Corporate Tax Registration UAE Services with FTA and EmaraTax Support

It is based on the nature of the applicant, the incorporation country and date, activity carried out and taxation in the UAE. In the case of a UAE juridical person, the anticipated profit or taxes payable are not the sole considerations since registration can be necessary without the entity commencing any trade or making losses or even having no tax liability at all in the foreseeable future.

It can help if you get professional assistance where there is uncertainty about the deadline, incomplete EmaraTax application, many licenses held by the business, inconsistent ownership and potential late registration.

GetMyAccounting will go through the pertinent facts to determine the appropriate application process.

Mainland Companies

If the company is incorporated in or any other way organized in the United Arab Emirates mainland, it can typically be considered eligible to register for Corporate Tax. The date of incorporation, earliest licensing data, and EmaraTax account must be verified before making the application.

Free Zone Companies

Although a Free Zone company might consider itself exempt from the registration process based on its eligibility for Corporate Tax at 0%, this is an independent question from the registration process itself.

A full analysis of Qualifying Free Zone Person status does not normally form part of the registration process and could need to be undertaken separately.

Natural Persons and Sole Proprietors

A natural person is typically required to register where he conducts a Business or a Business Activity in the UAE and his gross income arising out of those activities exceeds AED 1 million in the Gregorian calendar year.

The following gross incomes do not normally count for the purposes of applying the threshold test:

• Salary income
• Income from personal investments
• Income from real estate investments

The nature of the business and the source of income needs to be considered before establishing whether a person is required to register.

Non-Resident Businesses

A non-resident juridical person may be required to register where it establishes a Permanent Establishment in the UAE. The position will depend on the facts of each case and the date upon which the requisite condition occurred.

A non-resident natural person may be required to register where he conducts a Business or a Business Activity through a UAE Permanent Establishment and his gross Turnover exceeds the requisite threshold.

UAE Branches and Exempt Persons

The UAE branch of a domestic juridical person is usually considered an extension of its head office and does not register individually. Its licensing and activities details can nevertheless have to be reported within the head office application.

Exempt persons may also have to register or seek exemption. It is advised to first determine their legal status before making an application.

Applicants can check their legal status and registration requirements at the FTA Corporate Tax Registration service.

GetMyAccounting offers Corporate Tax Registration Services UAE as part of the scope of work which is specifically for registration.

Preparation of Corporate Tax Returns, Calculation of Taxable Income, Transfer Pricing, and Analysis of the Free Zones are not automatic services. In case there is a need to address other technical matters, GetMyAccounting informs about the need for additional analysis.

The deadline for registering Corporate Tax would vary depending on the category of the applicant and the time when the condition to be registered arose.

Juridical persons registered, set up or recognised within the UAE before 1 March 2024 had deadlines for registrations calculated based on licence months that occurred in 2024.

If an organisation is not registered, it should consider its earliest applicable trade licence and act immediately and not wait until the next annual registration period opens. Where a company owns more than one licence, the date of issue of the first licence is used to decide the deadline historically. The deadlines by categories are confirmed by the FTA Corporate Tax registration timeline.

Failing to register with the authorities on time will incur an administrative penalty of AED 10,000 according to the penalty regulations.

The normal deadline for filing Corporate Tax Return and paying the Corporate Tax that is due is nine months after the end of the Tax Period.

There is a possible waiver of the late registration penalty if the situation qualifies under the existing initiative program. The condition is that the taxable person needs to register and file its first Corporate Tax Return within seven months after the end of the first Tax Period.

An exempt person that needs to register must file its annual return within seven months after the end of the first Financial Year.

It is based on the dates of the applicants, the registration position of the applicants, first tax period, the position of the return as well as the penalty position. It would be wrong for the business to believe that the penalty would be waived automatically.

A seven month position is only applied for the first tax period in the case of late registration penalty waiver. The current requirements for eligibility could be accessed through the FTA's waiver guidance.

Required documentation depends on the structure of the applicant, its ownership, licenses, branches and authorized signatories.

Common Documentation and Information Required for Companies

• Certificate of Incorporation, if any
• Memorandum of Association or Partnership Deed, if any
• Commercial Registration Certificate
• Valid main trade license
• Branch trade licenses, if any
• Emirates ID and Passport details for shareholders owning more than 25% shareholding, if required under the current EmaraTax application form of the applicant
• Passport and Emirates ID details of authorized signatories
• Power of Attorney or Board Resolution or any other authority of signatories
• Owner’s Shareholding and Business activity details
• Primary place of business and contact details
• Financial Year details
• Current VAT or Excise registration details, if any

Information Usually Required for Natural Persons

• Passport and Emirates ID, if any
• Trade license or documents proving business/Business activity
• Information about business activity and its contacts
• Documents confirming income of calendar year
• Information regarding Permanent Establishment, if applicable
• Documents about the authorization of the representative, if applicable

The FTA can ask for more documents depending upon the legal status of the applicant. Before the submission of the documents, there should be consistency between the information mentioned in names, dates, ownership, business activity, and authorized signatories.

With respect to Corporate Tax Registration UAE, GetMyAccounting handles the process methodically so that the client knows what requirements there are, what documents have been provided, and if there are still any actions left to be taken by the FTA.

1. 1
   Step 1: Application and Deadline Analysis

   Analysis of the client’s legal structure, incorporation, business operation, licenses, and existing EmaraTax status is done to determine the applicant category and time frame.

2. 2
   Step 2: Focused Documents List

   A targeted documents list is made based on the type of the entity, its owner, branch office, and signatories. This eliminates the need to use a universal documents list for all applicants.

3. 3
   Step 3: Information Comparison

   Information from the proposed application is cross-checked against the available legal documents. Discrepancies concerning the name, incorporation date, licenses, ownership percentage, activity, address or signatory authority are pointed out.

4. 4
   Step 4: Preparing and Submitting EmaraTax Application

   All the necessary sections of the application and documents are prepared via EmaraTax. Before submitting, the application will be checked in relation to the supporting records that are available. The reference number is kept once the application is submitted.

5. 5
   Step 5: FTA Reaction and the Results of Registration

   In case of clarification and resubmission being asked for, the necessary action regarding registration is determined. Upon receiving the results, the registration information and Corporate Tax TRN will be noted down and the next stage of compliance is outlined separately.

If you need to learn about registration and its relationship with accounting records, Free Zones, and further filing, you may consult more detailed information available via GetMyAccounting's Corporate Tax advisory services.

When there is a discrepancy with respect to the data being entered in the EmaraTax, or when the entered details do not coincide with the uploaded documents, the application is likely to be returned.

Common issues include:

• Selecting incorrect taxable person type
• Using incorrect incorporation/license dates
• Not providing an appropriate branch/business operation
• Provision of incomplete owner details
• Inconsistent ownership percentage
• Not uploading owner identification as per the requirements of the current registration form
• Provision of signatory identification without proof of authority
• Incomplete business address or Financial Year
• Treating VAT TRN as Corporate Tax TRN
• Incomplete response provided against an FTA resubmission request

GetMyAccounting will check for any inconsistencies based on the available information. However, it is up to the FTA to conduct its check and determine the ultimate registration decision and timeline.