UAE Tax Compliance Calendar: Filing Deadlines and Obligations

The excise return for the quarter ending 31 March falls due on 15 April. The VAT return covering the same three months falls due on 28 April. A finance team that has built its habits around the VAT date reaches mid-April with the excise return still unopened, and by the time anyone looks up from the VAT workings the earlier of the two dates has passed.

What that forecloses is most of what a business would want to do about it. The return can still be filed and the tax paid, but the due date does not move to meet the filing, and the Federal Tax Authority's penalty attaches to the date missed rather than the day the work was done. No effort in the fortnight that follows turns a late return into a timely one. What remains is a default on the record, read against the next filing and the next audit.

Three taxes now run on three separate clocks in the UAE, and none is keyed to the others. Corporate tax is due nine months after the financial year ends, VAT 28 days after each tax period, excise 15 days after each calendar quarter. A business caught by all three tracks dates set by three instruments for three different reasons, held together by nothing but whatever calendar it keeps itself.

Related Services: Explore our Tax Compliance For Landlords and Tax Compliance For Expats services for practical legal support in this area.

Corporate tax: the nine-month clock

The UAE corporate tax regime took effect from the financial year starting 1 June 2023 and applies a federal rate of 9% to taxable profits above AED 375,000. The annual return is due within nine months of the end of the financial year. A company whose year ends on 31 December files by 30 September of the following year. A company whose year ends on 30 June files by 31 March.

Nine months reads as generous, and that is the trap in it. The return cannot be built until the accounts are closed, and for larger entities it must rest on audited financial statements — so part of the nine months belongs to an auditor working to a timetable the company does not control. A group that starts assembling figures in the seventh month has two months of runway, not nine.

What Decree-Law 47 of 2022 requires

Federal Decree-Law No. (47) of 2022 on the Taxation of Corporations and Businesses places the filing duty on businesses operating in the UAE — local entities and foreign ones with a permanent establishment here — and requires the return to reflect their financial activities accurately. Penalties are tiered: they begin at AED 1,000 for late registration and rise to AED 50,000 or more depending on the seriousness of the default and whether it repeats.

The escalation is the feature to plan around: a first late filing and a third are not priced the same. Larger entities must prepare returns on audited accounts; smaller businesses may file on unaudited ones, but the FTA retains the power to call for an audit or further documentation afterwards. The practical standard for record-keeping does not soften with size, and records must be kept for at least five years.

A worked example: the June year-end

Take a multinational with a UAE branch running a fiscal year from 1 July to 30 June. Its books close on 30 June and its corporate tax return is due on 31 March. The date is fixed the moment the financial year is chosen, which makes the choice of year-end a compliance decision as much as an accounting one: a branch on its parent's reporting calendar inherits the parent's closing bottlenecks with it, and delay in closing the accounts eats the filing window rather than the audit.

Holding the corporate tax date

• Start before the year ends: compile financial data ahead of the year-end date so audits and adjustments have somewhere to sit.
• Keep the records for five years: the retention period runs long after filing, and it is the documents rather than the return that answer a later question.
• Get the provisions read properly: exemptions and tax treaty positions change what falls into taxable profit, and belong at the start of the exercise rather than the end.

The corporate tax date is better treated as a scheduled event than as a task that appears when the accounts close. Nour Attorneys advises on filing positions and the documentation standing behind them. See our tax law services and corporate law pages.

VAT: twenty-eight days after every tax period

VAT has applied at 5% since its introduction in 2018, and it is the obligation that recurs most often. Registered businesses file periodic returns setting out taxable supplies, input tax recovered, and the VAT payable or refundable. The tax period is monthly or quarterly depending on annual turnover and other criteria: businesses above AED 150 million in turnover file monthly, those below that threshold typically quarterly.

The deadline is 28 calendar days after the end of the tax period. A monthly filer meets that date twelve times a year rather than four: smaller work each time, three times as many chances to miss it.

The rules behind the return

VAT compliance is governed principally by Cabinet Decision No. (52) of 2017 and the Executive Regulations issued by the FTA. The return has to reconcile taxable supplies, output VAT, input VAT, exempt supplies and zero-rated supplies, and it is the reconciliation rather than the arithmetic that causes trouble: a discrepancy that looks minor on the face of the return can still open a detailed enquiry.

The FTA's penalties framework covers late registration, late filing, late payment, under-declaration and failure to retain records. A VAT return filed late attracts a fixed penalty of AED 1,000 within the first 30 days, and repeated non-compliance escalates from there — as with corporate tax, the second failure does not cost what the first did.

A worked example: the quarterly filer

An SME with annual turnover of AED 20 million files quarterly. Its tax period ends on 31 March and the return is due on 28 April — 28 days, not a month, so the date lands before the end of the following month rather than at it. That is where quarterly filers most often slip: a team that thinks in months reads the deadline as 30 April and loses two days it never had. Systems that calculate VAT on sales and recoverable input VAT on purchases as transactions are booked take most of the pressure out of those final days.

Holding the VAT date

• Use VAT-aware systems: software producing the return figures directly is faster to check than a spreadsheet built after the period closes.
• Reconcile on a cycle, not at the deadline: regular reconciliation of VAT accounts surfaces mismatches while there is time to explain them.
• Train the finance team as the rules move: most filing errors are knowledge gaps rather than carelessness.
• Keep the underlying documents: invoices, contracts and customs declarations should be kept for at least five years, because they are what an audit examines.

