The rates

0%

Taxable income up to AED 375,000

9%

The excess above AED 375,000

0%

Qualifying Income of a Qualifying Free Zone Person

15%

Minimum effective rate for in-scope multinationals

The AED 375,000 band is a slice, not a cliff. A company earning AED 400,000 pays 9% on AED 25,000, not on the whole amount.

Small Business Relief runs to 2029

Relief where revenue is AED 3,000,000 or less in the current and every previous period. It must be elected for each period, and it forfeits loss carry-forwards.

Ministerial Decision 131 of 2026, issued on 29 July 2026, extended the relief from tax periods ending on or before 31 December 2026 to 31 December 2029. A great deal of published commentary, some of it dated this year, still says it expires in 2026.

The 15% top-up tax

Cabinet Decision 142 of 2024. Applies to multinational groups with consolidated revenue of EUR 750 million or more in at least two of the four preceding years, for fiscal years starting on or after 1 January 2025.

The UAE obtained OECD Transitional Qualified Status in August 2025, which means no foreign top-up tax applies to UAE profits.

Registration closes 30 November 2026 for entities with fiscal years ending before 30 April 2026.

E-invoicing

Businesses with revenue of AED 50 million or more must appoint an accredited service provider by 30 October 2026 and go live on 1 January 2027.

The appointment deadline moved from 31 July 2026. The go-live date did not. Content written before May 2026 has the first date wrong; content assuming the extension moved both has the second wrong.

Below AED 50 million: appoint by 31 March 2027, live 1 July 2027.

The deadlines that recur

• Corporate tax return and payment: 9 months after the period ends
• Transfer pricing disclosure: with the return
• VAT return and payment: 28 days after the period ends
• Excise return: by the 15th of the following month
• QFZP distribution audit report: 30 days after the return deadline
• Country by country notification: last day of the reporting year
• Country by country report: 12 months after year end

Economic Substance was narrowed, not repealed

Cabinet Decision 98 of 2024 cancelled notification and reporting for financial years ending after 31 December 2022. It did not repeal the regime.

Historic filings stay open to FTA query, historic penalties survive, and information requests can still come. Substance itself did not disappear either: it moved into the corporate tax law as the QFZP adequate substance condition, where failing it is far more expensive than an ESR penalty ever was.