Corporate Tax (UAE) — Return Filing
A Corporate Tax return is due within nine months of the end of the financial year, and building it correctly requires more than pulling a number from the accounting system — adjustments, exemptions and disclosures all need to be applied properly before the return is filed. FMCA prepares and files the return from a reconciled tax computation, not a shortcut version of the accounting profit.
Reviewed by FMCA's Senior Tax Advisory Team — registered FTA tax agents serving clients across the UAE and Saudi Arabia.
Four areas of work, from the tax computation itself through to tracking next year's deadline.
Accounting profit adjusted for exemptions, disallowed expenses and other Corporate Tax-specific adjustments to arrive at the actual taxable income.
The return prepared in the format the FTA requires and filed within the nine-month deadline.
The schedules and disclosures the return requires — related-party transactions, exempt income — prepared to the standard the FTA expects.
The nine-month filing deadline tracked from each entity's specific financial year end, not a generic annual reminder.
Filing on time doesn't help if the taxable income underneath it was never computed correctly.
A fixed penalty applies for a return filed after the nine-month deadline, regardless of the business's actual tax position.
A taxable income figure built directly from accounting profit, without the required adjustments, misstates the actual tax position.
A return filed without the required supporting schedules and disclosures can trigger FTA queries that delay finalization.
The return reflects positions set earlier in the year — see Corporate Tax Advisory & Planning for the groundwork behind it.
Both are recurring FTA filings, but they run on entirely different cycles and calculations.
Our Approach
Most return errors trace back to accounting profit being filed as if it were taxable income. FMCA builds the computation properly first — with the right adjustments and disclosures — then files inside the nine-month window every year.
How We Work
Illustrative scenarios based on the kind of work we do — not descriptions of specific named clients.
A business's first Corporate Tax return was built from a properly adjusted taxable income computation, rather than the accounting profit figure alone.
Related-party transaction disclosures were prepared to the standard the FTA's review actually expects, avoiding a query that would have delayed finalization.
Filing deadlines were tracked individually for each entity's own financial year end, rather than assumed to align across the group.
Related Insights
FAQ
Within nine months of the end of the relevant financial year.
No — accounting profit is adjusted for specific exemptions, disallowed expenses and other Corporate Tax rules to reach taxable income.
A fixed penalty applies regardless of whether tax was actually due.
Yes — related-party transactions above certain thresholds require specific disclosure.
Extensions are generally limited and require a specific basis; the default nine-month window should be planned for as the norm.
Tell us where things stand and a senior consultant will get back to you directly — not a call centre.
