Corporate Tax

UAE Corporate Tax Deadlines by Financial Year-End

2025-12-08 · 4 min read · By Aureus Worldwide

Corporate Tax deadlines confuse businesses because they are not the same date for everyone. The filing and payment deadline depends entirely on your financial year-end, through a single rule: nine months after the end of your tax period. This guide turns that rule into a month-by-month reference so you can find your dates at a glance.

The one rule behind every deadline

Under Federal Decree-Law No. 47, the Corporate Tax return and any payment are generally due within nine months of the end of the tax period, which normally follows your financial year. There is no separate payment date, filing and payment share the same deadline. So the entire calculation is:

Financial year-end + 9 months = filing and payment deadline.

Because of this, two businesses with different year-ends have different deadlines, and generic dates you see online may not apply to you. Always calculate from your year-end and confirm the exact date with the FTA. Our Corporate Tax deadlines guide explains the framework in full.

Month-by-month quick reference

Applying the nine-month rule to common year-ends gives the following filing and payment deadlines:

These are the general results of the nine-month rule. Edge cases, short or long first periods, changes of year-end, and any specific adjustments, can shift the date, so treat the table as a guide and confirm your precise deadline with the FTA.

The most common year-ends

Two year-ends dominate UAE businesses:

• 31 December, the calendar year. Filing and payment generally due 30 September of the following year.
• 31 March, a common alternative. Filing and payment generally due 31 December of the same year.

If your business uses one of these, anchor your planning to the corresponding date and work backwards. For the payment mechanics once you reach the deadline, see our Corporate Tax payment guide.

Registration deadlines are separate

A frequent error is assuming registration follows the same nine-month logic. It does not. Registration deadlines are set separately by the FTA and depend on factors such as the month your trade licence was issued or your entity type, and they have shifted over time. Late registration carries its own penalty. So you have two distinct timelines to track: a one-off registration deadline, and the recurring annual filing-and-payment deadline. Confirm your registration deadline with the FTA based on your specific circumstances.

First tax period and short years

Newly incorporated companies often have a first tax period that is not a neat twelve months. The nine-month window still runs from the end of that first period, so the key task is to identify your exact first year-end. A company incorporated mid-year might have a longer or shorter first period depending on its accounting reference date, which in turn sets the first deadline. Get this right early, because it also fixes opening balances and any transitional treatment.

Working backwards from the deadline

The nine-month window feels generous but disappears quickly once you account for accounts preparation, any audit, and the tax computation. The reliable approach is to schedule backwards:

1. Deadline, year-end + 9 months.
2. Submit return, with a buffer before the deadline.
3. Finish tax computation, reliefs, elections, transfer pricing.
4. Complete financial statements, and any audit.
5. Close the books, promptly after year-end.

Treating the deadline as the end of the process, not the start, is the single best protection against late filing.

Avoiding penalties

Administrative penalties apply for late filing and late payment, and separately for late registration. All are avoidable with a simple compliance calendar that records your year-end, your filing-and-payment date, and your registration deadline. If you realise you have missed something, act quickly, prompt correction is generally treated more favourably. Confirm current penalty amounts and any deadline specifics with the FTA, as these can change.

How Aureus Worldwide helps

Aureus Worldwide keeps UAE businesses on top of every Corporate Tax date. Our tax team confirms your filing-and-payment deadline from your year-end, tracks your separate registration deadline, and builds a working-backwards plan so the return is ready in good time. Our accounting team closes the books and prepares return-ready accounts. To map your Corporate Tax deadlines, contact our advisors.

Talk to our chartered accountants →