Quick Answer
There is no single “Corporate Tax deadline” that applies to every UAE business on the same calendar date. Registration deadlines depend on when your company was incorporated or licensed, and your filing and payment deadline is always nine months from the end of your own tax period, not a fixed date on the calendar. A business with a 31 December 2025 financial year end must file and pay by 30 September 2026. A business with a 31 March 2026 year end has until 31 December 2026 to do the same. Miss registration and you face an AED 10,000 penalty; miss filing and the fine runs AED 500 per month for 12 months, then AED 1,000 per month; miss payment and interest accrues at 14% per annum from the day after the due date.
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Why “the” Corporate Tax deadline is the wrong question
Since Federal Decree-Law No. 47 of 2022 took effect, every taxable person in the UAE has its own tax period, usually a 12-month financial year, and every deadline that matters is calculated from that period, not from a single date the FTA sets for the whole country. That is why you will see businesses filing in February, June, September, and December of the same year, all correctly, all on time. If your business runs on the standard calendar year, your 2025 financial year closed on 31 December 2025, which is exactly why 30 September 2026 is showing up everywhere right now as “the” deadline. It is real, but it is not universal. Get your own tax period wrong and every date below shifts with it.
Registration deadlines: tied to your incorporation or license date
Registration is a one-time step, and the window you get depends on what kind of taxable person you are and when you came into existence. The table below reflects the rules currently in force under FTA Decision No. 3 of 2024.
| Taxable person | Registration deadline |
|---|---|
| New UAE resident juridical person (incorporated on or after 1 March 2024) | 3 months from the date of incorporation, establishment, or recognition |
| Foreign company effectively managed and controlled in the UAE | 3 months from the end of its first financial year |
| Non-resident with a Permanent Establishment created on or after 1 March 2024 | 6 months from the date the PE is established |
| Non-resident with UAE-sourced nexus created on or after 1 March 2024 | 3 months from the date the nexus is established |
| Resident natural person (turnover exceeded AED 1,000,000 in the prior calendar year) | 31 March of the following year |
| Non-resident natural person meeting the registration threshold | 3 months from the date the requirement is met |
Businesses that already existed before 1 March 2024 had a separate, one-time registration window tied to their trade license issuance month; those windows ran between May and December 2024 and have all closed. If your company falls in that group and still is not registered, you are already late and the AED 10,000 penalty applies from the date you should have registered, not from today.
Filing and payment: one deadline, nine months, no exceptions
Unlike registration, filing and payment share a single rule with no category-specific variations: both are due within nine months of the end of your tax period, and both fall on the same date. There is no separate, earlier payment deadline the way there is under VAT. You calculate your liability, file the return, and settle the amount owed, all by that one date.
Worked example 1: standard calendar year
A Dubai trading company runs its financial year from 1 January to 31 December. Its 2025 tax period ended on 31 December 2025. Counting nine months forward: January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September. Its return and full payment are both due by 30 September 2026.
Worked example 2: non-calendar year
A free zone manufacturer runs its financial year from 1 April to 31 March. Its tax period ends on 31 March 2026. Nine months forward lands on 31 December 2026, its filing and payment deadline, even though the calendar year is the same 2026. The mechanic never changes; only the date it produces changes with your chosen year end.
What happens when a deadline is missed
Cabinet Decision No. 129 of 2025 sets the current penalty structure, in force since 14 April 2026: AED 10,000 for late registration, a tiered AED 500 per month for late filing rising to AED 1,000 per month after 12 months of continued non-filing, and 14% per annum simple interest on unpaid tax, calculated monthly from the day after the due date until settlement. These three penalties run independently and can stack on the same taxable person. For the full breakdown, including voluntary disclosure and how the penalties compare across VAT and Excise Tax, see our current guide to Corporate Tax penalties.
A registration penalty waiver has applied to specific groups of early registrants who filed within a defined grace period; the rules and eligibility are covered in our article on the registration penalty waiver. It does not apply automatically to every late registrant, so check eligibility before assuming it covers your case.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is 30 September 2026 the Corporate Tax deadline for every UAE business?
No. It is the deadline only for businesses whose tax period ended on 31 December 2025. Any business with a different financial year end has a different date, always nine months after its own period closes.
Can I file my return before paying, or pay before filing?
The return and the payment share the same due date. The FTA expects the liability to be settled by that date regardless of the order in which you file and pay.
What is the registration deadline for a company incorporated this year?
A UAE resident juridical person incorporated on or after 1 March 2024 must register within 3 months of the date of incorporation, establishment, or recognition, regardless of what year that falls in.
Do free zone companies get a different filing deadline?
No. The nine-month filing and payment rule applies the same way to free zone and mainland entities. What differs for free zone companies is often the registration timeline and qualifying income treatment; see our guide to free zone registration deadlines for those specifics.
I think my company missed its one-time 2024 registration window. What now?
Register immediately. The AED 10,000 penalty is calculated from your original deadline, and it only grows the longer registration is delayed. See our record of the one-time registration windows by license issuance date to confirm which deadline applied to you.
What should I do before I even reach my registration deadline?
Confirm your tax period, gather your trade license and ownership documents, and decide whether Small Business Relief or Qualifying Free Zone Person status applies before you register. Our pre-registration checklist covers this in order.
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How Tax Consultant Dubai Can Help
We calculate your exact tax period and the registration, filing, and payment dates that follow from it, then manage the submission end to end so nothing is missed.
Contact Tax Consultant Dubai today to confirm your Corporate Tax deadlines and get your filing prepared ahead of time.
