UAE Corporate Tax Rates: 0%, 9% and Special Regimes
Understand UAE Corporate Tax rates for the general regime, Qualifying Free Zone Persons and in-scope multinational groups.
Answer in brief
Applying 9% to revenue is not a shortcut; it is usually the wrong calculation. Under the general UAE Corporate Tax regime, Taxable Income up to and including AED 375,000 is taxed at 0%, and the portion above that threshold is taxed at 9%. A Qualifying Free Zone Person has a different split between Qualifying Income and other Taxable Income. In-scope large multinational groups must also assess UAE Domestic Minimum Top-up Tax.
- Federal Tax Authority — Corporate Tax General Guide
- Ministry of Finance — Cabinet Decision No. 116 of 2022
- Federal Tax Authority — Free Zone Persons Guide
- Ministry of Finance — UAE Domestic Minimum Top-up Tax
- Person in scope: Confirm which legal or natural person the rule applies to; do not mix a shareholder, company, branch and group because their names are related.
Applying 9% to revenue is not a shortcut; it is usually the wrong calculation.
Under the general UAE Corporate Tax regime, Taxable Income up to and including AED 375,000 is taxed at 0%, and the portion above that threshold is taxed at 9%. A Qualifying Free Zone Person has a different split between Qualifying Income and other Taxable Income. In-scope large multinational groups must also assess UAE Domestic Minimum Top-up Tax.
Calculate the base before applying the rate.
Start with the Taxable Person
Identify the entity, natural person, Tax Group or other person filing the return. The AED 375,000 general-rate band applies once to that Taxable Person for the Tax Period, not separately to every activity, licence or branch.
Artificial separation can engage anti-abuse rules.
Determine Taxable Income
Begin with the accounting result prepared under the applicable standards, then apply Corporate Tax adjustments. These can concern exempt income, non-deductible expenditure, interest, related parties, depreciation or realisation choices, reliefs, tax losses and other statutory items.
Revenue and accounting profit are not automatically Taxable Income.
Apply the general rates
For a Taxable Person under the general regime:
- Taxable Income up to and including AED 375,000: 0%;
- Taxable Income above AED 375,000: 9% on the excess.
Example: if properly determined Taxable Income is AED 500,000, the 9% rate applies to AED 125,000, before relevant tax credits and other adjustments to payable tax.
Treat Tax Groups correctly
A qualifying Tax Group is treated as one Taxable Person for filing and the rate band. Do not multiply the 0% threshold by the number of group companies. Confirm eligibility, joining dates and pre-group attributes.
Separate the free-zone regime
A Qualifying Free Zone Person is subject to 0% on Qualifying Income and 9% on Taxable Income that is not Qualifying Income. The FTA guide states that the general AED 375,000 0% band does not apply to the QFZP's non-qualifying Taxable Income.
Failure to meet QFZP conditions can change treatment for the relevant period and later periods under the rules.
Screen for DMTT
Constituent entities of multinational enterprise groups must assess the UAE Domestic Minimum Top-up Tax where the group has annual global revenue of €750 million or more in the Ultimate Parent Entity’s consolidated financial statements in at least two of the four financial years immediately preceding the year being tested. The UAE DMTT applies for financial years starting on or after 1 January 2025. It is a specialised Pillar Two calculation, not simply an extra percentage added to accounting profit.
Calculate payable tax
After applying the applicable rate, review foreign tax credits, withholding-tax credits if relevant, payments and other statutory elements. Reconcile the return to financial statements and maintain an audit trail.
Avoid common errors
Do not apply 9% to revenue, give every branch a separate threshold, assume every free-zone receipt is qualifying, or ignore DMTT group data.
What must be calculated from the real UAE Corporate Tax Rates facts
It cannot determine Taxable Income, QFZP status, tax credits or DMTT from headline figures. Use current legislation, FTA guidance and qualified tax advice.
Why the distinction matters
The general 0% and 9% bands apply to Taxable Income, not revenue. Qualifying Free Zone Persons and large multinational groups require separate analysis.
The practical value is that the article separates accounting profit, tax adjustments, rate band, QFZP treatment and Domestic Minimum Top-up Tax.
For UAE Corporate Tax Rates, move to another guide when the question becomes one of these adjacent decisions:
| If the question is about… | Use the page that owns it |
|---|---|
| Which statutory rate regime applies? | CT Rates |
| How is the calculation base determined? | Taxable Income |
| How does the special free-zone regime work? | Free-Zone CT |
| Can a qualifying resident elect relief? | Small Business Relief |
Three situations that change the answer
1. A newly established UAE company. Start UAE Corporate Tax Rates with the correct legal person, tax period, registration status, accounting records and filing calendar. For UAE Corporate Tax Rates, compliance ownership should be clear before a deadline creates urgency.
2. A free-zone company. Do not let the free-zone licence decide UAE Corporate Tax Rates by itself. Within UAE Corporate Tax Rates, registration, Qualifying Free Zone Person conditions, qualifying income, audited accounts and related-party rules remain separate questions where relevant.
