UAE corporate tax: Businesses who failed to register have just 30-plus days to meet deadline

Dubai: UAE businesses that failed to get their corporate tax registration done within due dates have just over 30 days to meet a key deadline.

These businesses need to file their tax returns for the January to December 2024 period by the end of July.

Only then will businesses late with their corporate tax registrations get a waiver from the Dh10,000 fine.

Now, those businesses that have done their corporate tax registrations within due dates have up to September to file their returns for the 2024 period if their financial year runs January to December. (For those companies with a financial year starting April to end March, the tax returns filing date would be by October 2025.)  

Penalty waiver

So, there is currently a rush on to meet the end July cut-off date among these businesses, according to auditors.

The 7-month deadline for tax return filings was a key element of the Federal Tax Authority’s move to get the registration process on track. Because at various points, there were companies, mostly smaller ones, that failed to meet the deadlines given to them.

So, the FTA came up with the penalty waiver, but provided that these companies file returns in 7 months rather than the standard 9 months.

“There were many SMEs that confused the CT registrations with the threshold required for VAT registering, which explains the delay in registrations,” said Mustaq Khatri, founder and CEO of mkACE Management Consultants.

“So, if a VAT registration requires that a business have Dh375,000 or more in sales over the last 12 months, with CT, it doesn’t matter whether the business has zero sales.

“You still need to register come what may.”   

The FTA has been holding awareness sessions to get their message through to the business community. It recently held a third workshop this year, this time in Ras Al Khaimah, to familiarise participants with the ‘rules for determining taxable income under the corporate tax framework’.

The FTA made a point to mention that to get the penalty waiver, tax returns must be submitted ‘within a period not exceeding seven months from the end date of the registrant's first tax period’.

This is why the next 30 and just over days are crucial for those businesses to get all of their tax processes in order.