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Record keeping

Applies
FY2024 onwards
Reviewed
Rule
UAE-CT-RECORDS-2024.1
By

How long must UAE Corporate Tax records be kept?

For 7 years after the end of the tax period they relate to. An Exempt Person keeps records of its status for the same period.

Per Federal Decree-Law No. 47 of 2022, Article 56, Record Keeping

Notwithstanding the Tax Procedures Law, a Taxable Person must maintain all records and documents that support the information to be provided in a Tax Return or any other document filed with the Authority, and that enable its Taxable Income to be readily ascertained by the Authority, for the published number of years following the end of the Tax Period to which they relate. An Exempt Person must maintain all records that enable its status to be readily ascertained by the Authority, for the same period.

The retention obligation behind every figure in the ledger. It runs from the end of the Tax Period rather than from the date of the record, and it binds an Exempt Person as well as a Taxable Person — on a different test.

Two obligations, one period

56(1) — a Taxable Person

  • (a) Records and documents that support the information to be provided in a Tax Return, or in any other document to be filed with the Authority
  • (b) Records that enable the Taxable Person's Taxable Income to be readily ascertained by the Authority

56(2) — an Exempt Person

All records that enable the Exempt Person's status to be readily ascertained by the Authority. Exemption from Corporate Tax is not exemption from records, and the test is different: what must be ascertainable is the status, not the Taxable Income.

The period runs from the end of the Tax Period

Not from the date of the document. A record made early in a period is kept longer than its own age suggests, and a reader who counts from the document destroys records early.

"Notwithstanding the Tax Procedures Law"

The article's own opening words. This period governs for Corporate Tax whatever the general law provides. The Tax Procedures Law is neither encoded nor watched in this ledger.

Order of testing

  1. 1

    Inputs requiring your determination

    Any input a person must decide and has not decided stops the computation. An undecided input is never read as a no.

  2. 2

    Records supporting Exempt Person status

    Article 56(2). The retention date is computed from the end of the Tax Period, and the test is that the status be readily ascertainable.

  3. 3

    Records supporting the return and the Taxable Income

    Article 56(1). The same period, with the test being that the return is supported and the Taxable Income readily ascertainable.

Examples

Illustrative scenarios — ours, not the authority’s — each computed live by this rule. Change any fact and the outcome is the rule’s, not a hand-written answer.

A taxable company's calendar-year records

Records relating to a Tax Period ending 31 December 2026.

Computed

Records must be retained until 2033-12-31 as computed: Article 56(1) requires a Taxable Person to maintain all records and documents that support the information provided in a Tax Return or any other document filed with the Authority, and that enable its Taxable Income to be readily ascertained, for 7 years following the end of the Tax Period to which they relate — here the period ending 2026-12-31. The period runs from the end of that Tax Period and not from the date of the document, so a record made early in a period is kept longer than its own age suggests. Article 56 opens “notwithstanding the provisions of the Tax Procedures Law”, so this period governs for Corporate Tax whatever the general law provides. The Tax Procedures Law is not encoded or watched in this ledger. Whether a given set of records makes the Taxable Income readily ascertainable is not something this rule tests and requires your determination.

Workings

Tax Period the records relate to endsas supplied — the period the retention runs from, not the date of the document
2026-12-31
Years to retainArticle 56 — published value for FY2026
7
Retain untilArticle 56 — the end of the retention period
2033-12-31

Decided by the records supporting the return and the taxable income

Records early in a long-running period

An invoice dated in January 2026 for a Tax Period that ends on 31 December 2026 — kept from the period end, not from its own date.

Computed

Records must be retained until 2033-12-31 as computed: Article 56(1) requires a Taxable Person to maintain all records and documents that support the information provided in a Tax Return or any other document filed with the Authority, and that enable its Taxable Income to be readily ascertained, for 7 years following the end of the Tax Period to which they relate — here the period ending 2026-12-31. The period runs from the end of that Tax Period and not from the date of the document, so a record made early in a period is kept longer than its own age suggests. Article 56 opens “notwithstanding the provisions of the Tax Procedures Law”, so this period governs for Corporate Tax whatever the general law provides. The Tax Procedures Law is not encoded or watched in this ledger. Whether a given set of records makes the Taxable Income readily ascertainable is not something this rule tests and requires your determination.

Workings

Tax Period the records relate to endsas supplied — the period the retention runs from, not the date of the document
2026-12-31
Years to retainArticle 56 — published value for FY2026
7
Retain untilArticle 56 — the end of the retention period
2033-12-31

Decided by the records supporting the return and the taxable income

An Exempt Person's records

A Qualifying Public Benefit Entity keeping the records that let its exempt status be ascertained, for a period ending 30 June 2026.

Computed

Records must be retained until 2033-06-30 as computed: Article 56(2) requires an Exempt Person to maintain all records that enable its status to be readily ascertained by the Authority, for 7 years following the end of the Tax Period to which they relate — here the period ending 2026-06-30. Exemption from Corporate Tax is not exemption from records, and the test is different from the one in Clause 1: what must be ascertainable is the status, not the Taxable Income. Article 56 opens “notwithstanding the provisions of the Tax Procedures Law”, so this period governs for Corporate Tax whatever the general law provides. The Tax Procedures Law is not encoded or watched in this ledger. Whether a given set of records makes the status ascertainable is not something this rule tests and requires your determination.

Workings

Tax Period the records relate to endsas supplied — the period the retention runs from, not the date of the document
2026-06-30
Years to retainArticle 56 — published value for FY2026
7
Retain untilArticle 56 — the end of the retention period
2033-06-30

Decided by the records supporting exempt person status

A period ending on a leap day

Records for a Tax Period ending 29 February 2028, where adding the published years lands in a non-leap year.

Computed

Records must be retained until 2035-02-28 as computed: Article 56(1) requires a Taxable Person to maintain all records and documents that support the information provided in a Tax Return or any other document filed with the Authority, and that enable its Taxable Income to be readily ascertained, for 7 years following the end of the Tax Period to which they relate — here the period ending 2028-02-29. The period runs from the end of that Tax Period and not from the date of the document, so a record made early in a period is kept longer than its own age suggests. Article 56 opens “notwithstanding the provisions of the Tax Procedures Law”, so this period governs for Corporate Tax whatever the general law provides. The Tax Procedures Law is not encoded or watched in this ledger. Whether a given set of records makes the Taxable Income readily ascertainable is not something this rule tests and requires your determination.

Workings

Tax Period the records relate to endsas supplied — the period the retention runs from, not the date of the document
2028-02-29
Years to retainArticle 56 — published value for FY2026
7
Retain untilArticle 56 — the end of the retention period
2035-02-28

Decided by the records supporting the return and the taxable income

Try it

Supply the facts and this rule computes the outcome in your browser, live. Leave a determination undecided and it blocks the result — it is never read as a no.

Not computed yet

2 inputs still need your determination:

  • Is the Person a Taxable Person or an Exempt Person? Article 56 imposes a records obligation on both, but they are different obligations testing different things.
  • On what date does the Tax Period the records relate to end? The retention period runs from the end of that period, not from the date of the document.

Computed in your browser from the figures you supply. Nothing is sent anywhere, and the result is a computation against a rule — reference, not tax advice.

Thresholds

uae.record_retention_years
count 7 · reviewed 2026-09-28 · source

Threshold values are published separately from the rule and carried with a citation. Where none has been published for the period being computed, the rule reports that rather than applying a default.

Sources

Share this rule

Reference, not tax advice.

Pankaj Agarwal — Tax Technology Leader