UAE Corporate Tax Filing 30 September 2025 Deadline Guide

1. Why September 30, 2025 Is Your UAE Corporate Tax D-Day

Many business owners still assume the UAE is tax-free. However, reality speaks for itself. Since 2017, the UAE has introduced excise tax, 5% VAT (effective from January 2018), and Federal Corporate Tax starting with financial years after June 2023. In practicality, the majority of mainland and free-zone companies are required to maintain accurate records for a period of seven years and submit their initial corporate tax return by 30 September 2025.

We hear so much confusion among business owners when we highlight how important it is for them to pay attention to their books right now. Quick summary:

• First filing season ever. 30 September 2025 marks the nine-month deadline for calendar-year businesses (FY ending 31 December 2024) to file and pay CT. 
• Cash flow impact. The entire CT bill is due the same day you file without any instalments.
• Automatic fines start immediately. The Federal Tax Authority (FTA) levies AED 500 per month for the first 12 months for those who miss deadline, rising to AED 1,000 thereafter, plus 14 % annual interest on any unpaid tax.
• Signal to banks & investors. Timely compliance shows financial discipline which is critical when you’re raising or renewing credit lines.

In short: 30 September 2025 is a big day for UAE business owners; we prepared key information you need to know to avoid unpleasant surprises.

2. Who Must File a UAE Corporate Tax Return?

1. Two groups most SMEs fall into

Most startups and SMEs fall into one of these two buckets – so, if you’re here, a return is mandatory:

• Mainland or Free-Zone Companies (legal person type – LLC, PSC, branch, etc.) regardless of their revenue threshold. 
  • CT applies on worldwide income.
  • Rate: 0 % up to taxable profit of AED 375,000, 9 % above that.
• Sole Establishments (natural person type – solopreneurs / freelancers / e-commerce sellers, etc.) operating under a license or permit having to register and file once annual turnover reaches AED 1 m (around AED 83,000 per month). 

2. Helpful reliefs (but you still must file):

• Small-Business Relief: you could elect 0 % CT when revenue ≤ AED 3 m for each period during 2024-2026. However, if you pick SBR, note that you can’t carry loss forward to decrease future tax bills, so use it only if business is profitable. If a company exceeds AED 3 m in revenue in any tax period, it cannot claim Small Business Relief for that period or any future periods.
• Qualifying Free-Zone Person (QFZP): you keep 0% rate on qualifying income and pay 9% on everything else. You should check the “QFZP” box in every return and meet the substance rules (staff, office, real expenses).

3. Special cases for which you would need tailored advice:

• Non-resident companies with a UAE permanent establishment or UAE-sourced income
• Tax-exempt entities such as government bodies, pension / investment funds, etc. 
• Large multinationals (≥ €750 m global revenue)

To sum up, there is a filing requirement for all UAE entities apart from Sole Establishments. If you need any help – talk to us or any other high-quality tax advisor.

3. Key Dates, Deadlines & FTA Penalties

Under the UAE Corporate Tax Law every Taxable Person must both file its return and pay any tax within 9 months of the end of its Tax Period.

How to confirm your Financial Year (FY):

If it’s a Legal Person:

• Refer to the MOA or select the FY through a Board resolution. The FY typically follows a 12-month cycle for financial statements; many SMEs opt for 1 January to 31 December.
• Check the EmaraTax portal or CT registration certificate. When you open the CT return, the “Tax Period” is pre-filled in your account based on your input at CT registration — verify it before you file.
• If MoA or BoD resolution are not aligned to the EmaraTax records with respect to FY, we highly recommend you amend them to be aligned.
• If you need a different FY, you can apply with the FTA, but the first new period can’t be shorter than 6 months or longer than 18 months. Example: subsidiary incorporated 1 February 2024 but parent FYE is 31 March. You may request a 15-month first period (1 January 2024 → 31 March 2025); thereafter you follow an annual 1 April – 31 March cycle.

If it’s a Natural Person: always use the calendar year as the basis for FY.

So, who really has the 30 Sep 2025 deadline?

Most SMEs registered on or before 30 June 2024 never touched their FY settings, so their first tax period ended 31 December 2024 — making 30 September 2025 filing day.

Incorporated after 1 July 2024? Your first CT period probably ends 31 December 2025, so your deadline shifts to 30 September 2026 — but always confirm in EmaraTax portal or from the CT registration certificate.

Penalties for being late:

Long story short, if your license predates July 2024, assume you owe a return (and payment) on 30 September 2025 unless you’ve formally changed the FY. Missing that date hurts far more than the paperwork headache.

