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Resident Person: natural person

Applies
FY2024 onwards
Reviewed
Rule
UAE-CT-RES-NAT-2024.1
By

Do individuals pay UAE Corporate Tax?

Only on UAE business turnover above AED 1 million in a calendar year. Wages, personal investments and real estate investment income do not count.

Per Federal Decree-Law No. 47 of 2022, Article 11, Taxable Person

A natural person is subject to Corporate Tax only where they conduct a Business or Business Activity in the UAE and their total turnover from those activities exceeds the published threshold in the calendar year. Wages, personal investment income and real estate investment income are not a Business or Business Activity.

Where both conditions are met the natural person is a taxable person and must register; where either fails, they are outside the charge on that basis. Turnover here is measured over the calendar year (January to December), which is not necessarily the tax period the threshold resolves against.

What counts, and what does not

Subject to Corporate Tax only where both hold

  • The person conducts a Business or Business Activity in the UAE
  • Total turnover from those activities exceeds the published threshold in the calendar year

Not a Business or Business Activity

Income from these sources is left out of the turnover test:

  • Wages
  • Personal investment income
  • Real estate investment income

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

    Business or Business Activity in the UAE

    A natural person is within the charge only if they conduct a Business or Business Activity in the UAE. Wages, personal investment income and real estate investment income are not a Business or Business Activity; where there is none, there is no turnover to test.

  3. 3

    Turnover test

    Total turnover from Business or Business Activities in the calendar year must exceed the published threshold. Turnover exactly at the threshold does not exceed it, so the person is outside the charge on this basis.

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.

Salaried employee, no business

An individual whose only UAE income is a salary from their employer. A wage is not a Business or Business Activity, so no turnover is tested.

Computed

Not subject to Corporate Tax as computed: the natural person does not conduct a Business or Business Activity in the UAE, based on the determination you supplied. Wages, personal investment income and real estate investment income are not a Business or Business Activity.

Decided by the business or business activity in the uae

Consultant over the threshold

A freelance consultant operating in Dubai with business turnover of AED 1,500,000 in the calendar year.

Computed

Subject to Corporate Tax as computed: the natural person conducts a Business in the UAE and turnover of AED 1,500,000 in the calendar year exceeds the published threshold of AED 1,000,000, based on the figures you supplied.

Decided by the turnover test

Small side business under the threshold

An individual running a small online shop with turnover of AED 600,000 in the calendar year, alongside a salaried job.

Computed

Not subject to Corporate Tax as computed: turnover of AED 600,000 in the calendar year does not exceed the published threshold of AED 1,000,000, based on the figures you supplied.

Decided by the turnover test

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

1 input still need your determination:

  • Does the natural person conduct a Business or Business Activity in the UAE?

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.natural_person_turnover_threshold
AED 1,000,000 · reviewed 2026-09-24 · 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