General Tax Guides in the UAE

Start here. Almost every question about tax in the Emirates resolves once you know which of six categories you fall into. VAT, excise tax and corporate tax are all federal taxes, imposed by Federal Decree-Laws that apply across all seven emirates, so the answers below are the same in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, Ajman, Umm Al Quwain, Ras Al Khaimah and Fujairah. What varies between emirates is the fee layer — licensing, municipality and property charges — not the tax.

These are the figures that answer most rate questions — business tax rate, company tax rate, minimum tax, business tax in Dubai. Each is taken from the instrument that imposes it rather than from a summary, because the thresholds have moved more than once since 2023.

Two federal bodies matter and they do different jobs. The Ministry of Finance proposes and issues the legislation — decree-laws, cabinet decisions and ministerial decisions. The Federal Tax Authority administers the resulting taxes: it registers taxpayers, runs EmaraTax, receives returns and payments, audits, assesses and imposes administrative penalties. When people search for a UAE tax agency, the FTA is the answer.

A third register is often confused with them. The FTA maintains a public list of registered tax agents — individuals approved to deal with the Authority on a taxpayer's behalf — while the Ministry of Economy and Tourism maintains the register of practising auditors. Neither register is a list of tax advisers generally, and neither the FTA nor the Ministry endorses firms.

Every UAE tax obligation begins with a registration, and every registration produces a Tax Registration Number. Article 1 of Federal Decree-Law No. 28 of 2022 defines it as "a unique number issued by the Authority to each Person who is registered for Tax purposes", and Article 6(2)(a) requires registrants to include it in correspondence and transactions. Registration for all taxes runs through EmaraTax, the FTA's online portal; there is no paper route and no fee for the registration itself.

This is where most of the "tax-free UAE business" material goes wrong. A free zone company is inside the corporate tax system, not outside it. It registers, it files, and it is a taxable person under Federal Decree-Law No. 47 of 2022 like any other. What Article 18 offers is a 0% rate on Qualifying Income for a company that meets every condition of being a Qualifying Free Zone Person — and 9% on everything that is not qualifying income.

The conditions are demanding and continuous. They include maintaining adequate substance in the free zone, deriving qualifying income as defined by Cabinet Decision No. 100 of 2023, not electing to be subject to the standard regime, complying with transfer pricing under Article 55, and staying within the de minimis limits for non-qualifying revenue. Fail any one and the 0% rate falls away, in that tax period and for the following four.

The DIFC is a financial free zone in Dubai with its own commercial and civil law framework, its own courts and its own Registrar of Companies, which is where a DIFC entity is incorporated rather than at the Dubai Department of Economy and Tourism. That is the part of DIFC formation most people are asking about, and it is a DIFC Registrar process governed by DIFC's own laws and fee schedule.

We are not reproducing the DIFC's incorporation fees or company law article numbers here. They are published by the DIFC itself and change; we could not read them from a DIFC primary source at the time of writing, and a stale fee quoted as current is worse than no figure. Go to the DIFC Registrar of Companies for the schedule.

What we can state, because it is federal law, is the tax position — and that is what usually gets misunderstood. A DIFC entity is squarely inside the UAE tax system.

Yes, you can own 100% of a company in Dubai in most cases. Federal Decree-Law No. 32 of 2021 on Commercial Companies removed the general requirement for a UAE national shareholder in mainland companies, and the UAE Government Portal confirms full foreign ownership for most activities. Free zone companies have always permitted 100% foreign ownership.

The exception is narrow and specific: Cabinet Resolution No. 55 of 2021 lists seven activities of strategic impact in Article 2, where additional conditions or approvals apply. Everything outside that list is open. Note also that Article 9 of the Commercial Companies Law permits exactly five company forms, and states that any company taking another form is void — "sole establishment" and "civil company" are licensing categories, not company forms under that article.

The UAE adopted the OECD Pillar Two minimum tax through Article 3(3) of Federal Decree-Law No. 47 of 2022 and Cabinet Decision No. 142 of 2024. It brings constituent entities of multinational groups with consolidated revenue of EUR 750 million or more to a 15% effective tax rate, for fiscal years starting on or after 1 January 2025. It does not touch ordinary UAE companies, however profitable — the entry test is group revenue, not local profit.

The registration mechanics were unresolved for over a year and are now settled. FTA Decision No. 12 of 2026, issued 16 July 2026, sets the requirements for registering and deregistering entities for Top-up Tax purposes.

There is no UAE-issued "chartered accountant" designation. The regulated title in the Emirates is practising auditor, granted by registration in the Ministry of Economy and Tourism's practising auditors register under Federal Decree-Law No. 41 of 2023 on Concerning the Regulation of the Accounting and Auditing Profession — which repealed and replaced Federal Law No. 12 of 2014, still cited by many older guides. Registration for a natural person costs AED 100 to apply plus AED 4,500 for three years.

People described locally as chartered accountants normally hold a foreign qualification — ACCA, ICAEW, the Indian or Pakistani CA, or the US CPA — and practise under it. For tax specifically, the relevant credential is FTA registration as a tax agent, which costs AED 3,000 per three years for a natural person and AED 10,000 per year for a juridical person under Cabinet Decision No. 65 of 2020 as amended.

The UAE runs a tourist VAT refund scheme, administered by the Federal Tax Authority and operated exclusively by Planet. It refunds part of the 5% VAT paid on goods that a visitor takes out of the country — not services, not hotel stays and not anything consumed here.

The conditions are specific: the claimant must be at least 18, must not be a UAE resident, must have bought from a retailer registered in the scheme, and must spend at least AED 250. Validation happens on departure at the airport, port or land border, and Article 68(2) of Cabinet Decision No. 52 of 2017 requires it within 90 days of the purchase date. The refund is 85% of the VAT paid, less AED 4.80 per tax-free tag.

Several searches that land on UAE tax pages cannot be answered honestly by a tax adviser. Saying so is more useful than filling the space.

UAE tax law has moved substantially in each of the last four years, and several widely repeated figures are now wrong. As at 12 August 2026 the corrections that matter most are these. Small Business Relief runs to tax periods ending on or before 31 December 2029, extended by Ministerial Decision No. 131 of 2026 issued on 29 July 2026 — not 2026, as most competing pages still say. Qualifying and excluded activities are governed by Ministerial Decision No. 229 of 2025, which repealed MD 265 of 2023 retroactively to 1 June 2023. The VAT Law itself changed on 1 January 2026 through Federal Decree-Law No. 16 of 2025, and VAT administrative penalties were rewritten by Cabinet Decision No. 129 of 2025 with effect from 14 April 2026.

Electronic invoicing is the next obligation to land. Under Ministerial Decision No. 244 of 2025, businesses with revenue of AED 50 million or more must appoint an accredited service provider by 30 October 2026 — a date moved from 31 July 2026 by Ministerial Decision No. 66 of 2026 — with phase 1 going live on 1 January 2027 and phase 2 on 1 July 2027.