Periodic internal review, with advice on the genuinely difficult provisions, keeps VAT filings defensible rather than merely submitted. Nour Attorneys' tax advisory services address VAT treatment and filing positions, and our contract drafting team can make sure agreements state clearly which party carries the VAT and when.

Excise: fifteen days after each quarter

Excise tax applies to goods treated as harmful to health or the environment — tobacco products, energy drinks, carbonated beverages — at rates between 50% and 100% depending on the category. Businesses that manufacture, import or store excise goods must register with the FTA.

Excise returns are quarterly, due 15 days after the end of each calendar quarter — 15 April, 15 July, 15 October and 15 January. It is the shortest window of the three and it arrives first: for a business filing both, the excise date precedes the VAT date for the same quarter by thirteen days, which is why it is the return most often overtaken by the VAT workload.

The legal framework and how it is enforced

Excise tax is governed by Federal Decree-Law No. (7) of 2017 on Excise Tax and its Executive Regulations, which impose registration obligations on producers, importers, exporters and storage facilities. Enforcement includes audits, physical inspection, and demands for documentation such as import and export records and stock movement logs.

The exposure is proportionate rather than capped: penalties for evasion or late filing can reach 30% of the unpaid tax, on top of fixed fines. On goods taxed at 50% to 100% of value, a percentage of unpaid tax is a large number attached to a short delay, which is why excise deserves a named owner rather than a place at the end of someone else's list.

A worked example: the tobacco importer

An importer of tobacco products registers with the FTA, maintains records of imports, sales and stock levels, and files on 15 April, 15 July, 15 October and 15 January. Note where the January date falls: a business with a 31 December year-end closes its annual accounts in the same fortnight the fourth-quarter excise return is due, with the VAT return for that quarter following on 28 January. The busiest month in the finance calendar carries two filing dates.

Holding the excise date

• Track stock as it moves: excise reporting depends on inventory records being current rather than reconstructed at quarter end.
• Diarise the quarter dates separately: the 15th is easy to lose against month-end routines built around the 28th.
• Hold the paper trail: supplier invoices, shipping documents and sales receipts are what support the return under inspection.
• Read the supply contracts: confirm that supply chain arrangements reflect who bears the excise liability and when it arises.

Nour Attorneys advises excise-registered businesses on reporting obligations and the records supporting them. Our tax law Dubai practice works to keep filings on time and defensible when examined.

Holding all three in one calendar

The three obligations are administered by one authority but share no rhythm. Keeping them in three places produces exactly the failure this article opened with: each handled competently, one handled late.

One calendar, three clocks

A single calendar should carry every filing date across corporate tax, VAT and excise, with the preparation work scheduled backwards from each date rather than the date recorded alone. A deadline entered without the weeks of work in front of it is a reminder that arrives too late to act on. The calendar also has to be revisited when the business changes: a company crossing the AED 150 million turnover threshold moves from four VAT returns a year to twelve.

Controls that catch a miss before the authority does

Separated duties, document checklists and periodic internal audits catch reporting errors while they are still internal. A compliance function working alongside external auditors and tax advisers sees all three regimes at once, which no single department usually does. Reviews of filed returns, accounting reconciliations and supporting documents find weaknesses before an FTA enquiry does, and finding them first is the difference between a correction and a penalty.

Keeping the team current

Continuing training for accounting and legal teams is what keeps pace with the rules. The distinctions that matter are narrow — a VAT exemption, a corporate tax allowance, an excise classification — and they are the ones most likely to produce an error made in good faith.

Talking to the authority early

Settle in advance how the business communicates with the FTA and who does it. Raising an ambiguous position before it is filed is a different conversation from explaining it after an enquiry has opened, and early engagement protects both reputation and cash flow.

A worked example: the holding company

A holding company with subsidiaries across several emirates meets all three regimes in different combinations: one subsidiary is excise-registered, another files VAT monthly, a third quarterly, and each has its own financial year and so its own corporate tax date. One system aggregating every deadline across the group is the only way to see the pattern whole. Held separately, each calendar looks manageable and the group's exposure stays invisible until a penalty arrives.

Nour Attorneys also advises on banking and finance matters that intersect with tax, where filing positions and financing arrangements have to be consistent with each other.

Conclusion

Corporate tax nine months after the financial year ends, VAT 28 days after each tax period, excise 15 days after each quarter: three dates set independently, each with its own penalty regime, each escalating if the failure repeats. None is difficult in isolation. The difficulty is holding all three at once, in a business where the same team closes the annual accounts in the weeks that two indirect tax returns fall due.

What protects a business is not urgency near the deadline but the work scheduled behind it, the records kept for the years afterwards, and a settled view on the positions that are genuinely arguable. Nour Attorneys works across tax law, corporate law and regulatory compliance to keep those three things in place together.

Disclaimer

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice.

Additional Resources

• Understanding UAE Corporate Tax: A Legal Overview
• VAT Compliance Requirements in the UAE
• Excise Tax Regulations and Compliance
• Navigating Regulatory Compliance in the UAE

Contact Nour Attorneys

If your calendar covers more than one of these regimes, we can review how the dates and the work behind them are organised. See our Tax Law Services page for more information.

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