UAE Corporate Tax: First Return Due 30 September 2026 — Filing Checklist

If your company's financial year ended on 31 December 2025, your first-ever UAE Corporate Tax (CT) return is due by 30 September 2026 — and so is any tax you owe. This is the headline deadline for the calendar-year filers who make up the majority of UAE businesses, and for many it is the first time they will ever file a CT return on the Federal Tax Authority's EmaraTax portal.

The 9% Corporate Tax regime applies to financial years beginning on or after 1 June 2023. The rule that drives the deadline is simple: your return and payment are due nine months after the end of your financial year. A 12-month year ending 31 December 2025 lands squarely on 30 September 2026. Filing is mandatory even if you owe nothing — including 0% Free Zone persons and businesses claiming relief.

(One quick note: Xrero (اكسريرو) is not Xero — Xero is a separate accounting company from New Zealand. Xrero is a Dubai-based, UAE- and KSA-focused cloud ERP and accounting platform.)

Key takeaway: 30 September 2026 is the CT return-and-payment deadline only for businesses whose financial year ended 31 December 2025 (nine months after year-end). Different year-ends have different deadlines. File on EmaraTax even if your tax is zero, and verify your own dates before relying on this date.

Who the 30 September 2026 deadline applies to — and who it doesn't

The deadline is tied to your financial year-end, not the calendar. The 30 September 2026 date is correct only for businesses with a financial year ending 31 December 2025. If your year-end is different, count nine months forward from it:

One important clarification: the 30 September 2026 filing deadline is not the same thing as the separate Corporate Tax registration deadlines that ran earlier under the FTA's registration timeline. Registration (getting your CT Tax Registration Number) and filing (submitting the return) are two different obligations. If you have not yet registered for Corporate Tax, that is the more urgent gap — read on for the penalty.

The AED 10,000 late-registration penalty — and how the waiver works

The administrative penalty for failing to register for Corporate Tax on time is AED 10,000. The good news: the Ministry of Finance and the FTA announced a penalty-waiver initiative that can wipe this out — or refund it if you already paid it.

Under the waiver, the AED 10,000 penalty is waived if you submit your first CT return (or, for exempt persons, your first annual declaration) within seven months from the end of your first tax period. Note that this is seven months, not the usual nine, and it applies only to the first tax period. The FTA's official "Waiver of Penalties" guidance covers penalties not yet imposed, those imposed but unpaid (waived), and those already paid (refunded to your tax account).

Worked example: if your first tax period was 1 January 2024 to 31 December 2024, you needed to file by 31 July 2025 to benefit from the waiver. The takeaway for everyone still outside the net is to register and file as early as you can — every month of delay narrows your options.

Small Business Relief — and the 31 December 2026 sunset

If your revenue is modest, you may pay no Corporate Tax at all thanks to Small Business Relief. A UAE Resident Person with revenue of AED 3 million or less in the relevant tax period — and in every prior tax period — can elect to be treated as having no taxable income, meaning no CT is payable.

Two things to watch. First, the relief is only available for tax periods ending on or before 31 December 2026 — a hard sunset. Second, it is not available to Qualifying Free Zone Persons or to members of Multinational Enterprise Groups, and if your revenue crosses AED 3 million in any period you lose the relief going forward. Crucially, electing the relief does not remove the duty to file — you still submit a return on EmaraTax.

What 9% Corporate Tax actually costs

The standard regime is straightforward: 0% on taxable income up to AED 375,000, and 9% on taxable income above that. Qualifying Free Zone Persons can pay 0% on their Qualifying Income (and 9% on income that is not qualifying), provided they meet all the conditions — adequate substance, the de minimis test, audited financial statements and transfer-pricing compliance among them.

Your first CT return: a step-by-step filing checklist

How Xrero helps you file on time

Corporate Tax is only painful when your books are messy and your year-end is a guessing game. Xrero is built to keep both clean so the 9% calculation is a result, not a scramble.

• 9% Corporate Tax computation. Xrero tracks revenue and accounting profit through the year, so you can see your position against the AED 375,000 threshold and the AED 3 million Small Business Relief line well before the deadline — no last-minute spreadsheet archaeology.
• Clean, reconciled books. Bank import, VAT, and payroll all flow into one ledger, so closing the financial year and arriving at taxable income is a controlled process rather than a year-end fire drill.
• FTA Audit File (FAF) export and FTA-compliant records. Xrero maintains the structured financial records the FTA expects and can produce a FAF export, so if the authority asks for supporting data you are ready.

To see how the Corporate Tax features work, visit Xrero Corporate Tax software for the UAE. Xrero is AED 99 per user per month with a 15-day free trial — see pricing or book a demo.

Frequently asked questions

This is general information, not tax or legal advice — verify current rules with the FTA (tax.gov.ae) or a licensed advisor before acting. Figures and dates reflect the position as of 2026.