Tax and VAT
Corporate Tax and VAT registration
We prepare and file your Corporate Tax and VAT registrations. Specialised accounting and tax services are provided through our licensed partner firms.
What we do, and what our licensed partner firms do
We prepare and file your Corporate Tax and VAT registrations. Specialised accounting and tax services are provided through our licensed partner firms.
We handle this
- Prepare and file your Corporate Tax and VAT registrations
- Tell you which registrations apply to your licence, and when
- Gather and check every supporting document
- Track your deadlines and tell you what is coming
- Coordinate between you and the licensed partner firm doing the specialist work
Our licensed partner firms handle this
- Specialised accounting and tax services
- Bookkeeping and preparing financial statements
- Statutory audit, where your licence or free zone requires one
- Filing and representation work only a licensed firm may do
- Formal opinions on how the rules apply to your specific structure
You will know which firm is on your work, and why, before it starts. Nothing gets quietly subcontracted.
Does this apply to you?
Two registrations, two sets of rules, two different reasons you might be caught. This page tells you which apply to you and what filing them involves. It does not work out how the rules land on your specific structure — that is specialist work, and our licensed partner firms do it.
Two parallel columns showing what triggers each registration. Corporate Tax is triggered by holding a UAE trade licence, including for Free Zone companies and including loss-making years; registration attaches to the licence, not to profit. VAT is triggered by taxable supplies above the registration threshold, or supplies expected to pass it within thirty days, with voluntary registration available as an option; VAT registration attaches to turnover, measured over twelve months. Both columns end at the same outcome: registration required.
Corporate Tax
You hold a UAE trade licence
Taxable persons have to register. The duty comes with the licence, not with whether you made money.
Worth knowing: This is the one people miss. A dormant or loss-making company still has to register.
Your company is in a Free Zone
A Free Zone company may qualify for a 0% rate on qualifying income if it meets the conditions. It still has to register.
Worth knowing: Qualifying is not automatic and the conditions are detailed. Whether your business meets them is a question for our licensed partner firms.
Your registration deadline has already been set
Your deadline comes from your licence issue date, and registering late carries a penalty.
Worth knowing: We track this date next to your licence renewal so it never sneaks up on you.
VAT
Your sales pass the mandatory VAT threshold
Once your taxable supplies and imports pass the threshold over the last twelve months — or you expect them to in the next thirty days — you must register.
Worth knowing: The Federal Tax Authority sets the threshold and how the twelve-month figure is worked out. We check the current numbers against your turnover.
You are above the voluntary threshold but below the mandatory one
You can register voluntarily, which lets you claim back VAT on your costs.
Worth knowing: Good for some businesses, not others — it brings filing duties with it. Decide this with the partner firm rather than by default.
You sell goods or services outside the UAE
Some sales are zero-rated rather than exempt, and the difference changes what you can claim back.
Worth knowing: Zero-rated and exempt are not the same thing. Mixing them up is a common and expensive mistake.
Where this page stops
Everything above is about getting on the register and the documents that go with it. Whether your specific structure qualifies for a specific treatment is a different question, and our licensed partner firms answer that one, not us.
How we register you
For most companies we build the application from documents you already have. What gets applications rejected is small mismatches between them.
Most registrations are built from documents you already hold. The work is making sure every one of them says the same thing.
What we need from you
- A valid trade licence
- Your memorandum of association, or equivalent document
- Passport and Emirates ID for the owners and the signatory
- Proof the signatory is authorised, where the licence does not show it
- Your registered address and contact details
- The financial year your company uses
What we check before we file
- Your company name matches the licence exactly, letter for letter
- The address matches your tenancy or desk agreement
- The signatory’s authority is proven, not assumed
- The financial year is chosen on purpose, not left on a default
- The deadline for your licence, so you do not miss it
We watch your deadline for you
Your deadline comes from your licence, so every company has a different date and nothing anywhere counts down for you. We keep yours on the same calendar as your licence and Establishment Card renewals — see ongoing support.
Questions we get asked most
Taxable persons have to register whether or not any tax turns out to be payable. That catches a lot of people who assume a small or loss-making company is off the hook. We check your position against your licence and structure and file the registration for you.
VAT registration becomes mandatory once your taxable supplies pass the registration threshold over a twelve-month period, and you can register voluntarily above a lower one. The Federal Tax Authority sets both figures — we confirm the current ones and whether your turnover reaches them.
A Free Zone company may qualify for a 0% rate on qualifying income if it meets the conditions, but that is not automatic and it still has to register. Whether your specific business qualifies is a specialist question, and our licensed partner firms answer it, not us.
We prepare and file your Corporate Tax and VAT registrations. Bookkeeping, financial statements, audit and returns sit with our licensed partner firms, and we coordinate between you and them so you are not running two relationships.
Late registration comes with administrative penalties, and they are completely avoidable. That is why we track registration deadlines alongside your licence renewals instead of waiting for you to ask.
Get started
Find out what applies to you
Tell us your licence type and roughly what you turn over. We will tell you which registrations you are caught by, and when.
Get started
Don’t get caught by a deadline
Tell us your licence type and turnover. We will tell you what you have to register for and when it is due.
We reply within one working day.