Key Takeaways
4 insights · 10 min readCorporate tax filing cost in the UAE runs from AED 249 for a Small Business Relief return to AED 999 for a complex or group filing — driven by complexity, not company size, and charged as a fixed fee rather than by the hour.
Free zone QFZP returns cost more, because audited IFRS financial statements and a qualifying-income analysis are required on top of the return itself.
The return is only part of the stack: registration is a one-off AED 199, deregistration AED 399, and transfer pricing documentation applies where the thresholds are met.
Filing late or wrong costs far more than filing: AED 10,000 for late registration, AED 500–1,000/month for a late return, and 14% a year on unpaid tax.
Corporate tax filing in the UAE costs from AED 249 for a Small Business Relief return, AED 499 for a standard company return and AED 999 for a complex or group filing. Free zone QFZP filings cost more because audited financial statements and a qualifying-income analysis are required. Corporate tax registration is a separate one-off fee of AED 199.
In this guide
What filing costs What's in the fee What drives the price Free zone / QFZP cost Small Business Relief Registration, dereg & TP The cost of getting it wrong DIY vs professional Deadlines & late costs Choosing a provider Cost glossaryCorporate tax filing cost in the UAE is one of the most-searched and least-clearly-answered questions since the 9% regime began, because the honest answer is a range, not a number. A clean Small Business Relief return and a free zone group filing are both “a corporate tax return,” but they sit at opposite ends of the effort scale. This guide sets out exactly what each tier costs at Fastlane in 2026, what sits inside the fee, what pushes it up, and — the part most cost comparisons skip — what getting it wrong costs instead. File through our corporate tax filing service from AED 249, and see the wider rules in our corporate tax guide for UAE businesses.
What does corporate tax filing actually cost in the UAE?
Corporate tax filing in the UAE costs from AED 249 for a Small Business Relief return, AED 499 for a standard mainland company return and AED 999 for a complex or group filing. Free zone Qualifying Free Zone Person (QFZP) returns are quoted higher, because they carry an audit and a qualifying-income analysis the mainland returns do not. Every tier is a fixed fee, agreed before the work starts.
| Filing type | Fastlane fee | Typical for |
|---|---|---|
| Small Business Relief return | from AED 249 | Revenue at or below AED 3,000,000 electing SBR — often a nil-tax return |
| Standard company return | from AED 499 | Mainland LLC, straightforward adjustments, no group or QFZP complexity |
| Complex / group return | from AED 999 | Tax groups, multiple adjustments, related-party disclosures, exempt income |
| Free zone QFZP return | quoted with audit | Free zone companies claiming 0% on qualifying income — audit required |
| DIY on EmaraTax | No fee | Confident filers — full penalty risk of any error sits with you |
The reason a single price does not exist is that the return is a computation, not a form. Two companies with identical revenue can take an hour or a week depending on how many adjustments their accounts require and whether a free zone or group analysis sits behind the numbers. Get a quick tax estimate first with our UAE corporate tax calculator, then a fixed filing quote.
Key cost terms
Filing fee — the professional charge to prepare and submit the return; separate from any tax due. Tax payable — 9% on taxable income above AED 375,000, paid to the FTA, not the adviser. QFZP — Qualifying Free Zone Person; the 0% status that requires an audit and a qualifying-income analysis. SBR — Small Business Relief; the election that zeroes taxable income where revenue is AED 3 million or below. Voluntary disclosure — the correction filed when an error is found after submission, usually with interest.
What is included in a corporate tax filing fee?
A professional corporate tax filing fee should cover the whole return, not just the button press at the end. At Fastlane the fixed fee includes reviewing the financial statements, computing taxable income with every adjustment, applying reliefs and exemptions, completing and submitting the return on EmaraTax, and responding to routine FTA queries that arrive after filing.
