UAE Corporate Tax, rule by rule

Each rule is a computation with a citation, the tax periods it applies to, and the date its sources were last reviewed. Every figure a rule produces names the rule that produced it and the published threshold it used.

Reference, not tax advice. Rules are grouped by the stage of a computation at which they are reached; each keeps a permanent address of its own, so this grouping can change without breaking anything that cites it.

51 published of 52 in scope

UAE Corporate Tax in brief

UAE Corporate Tax is a federal tax on business profits under Federal Decree-Law No. 47 of 2022, for financial years beginning on or after 1 June 2023. The rate is 0% on the first AED 375,000 of Taxable Income and 9% above it — the corporate tax rates rule.

A Resident juridical person is taxed on its worldwide income; a resident natural person on business turnover above the published threshold; a non-resident on income from a Permanent Establishment or a UAE nexus.

A Qualifying Free Zone Person pays 0% on its Qualifying Income; Small Business Relief can treat a small person as deriving no Taxable Income; and the participation exemption removes qualifying dividends and gains from the charge.

Large multinational groups face a 15% Domestic Minimum Top-up Tax. Transactions with Related Parties must meet the arm’s length principle, and a return is filed within nine months of the end of the Tax Period — returns and deadlines.

Scope and residence

Who is a taxable person, and on what basis their income is brought into charge.

Exemptions and reliefs

Persons outside the charge, and reliefs that remove or reduce it.

Taxable income

Accounting income, and the adjustments that turn it into taxable income.

Deductions and limitations

What is deductible, what is not, and what is capped.

Related parties and transfer pricing

The arm's length principle, and what it requires of a taxable person.

Losses

Relief for tax losses, and the limits on carrying and transferring them.

Groups and restructuring

Computing across more than one entity, and moving assets between them.

Rate and liability

From taxable income to the amount payable.

Domestic minimum top-up tax

The UAE's domestic minimum top-up tax on large multinational groups, bringing their effective rate to the global minimum.

Anti-abuse

The general rule against arrangements whose main purpose is a Corporate Tax advantage.

General anti-abuse rule

Administration

Registration, filing, payment and records.

Common questions

What is the UAE corporate tax rate?: 0% on the first AED 375,000 of Taxable Income and 9% on the excess, per the corporate tax rates rule.
Who has to pay UAE corporate tax?: Resident juridical persons on worldwide income, resident natural persons with business turnover over the published threshold, and non-residents with a Permanent Establishment or a UAE nexus.
What is a Qualifying Free Zone Person?: A Free Zone person that meets the conditions pays 0% on its Qualifying Income and 9% on the rest.
What is Small Business Relief?: An electing Resident Person whose revenue stays within the published cap is treated as deriving no Taxable Income for the period — Small Business Relief.
When is the UAE corporate tax return due?: Within nine months of the end of the Tax Period, which is also the payment deadline — returns and deadlines.
Is there a minimum tax for large multinational groups?: Yes — a 15% Domestic Minimum Top-up Tax applies to groups with consolidated revenue of EUR 750 million or more.

Coverage

51 of 52 rules in scope are published. The rest are listed so the boundary is visible; a rule is not coverage until it has been reviewed.

FTA sources are checked daily. English publications are compared line by line; Arabic listings are monitored for documents with no English counterpart. A change opens a pull request and is reviewed before any rule here moves — nothing is updated automatically.