3. A cross-border or natural-person case. Residence, permanent establishment, nexus, place of supply and the nature of the activity can change UAE Corporate Tax Rates. For UAE Corporate Tax Rates, identify the statutory category before applying a domestic-company summary to a foreign business or individual.
Read the price in context
For UAE Corporate Tax Rates, keep statutory rates and thresholds separate from penalties, Federal Tax Authority service fees and adviser charges. In UAE Corporate Tax Rates, those amounts answer different questions and should not be merged into a single tax-cost figure.
For UAE Corporate Tax Rates, use an exact amount only where current legislation or the Federal Tax Authority supports the figure and the scope is stated. If UAE Corporate Tax Rates requires a calculation from case facts, explain the inputs rather than turning one example into a universal bill.
What the official sources confirm
For UAE Corporate Tax Rates, the authority source establishes the factual baseline; GulfBlueprint adds the commercial interpretation. In UAE Corporate Tax Rates, separating those layers makes it easier to distinguish the official rule from commercial judgement.
| Supported point | Primary-source family | Limitation |
|---|---|---|
| The general bands apply to Taxable Income. | FTA guide and Cabinet Decision | Tax adjustments determine the base. |
| Only one AED 375,000 band applies per Taxable Person per period. | FTA guide | Tax Groups and partnerships need analysis. |
| QFZP income can fall under 0% or 9%. | FTA free-zone guide | Conditions and income classification control. |
| UAE DMTT applies to qualifying large MNE groups. | Ministry of Finance | GloBE calculations are specialised. |
Sources checked for the UAE Corporate Tax Rates research dossier:
- Federal Tax Authority — Corporate Tax General Guide
- Ministry of Finance — Cabinet Decision No. 116 of 2022
- Federal Tax Authority — Free Zone Persons Guide
- Ministry of Finance — UAE Domestic Minimum Top-up Tax
Recheck a live source on publication day if UAE Corporate Tax Rates contains a fee, threshold, deadline, activity wording, approval or eligibility condition that can change.
Connect the position to the accounting evidence
For UAE Corporate Tax Rates, keep a short reconciliation that another competent person can follow from source records to the conclusion. In UAE Corporate Tax Rates, the reader should be able to see the evidence behind the rule rather than only the rule itself.
- Person in scope: Confirm which legal or natural person the rule applies to; do not mix a shareholder, company, branch and group because their names are related.
- Period and trigger: Record the tax period, transaction date, registration trigger or filing period that makes the rule relevant.
- Accounting source: Identify the ledger, invoice, contract, bank record or calculation from which the amount or classification is derived.
- Classification: Document the classification that drives UAE Corporate Tax Rates, including any exemption, zero rate, qualifying status, recoverability or exclusion relied on.
- Reconciliation: Tie the tax calculation back to accounting records and explain reconciling items rather than forcing the ledger to equal the return without analysis.
- Review and retention: Keep calculations, source documents, filing evidence and technical judgements together for the applicable retention period.
If a classification used in UAE Corporate Tax Rates is uncertain and could materially change the result, obtain qualified tax advice before filing. A general disclaimer cannot repair a weak technical position.
What to document before execution
A useful UAE Corporate Tax Rates decision should leave an evidence file behind, not just a conclusion.
At minimum, the UAE Corporate Tax Rates brief should record:
- what the company sells and who pays it;
- planned activities and any separate approvals;
- customer countries, sales channels and contract types;
- ownership, management and signatory structure;
- premises, staffing and visa assumptions;
- supplier, payment and banking flows;
- registration, filing, payment and document-retention dates that apply to the relevant person or period;
- who owns accounting, tax and record keeping;
- documents still to obtain;
- the next likely change the structure must support;
The research dossier also flags these page-specific checks:
- Rates apply to Taxable Income, not turnover.
- The AED 375,000 band applies once per Taxable Person.
- Free-zone status does not guarantee 0%.
- Large groups must screen for DMTT.
- Effective liability reflects adjustments and credits.
Update the UAE Corporate Tax Rates brief when a material fact changes; a launch-day document should not become the company's permanent truth.
What still needs a case-specific answer
For UAE Corporate Tax Rates, confirm the following against the actual applicant, transaction or operating model:
- Taxable Person and Tax Period.
- Accounting standards and tax adjustments.
- Tax Group status.
- QFZP conditions and income classification.
- DMTT group and revenue scope.
- Credits, losses, reliefs and payable tax.
If one of these facts materially changes UAE Corporate Tax Rates, use the current authority or institution source and obtain qualified advice where the case is complex. The UAE Corporate Tax Rates page is a decision framework, not a personal ruling or guaranteed outcome.
What this guide deliberately leaves outside scope
Keeping UAE Corporate Tax Rates useful means being explicit about what it cannot decide without additional facts or specialist authority:
- Personalised tax calculation.
- Revenue-based shortcut.
