A UAE company with little or no activity: what you still have to file
A licence with only a few invoices — or none yet — still has tax obligations. What a quiet UAE company must file, what it can scale down, and the costs of getting it wrong.
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- Does a UAE company with no revenue have to file a Corporate Tax return?
- Yes. Every company files a Corporate Tax return each year, within nine months of the year end, including a nil or loss result. Filing late costs AED 500 a month.
- Does a company with very few transactions need VAT registration?
- Only once taxable supplies and imports exceed AED 375,000 in 12 months, or are expected to in the next 30 days. Zero-rated export sales count towards that figure.
- What if the company will not trade at all?
- It stays a taxable person while licensed, so returns continue. If it closes, it must apply to deregister for Corporate Tax within three months; failing to do so costs AED 1,000 a month, capped at AED 10,000.
Not every company trades busily from day one. Some have one or two invoices a month, some are waiting for their first contract, and some hold a licence for future plans. The tax obligations, however, start with the licence, not with the first sale.
What applies whatever the level of activity
| Corporate Tax registration | Every UAE company registers. Companies incorporated since 1 March 2024 have 3 months from incorporation |
| Corporate Tax return | Every year, within 9 months of the financial year end — including a loss or nil result |
| Accounts | The return starts from financial statements prepared under accepted accounting standards |
| Records | Kept for 7 years for Corporate Tax and at least 5 years for VAT |
| VAT returns | Only if the company is VAT-registered — and then for every tax period, even with no sales |
How we help: Corporate Tax returns — the annual return prepared and filed on time.
What can be kept simple
- Bookkeeping. The rules require complete, supported records — every transaction recorded, with the invoice or statement behind it. With very few transactions, the work is light, but it still has to be done before the return is prepared.
- VAT. Registration is mandatory only once taxable supplies and imports exceed AED 375,000 in 12 months, or are expected to in the next 30 days. Zero-rated export sales count towards that figure.
- Audit. For Corporate Tax, audited financial statements are required for companies claiming the free zone 0% rate and, for tax periods starting on or after 1 January 2025, for companies with revenue above AED 50 million. A free zone authority may set its own reporting rules, so check your licence conditions.
If the company will not trade at all
A company that stays licensed stays a taxable person, so its returns continue. If there is no plan to use it, closing the licence and deregistering may cost less over time. A company that closes must apply to deregister for Corporate Tax within three months; failing to do so attracts AED 1,000 a month, capped at AED 10,000. A VAT-registered business that stops making taxable supplies must also deregister. See VAT and Corporate Tax deregistration.
Where quiet companies go wrong
- Assuming that no revenue means no return — the nil return is still due, and filing it late still costs AED 500 a month.
- Losing track of the EmaraTax account because a set-up agent opened it. See how to check your EmaraTax position.
- Paying company costs from a personal account without keeping the receipts.
- Missing the VAT threshold because a single large contract arrives late in the year.
What it costs with us
Our Starter bookkeeping covers up to 40 transactions a month from AED 399* a month, and our Corporate Tax return starts at AED 999* per tax year for mainland companies with revenue up to AED 3 million. These are our published introductory fees at the date of this article; your fee is confirmed in a written proposal. See what drives the cost of a Corporate Tax return, or tell us how active your company is.
* Our fixed fees apply to businesses with annual revenue up to AED 3 million; above that, we prepare a custom quote. They do not apply to businesses dealing in digital currencies (crypto or other virtual assets), which are quoted separately.