What is included matters as much as the number, because the cheapest quote is often the narrowest scope. A fee that covers only data entry from figures you provide leaves the hard part — the adjustments, the QFZP position, the disclosures — with you. When comparing quotes, confirm five things are inside the price: the taxable-income computation, the relief and election handling, the EmaraTax submission itself, post-filing FTA correspondence, and a defined turnaround. Everything else is scope creep waiting to be billed.
What drives the price of a corporate tax return?
The single biggest driver is complexity, not revenue. A business turning over AED 20 million with one revenue stream and clean books is a simpler return than a AED 3 million company with mainland and free zone income, related-party loans and a messy ledger. Five factors move the fee.
| Cost driver | Cheaper | More expensive |
|---|---|---|
| Adjustments | Few; accounting profit close to taxable income | Entertainment, interest limitation, depreciation differences, provisions |
| Free zone status | Mainland, standard rates | QFZP — audit plus qualifying-income and de-minimis analysis |
| Related parties | None | Intercompany loans, management fees, transfer pricing disclosures |
| Group structure | Single company | Tax group — consolidation, loss offset, intra-group eliminations |
| State of the books | Reconciled monthly, audit-ready | Catch-up required before the return can be prepared |
The last row is the one companies control most and think about least. Clean, current books turn a return into a computation; books that are months behind turn it into a reconstruction project, and the fee reflects that. Ongoing bookkeeping is the cheapest way to keep the filing fee at the bottom of the range.
How much does free zone / QFZP corporate tax filing cost?
Free zone corporate tax filing costs more than a mainland return because a Qualifying Free Zone Person has to do two extra things: file audited IFRS financial statements, and evidence that its income actually qualifies for the 0% rate. Neither is optional, and both add cost the mainland return does not carry.
The qualifying-income work is the real driver. Under Cabinet Decision No. 100 of 2023 and Ministerial Decision No. 229 of 2025 — the current qualifying-activities instrument, which replaced Ministerial Decision No. 265 of 2023 — a QFZP has to demonstrate adequate substance, qualifying income, and non-qualifying revenue kept within the de-minimis threshold, the lower of AED 5 million or 5% of total revenue. Get it wrong and the 0% rate is lost for that period and the following four. So a free zone filing is really three pieces of work: the audit (free zone audit reports from AED 1,499), the qualifying-income analysis, and the return itself. You are paying for the analysis that defends the 0% claim, which is why free zone filing sits at the top of the range. See free zone audit services for the audit component.
What does Small Business Relief filing cost — and until when is it available?
A Small Business Relief return is the cheapest corporate tax filing there is — AED 249 at Fastlane — because a company electing SBR is treated as having no taxable income, so the computation is short. But cheap does not mean skippable: the election is made on the return itself, so a company that does not file makes no election and can face the full 9%.
Small Business Relief runs to 31 December 2029 — and must be elected each year
Small Business Relief (SBR) is available until 31 December 2029, which means eligible companies can claim it for tax periods ending on or before this date. It treats a resident person with revenue of AED 3,000,000 or less as having no taxable income for the period, under Ministerial Decision No. 73 of 2023 (as amended), and the election is made on each period’s return. If SBR is not elected for an eligible tax year, that period’s relief cannot be claimed later — missing one year does not disqualify a future eligible year, but you must claim it in the return for every year you want it. A Qualifying Free Zone Person cannot elect it. See our Small Business Relief service →
Worked example — the AED 249 return that saves AED 24,750
• Company: a Dubai consultancy, revenue AED 900,000, accounting profit AED 275,000.
• Without electing SBR: taxable income sits above the AED 375,000 band only on profit — but a company that simply fails to file faces late-filing penalties and, without the election, tax on profit at 9%.
• With the SBR election on a filed return: revenue is under AED 3,000,000, so taxable income is treated as nil — AED 0 tax.
• Cost of getting there: AED 249 for the return. The relief only exists because the return was filed and the election made in it.
What are the other corporate tax costs — registration, deregistration, transfer pricing?