- Blanket free-zone 0% claim.
- Simplified DMTT estimate.
- Sales CTA.
That boundary is part of the value of UAE Corporate Tax Rates. In UAE Corporate Tax Rates, that boundary shows where a general explanation stops before it becomes an unsupported personal conclusion.
Decision matrix before commitment
Use this matrix to test UAE Corporate Tax Rates before treating the answer as settled:
| Decision area | What a good answer looks like | Warning sign |
|---|---|---|
| Person in scope | Which company, branch, natural person or group is the tax rule being applied to? | Mixing related persons because the names are similar. |
| Trigger and period | Which date, period, threshold or transaction makes the rule relevant? | Using an old deadline or the wrong tax period. |
| Classification | What legal or tax classification drives the result? | Applying a headline rate without classification. |
| Accounting evidence | Which ledger, invoice, contract or calculation supports the amount? | A tax position detached from books and records. |
| Reconciliation | Can the reported result be traced back to accounting records with reconciling items explained? | Forcing numbers to agree without analysis. |
| Filing and payment | Who owns registration, return, payment and amendment deadlines? | No calendar or named owner. |
| Related parties and cross-border facts | Do transfer pricing, permanent establishment, nexus or place-of-supply issues need separate analysis? | Treating a domestic summary as universal. |
| Retention and review | Are source documents, technical judgements and filing evidence retained together? | A filing that cannot be reconstructed later. |
Failure modes worth preventing
- The UAE Corporate Tax Rates conclusion is copied from a headline without confirming the person, period or transaction in scope.
- A threshold, rate or penalty from an old guide is treated as current without checking the Federal Tax Authority source.
- The tax calculation is not reconciled to accounting records, so no one can explain the difference later.
- A free-zone licence or non-resident label is used as a shortcut for a tax classification that requires additional conditions.
- Registration and filing ownership is unclear until a deadline is already close.
- Technical advice, calculation evidence and filing records are stored separately, making later review or correction unnecessarily difficult.
Related decisions
A final decision check before commitment
Write the UAE Corporate Tax Rates decision in one sentence and compare it with the research objective: Identify the correct UAE Corporate Tax rate regime and calculation base for the Taxable Person. If the written UAE Corporate Tax Rates decision and the research objective solve different problems, resolve the scope before adding more detail or activities.
Then test UAE Corporate Tax Rates against the next twelve months: first customer, first invoice, first bank review, first employee or contractor, first tax filing, first renewal and first material business change. For each event in the UAE Corporate Tax Rates plan, identify the document, approval, budget or control that would be needed.
Separate confirmed facts from assumptions. Within UAE Corporate Tax Rates, any fee, threshold, deadline, approval, tax treatment or regulated obligation should point to the current source, while commercial judgement remains labelled as judgement.
Before closing UAE Corporate Tax Rates, compare the chosen route with the closest alternative and record which fact would reverse the decision. That UAE Corporate Tax Rates record makes later amendments easier because the team can test whether the original reason still exists instead of rebuilding the decision from memory.
UAE Corporate Tax Rates: evidence checklist
- Confirm the exact person or entity in scope.
- Confirm the activity, product or transaction being assessed.
- Record the current authority source and verification date.
- Separate official fees or thresholds from commercial estimates.
- Record the assumption that would most likely change the decision.
- Keep the next related page ready for the question that sits outside this guide.
Frequently asked questions
Applying 9% to revenue is not a shortcut; it is usually the wrong calculation. Under the general UAE Corporate Tax regime, Taxable Income up to and including AED 375,000 is taxed at 0%, and the portion above that threshold is taxed at 9%. A Qualifying Free Zone Person has a different split between Qualifying Income and other Taxable Income. In-scope large.
A useful UAE Corporate Tax Rates decision should leave an evidence file behind, not just a conclusion.
Federal Tax Authority — Corporate Tax General Guide Ministry of Finance — Cabinet Decision No. 116 of 2022 Federal Tax Authority — Free Zone Persons Guide Ministry of Finance — UAE Domestic Minimum Top-up Tax Person in scope: Confirm which legal or natural person the rule applies to; do not mix a shareholder, company, branch and group because their names are.
Before closing UAE Corporate Tax Rates, compare the chosen route with the closest alternative and record which fact would reverse the decision. That UAE Corporate Tax Rates record makes later amendments easier because the team can test whether the original reason still exists instead of rebuilding the decision from memory.
Related reading
- High-YMYL GuideCorporate Tax RegistrationAssess UAE Corporate Tax registration scope, deadlines, documents and EmaraTax steps, then build controls for accurate ongoing compliance.
- High-YMYL GuideFree Zone Corporate TaxUnderstand UAE free-zone Corporate Tax through QFZP conditions, Qualifying Income, excluded activities, de minimis, substance and records.
- High-YMYL GuideSmall Business ReliefAssess UAE Small Business Relief eligibility, revenue history, excluded persons, election timing, tax-loss effects and record requirements.