4. Step-by-Step UAE Corporate Tax Filing Checklist

1. Confirm CT Registration (TRN)

• Log in to EmaraTax => “Corporate Tax” tile => make sure a CT Registration Number (TRN) appears.
• If you could not find TRN, register ASAP – it takes some time, but helps to avoid the AED 10,000 late-registration fine. If you already missed the deadline for registration, you could try to apply for penalty waiver, but it should be approved by FTA.

2. Close FY2024 Books & Reconcile VAT vs CT

• Record every transaction on an accrual basis using IFRS (or IFRS for SMEs).
• Always check for variances between VAT and Corporate Tax revenues to avoid FTA automatic flagging.

3. Prepare Financial Statements & Audit if Required

• Most SMEs can file unaudited management accounts.
• Mandatory audit is required only if 2024 revenue is more than AED 50m or you’re claiming Qualifying Free-Zone Person status. Audit is also often required by the FZs, being a pre-requisite for the trade license renewal.

4. Compute Taxable Income

• Start with accounting profit
• Remove exempt income (dividends, qualifying capital gains). 
• Add back non-deductibles (fines, entertainment, etc.)

5. Choose Small-Business Relief if eligible

• If your revenue is ≤ AED 3 m, you could tick the SBR box to pay 0 % CT. But here is the important thing to remember – losses made in an SBR year cannot be carried forward, they disappear. So don’t use the SBR option unless your business is profitable and you understand pros / cons of your choice.

6. Lock In Your Optional Elections

• When filing your UAE Corporate Tax return, remember to tick any optional elections beyond Small-Business Relief – such as choosing to tax realized vs. unrealized FX gains, revaluation gains, or other fair-value movements. So your chosen treatment is locked in for the year and aligns with your financial statements.

7. Verify Substance If Electing QFZP

• Maintain real office space, adequate staff and qualifying income. In general, a more complicated topic we are going to elaborate on in a separate article. 

8. Handle Transfer Pricing

• When you sell to / buy from your own sister company, shareholder, or family business (called related party transactions), you need to use a price you’d accept from a stranger (“arm’s-length”).
• Select the one-page Transfer Pricing disclosure in the CT return.
• Master/Local files are required only if 2024 revenue is at least AED 200 m or you belong to a billion-dollar group.

9. Collect Foreign-Tax Credit Evidence 

• Such as receipts and returns to prove that you have already paid tax abroad

10. Be Prepared To Pay

• The full CT bill is due the same day you file—30 September 2025 for most SMEs

11. Make Sure You Archive Everything For 7 Years

• Keep ledgers, source documents (invoices, bills, receipts), contracts and audit reports ready for an FTA review

5. 7 Costly Corporate-Tax Mistakes (and How to Avoid Them)

6. Why Good Books = Smooth Corporate Tax Returns?

Getting the TRN number after CT registration is just the beginning. A lot of business owners think that filing CT is literally about just filling in your Emaratax cabinet. But it is not, as in fact filing is the very last step of the complex day-to-day work of your accountant throughout the year.

A skilled accountant tags every transaction at 0%, 50%, 100% deductible for CT the moment it lands. When transactions are tagged properly throughout the year, filing is simply adding numbers up. Without that, you’re left chasing old receipts and explanations just weeks before the deadline. So, what you get as the business owner:

We know for sure that a lot of accounting & bookkeeping firms provide quite “relaxed” standards towards financial hygiene. Below is the list of some obvious red flags from weak bookkeeping:

7. How Skrooge.ai Makes UAE Corporate-Tax Filing Effortless?

We feel the pain of business owners who say that “dealing with books & EmaraTax portal is not what inspires me a lot” and are excited about helping you to gain control over the finance part of your business at a reasonable price and in a convenient way. 

At skrooge.ai we combine smart automation with experienced finance professionals, so your UAE corporate-tax return is filed on time, error-free, and penalty-proof.

Skrooge.ai offers a complimentary 15-minute CT health check for individuals preparing their first filing. Drop an email to hello@skrooge.ai

8. Conclusion & Next Steps

The UAE’s initial Corporate Tax season has begun, with 30 September 2025 serving as the deadline for most startups and SMEs. So, our advice: fix your deadline in the calendar, prepare early, and keep your books clean. That way filing day is just another task, not a crisis.

If managing spreadsheets is overwhelming, let skrooge.ai handle it and keep you safe from penalties.

Ready to file stress-free? Book your free 15-minute CT health check with skrooge.ai today and get back to building your business. 

9. Corporate Income Tax FAQs