When was the Corporate Tax return due for a tax period ended 31 December 2025?

30 September 2026. A Corporate Tax return is due within nine months of the end of the tax period. For a calendar year 2025 period that is 30 September 2026.

What is the penalty for filing a UAE Corporate Tax return late?

AED 500 for each month, or part of a month, for the first twelve months, then AED 1,000 for each month or part of a month after that, under Cabinet Decision 75/2023 as amended. Unpaid tax carries a separate late payment penalty of 14% a year.

Does filing the late return remove the penalty already incurred?

No. Submitting stops further late filing penalties from accruing. Penalties already incurred remain payable, and late payment penalties continue until the tax itself is paid.

Is this my first Corporate Tax return?

Not if your company has a calendar year tax period. The first period for most calendar year companies was 1 January to 31 December 2024, due 30 September 2025. The return due 30 September 2026 covers the 2025 period.

Late Corporate Tax Return in the UAE: Penalties, What Stops Them, and How to Catch Up

Q: How quickly can Dembri get a late return ready?

Prepared and reviewed by a practising tax professional within five working days of the day your records are confirmed complete and the booking is accepted. You approve it and submit in your own EmaraTax account with guidance.

If your company's tax period ended on 31 December 2025, the Corporate Tax return was due on 30 September 2026. If it is not in, this page sets out what it costs each month, what filing does and does not fix, and the fastest honest way to get it done.

Last verified: 27 September 2026, against the FTA's published legislation. Check the current text of any decision before relying on a figure.

The deadline rule

Under the Corporate Tax Law (Federal Decree Law 47 of 2022), a taxable person files the Corporate Tax return within nine months of the end of the tax period. Calendar year companies therefore file for 2025 by 30 September 2026.

This is not the first return for most calendar year companies. Their first tax period was 1 January to 31 December 2024, which fell due on 30 September 2025. The 30 September 2026 return covers 2025.

What a late return costs

Cabinet Decision 75 of 2023, as amended, sets the administrative penalties for Corporate Tax. For failing to submit a return on time:

AED 500 for each month, or part of a month, for the first twelve months.
AED 1,000 for each month, or part of a month, after that.

"Or part of a month" matters: the penalty for a month starts on the first day of that month, so a return filed on 2 October carries the same penalty as one filed on 30 October.

Unpaid tax is penalised separately: a late payment penalty of 14% a year, calculated monthly on the amount still outstanding. Filing the return does not stop that clock; paying the tax does.

What submitting does and does not fix

Submitting the return stops further late filing penalties from accruing. It does not remove the penalty already incurred for the months, or parts of months, that have passed. Any Corporate Tax payable is still due, and the late payment penalty runs until it is paid.

So the order of value is: file as soon as the return is accurate, then pay. Filing a wrong return quickly to stop the clock creates a different problem, since an inaccurate return can carry its own penalty and will need a voluntary disclosure to correct.

Why late returns pile up

The reasons are usually mundane: the books for 2025 were not closed, the accountant who was meant to do it went quiet, or nobody was sure whether the company needed to file at all. Every one of those is fixable in days, not months, if the records exist.

Getting a late return done in five working days

From 1 October 2026 Dembri is taking ten late filers. The process:

Send your 2025 trial balance, or an export from your accounting software.
Dembri prepares the Corporate Tax return from those records, with the working behind each figure, and lists any confirmations needed from you.
A practising tax professional reviews the return line by line and signs off.
You approve it, then submit in your own EmaraTax account with guidance. No AI is involved in that final step.
The filing receipt is stored and the next deadline is tracked.

Prepared and reviewed within five working days of the day your records are confirmed complete and the booking is accepted. AED 1,500 per return. The FTA penalty and any tax payable are always yours.

Eligibility: companies with a 1 January to 31 December 2025 tax period, records available. Missing books, transfer pricing and complex positions are quoted separately before any work starts.

Start my late return on WhatsApp

Sources

Federal Decree Law No. 47 of 2022 on the Taxation of Corporations and Businesses, filing within nine months of the end of the tax period.
Cabinet Decision No. 75 of 2023 on administrative penalties for Corporate Tax, as amended: FTA legislation page.
FTA Corporate Tax guidance: tax.gov.ae.

Dembri Technologies Ltd is a DIFC registered company. It prepares and professionally reviews returns; the client approves and submits. It is not a registered tax agent.