UAE corporate tax: Why 2025 is a key year for many organisations

As the FTA portal operates both VAT and corporate tax regimes on the same platform, there are shared data fields. Antonie Robertson / The National

It's 2025 and now it’s getting real. As most reporting entities will have a December year end, the vast majority of returns will be facing a deadline, including settlement of any amounts due, on September 30, 2025.

For those who still believe a corporate tax return is just a variation on a VAT submission, the reality, unfortunately, is completely different.

Who would not be very interested in seeing the percentage of companies reporting by month? It could be used to gauge the regulatory stress level of the country. Here’s why.

For those who conduct an annual external audit, part of this upcoming journey has already been travelled. The preparation of the information required, time spent answering queries and final adjustments made before filing are all crucial steps in ensuring a timely and accurate submission.

Keep in mind that this represents changing your internal financials, including management accounts, to align with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) or a similar framework.

Corporate tax has its own set of standards and treatments. So, imagine being interrogated by the same group of actors asking you two different sets of questions about the same base information.

Sensible companies set aside a couple of months to complete an external annual audit. This time frame allows for any potential issues that may arise with either party to the work. Keep in mind that this is a well-travelled road with plenty experienced advisers from which to choose.

Not yet on Google Maps, properly tarmacked or lit are the first corporate tax returns. Two months might be an excessively generous project time given the lack of clarity in which we will all be working.

Let me highlight the first minor roadblock you may face. Happily, it is one that can be easily resolved, but that resolution is in the hands of the regulatory authorities in the form of the Ministry of Finance and Federal Tax Authority.

Recall that you have nine months from the end of your reporting year to prepare, submit and settle any amount owing.

This process is completed through the Federal Tax Authority portal. Having tested the site, it would seem the opportunity to report appears only in the last month of the reporting window.

That means if you have a January to December fiscal year and this is your first year of reporting, you will need to wait until September 2025 to lodge your return. As ever, VAT is useful in trying to understand the thinking behind this.

If you are reporting VAT for October to December, it was only on January 1 that the option to report became available. This is logical. If the option to file was open before the period ended, then an entity might accidentally report with incomplete information.

The UAE's corporate tax law explained: Business Extra

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As the FTA portal operates both VAT and corporate tax regimes on the same platform, there are shared data fields. This means your current trade licence would be required for both VAT and corporate tax. This is useful as it removes the requirement to update that document when it expires in several locations.

It is conceivable that the default maximum reporting period for VAT is one month, considering VAT was launched first.

While I have observed reporting periods of varying lengths, it is likely that these are manual overrides by operators, as it would not be feasible to do this for every reporting body.

I hope that a change will be introduced to allow reporting to be completed at any time within the nine-month window.

On a related matter, having already completed some short-year corporate tax returns, one particular absent element caught me by surprise.

When you complete a VAT return, it should be normal practice to download the return from the FTA portal for your records. This is essential for good housekeeping and may be requested by external auditors, KYC processes, or suppliers.

The VAT return report is simple and provides all necessary information for a quick validation of the submitted numbers.

This does not exist for corporate tax reporting. You can view your multipage return and take screenshots, however, this is hardly ideal.

I had expected receiving an email confirmation with a detailed or summary version of the submitted corporate tax return, but this is not the case. Again, unfortunately not. Either would be useful.

If I may make one suggestion, there was a time when you could amend a submitted VAT return up until the final date of filing.

This helpfully allowed for any errors to be identified and rectified, as well as adjustments for payment shortfalls or overpayments to be carried forward to the next period.