiday moves, and in which direction. No retrieved source addresses it.
  • UNVERIFIEDHow the AED 3,000,000 Revenue threshold is applied to a Tax Period shorter or longer than twelve months — whether it is pro-rated or applied whole. Article 57 permits a part-year Tax Period and Article 58 permits a change of Tax Period. No retrieved source addresses the interaction.
  • UNVERIFIEDThe administrative penalty amounts for late registration, late filing and late payment. Cabinet Decision No. 75 of 2023 sets them and was not retrieved for this module. The tool must not state a penalty figure or percentage.
  • UNVERIFIEDMinisterial Decision No. 114 of 2023 on accounting standards was not retrieved. What is carried is the Small Business Relief guide’s statement of it — IFRS or IFRS for SMEs, with a cash basis permitted below AED 3,000,000. Quote the guide, not the decision.
  • UNVERIFIEDArticle 18 of the Corporate Tax Law and the Qualifying Free Zone Person / Qualifying Income rules. Not carried. The tool cannot determine whether a Free Zone entity is a Qualifying Free Zone Person and must ask.
  • UNVERIFIEDArticle 11 of the Corporate Tax Law on Resident and Non-Resident Persons. Not carried. Residence is a precondition of the relief and the tool must ask rather than assume.
  • UNVERIFIEDWhether Federal Decree-Law No. 47 of 2022 has been amended in any respect bearing on Articles 3, 21, 48, 51, 53 or 57. The FTA publishes the decree-law as a single consolidated PDF and the FTA legislation listing showed no amending decree-law; several documents refer to "Federal Decree-Law No. 47 of 2022 … and its amendments", so amendments exist somewhere. None was retrieved, and none affecting the articles quoted here was found. Treat the quoted articles as the published text of the original decree-law.
  • MEASUREDThe Arabic originals. Every legal text here is the English version the government publishes, and those documents label themselves unofficial translations. Where a word decides a case, the Arabic governs and was not read.
  • MEASUREDWhich comparison applies at exactly AED 3,150,000,000 of consolidated group revenue for the MNE exclusion. Three official statements disagree — see MNE_GROUP_THRESHOLD_DISAGREEMENT. Not resolved here.
  • UNVERIFIEDAny FTA decision after 25 September 2024 displacing the nine-month deadline for a later cohort. Only FTA Decision No. 7 of 2024 was retrieved, and it covers Tax Periods ending on or before 29 February 2024. The absence of a later one was not established — no exhaustive listing of FTA decisions was read.

Sources

Consilium is not a tax agent and does not file. This tool applies published rules to figures you enter, in your browser. You file on the FTA portal yourself. Where the law is in Arabic, the Arabic governs.

Questions

Does Consilium file my Corporate Tax return?
No. Consilium is not a tax agent and does not file. This tool applies the published rules to figures you enter, in your browser, and produces a decision you can save. You file on the FTA portal yourself.
When is my Corporate Tax return due?
9 months from the end of the Tax Period, for both the return and the payment. A Tax Period ending 31 December 2025 is therefore due 30 September 2026. The Authority may direct a different date and has done so before, so the tool shows the deadline as derived and displaceable rather than as a fixed fact.
Until when is Small Business Relief available?
Tax Periods ending on or before 2029-12-31. Ministerial Decision No. 131 of 2026 extended it there from 2026-12-31. This matters because the FTA's own Small Business Relief guide is the first version and has not been amended — it still states 2026-12-31 — and the FTA topic page states no end date at all. The tool shows both dates side by side, with the source of each, so you can see why it differs from the guidance you may have read.
What is the revenue test for Small Business Relief?
Revenue must not exceed AED 3,000,000 in the relevant Tax Period and in every previous Tax Period. It is every previous period, not just the one before, and a breach is permanent: a business that exceeded the threshold once is ineligible afterwards even if revenue later falls below it. If you leave a prior period blank the tool will not answer, and names the period, rather than assuming it was under.
How much Corporate Tax should I set aside?
Corporate Tax is 0% on taxable income up to AED 375,000 and 9% above it, per Taxable Person rather than per business. So taxable income of AED 100,000 attracts nothing, and AED 500,000 attracts 9% of the AED 125,000 above the threshold. The tool applies the rate to taxable income you enter, never to revenue, and never derives one from the other.
I am in a Free Zone. Can I elect Small Business Relief?
A Qualifying Free Zone Person is excluded from Small Business Relief, as is a Constituent Company of a Multinational Enterprises Group. This tool does not compute Free Zone status or group membership, so when you tell it either applies it stops and cites the exclusion rather than giving you an eligibility answer it is not entitled to give.
If I can elect the relief, do I still have to file?
Yes. Small Business Relief is an election to be treated as having derived no Taxable Income; it is not an exemption from registering or from filing. You still register, still file a return, and make the election in that return. The FTA states this in terms, and the tool repeats it wherever the relief is available.