The return is one line in a wider cost stack. Registration happens once when the company comes into scope; deregistration happens once at closure; transfer pricing documentation applies only where the thresholds are met. Budgeting for the return alone understates the true annual cost for anything but the simplest company.
| Service | Fastlane fee | When it applies |
|---|---|---|
| Corporate tax registration | AED 199 one-off | Once, when the company first comes into scope |
| Corporate tax return | from AED 249 | Every tax period, within 9 months of year end |
| Corporate tax deregistration | AED 399 | On cessation or liquidation, within 3 months |
| Transfer pricing documentation | quoted | Where disclosure or master/local file thresholds are met |
| Free zone audit report | from AED 1,499 | QFZP status and most licence renewals |
Two of these have hard deadlines with their own penalties. Registration late is AED 10,000; deregistration late is AED 1,000 per month up to AED 10,000. And where related-party transactions cross the thresholds, transfer pricing documentation is not optional — the arm’s length principle applies with no threshold at all, and disclosure and file obligations kick in above set values.
What does it cost to get corporate tax filing wrong?
This is the number that should sit next to every filing fee, because it dwarfs it. Corporate tax penalties under Cabinet Decision No. 75 of 2023 (as amended by Cabinet Decision No. 10 of 2024) are automatic and escalating, and late payment interest runs separately from the late-filing fine.
| Failure | Penalty |
|---|---|
| Late corporate tax registration | AED 10,000 |
| Late filing of the return | AED 500/month (first 12 months), AED 1,000/month thereafter |
| Late payment of tax | 14% per annum, charged monthly on unpaid tax |
| Incorrect return | AED 500 (unless corrected before the deadline) |
| Failure to keep records | AED 10,000 first offence; AED 20,000 repeat within 24 months |
Worked example — an AED 499 fee versus an AED 42,713 mistake
• Company: a Dubai LLC with AED 146,250 of corporate tax payable (9% on income above AED 375,000).
• Files on time with Fastlane: AED 499, tax paid, done.
• Forgets to file for 18 months: AED 12,000 in late-filing penalties (AED 500/month × 12, then AED 1,000/month × 6) plus roughly AED 30,713 in 14% late-payment interest — about AED 42,713, before the tax itself.
• The gap: the professional fee is under 1.2% of the penalty it prevents.
Should you file yourself or pay a professional?
EmaraTax will let you file for free, so for a genuinely simple nil return, DIY is defensible. The moment there are real adjustments, a free zone position, related parties or a group, the expected cost of a DIY error moves above a professional fee — and the error is usually invisible until the FTA finds it.
DIY on EmaraTax
- No filing fee — and no review layer
- Misclassify a line: AED 500 incorrect-return penalty
- Miss an adjustment: voluntary disclosure plus interest
- Forget the SBR election: 9% you did not owe
- Hours of EmaraTax navigation, no FTA-query support
- True cost: AED 0 upfront, AED 5,000–50,000+ in penalty risk
Professional filing with Fastlane
- Fixed fee from AED 249, agreed before work starts
- Taxable income computed with every adjustment
- SBR and QFZP positions handled correctly
- EmaraTax submission included
- Post-filing FTA correspondence covered
- Prepared by an FTA-registered tax agent — 2–5 business days
If you are choosing a firm rather than doing it yourself, our guides to the corporate tax consultant in Dubai role and the best corporate tax firms in Dubai for 2026 set out what to look for.
When is the corporate tax return due, and what happens if you're late?
The corporate tax return and payment are both due within 9 months of your financial year end — there is no separate payment extension and no general filing extension. A company with a 31 December 2025 year end files and pays by 30 September 2026. Miss it and the penalties in the table above start immediately: AED 500 a month on the return, 14% a year on the unpaid tax, from day one.
Because the deadline is set by your own year end, two companies can have filing dates months apart. The practical cost lesson is that the cheapest filing is an early one: a return prepared with weeks to spare from clean books is a bottom-of-range fee, while a return rushed in the final days — or reconstructed after the deadline — costs more in fees and risks the penalties on top. The full schedule of year-ends and deadlines is in our corporate tax filing deadline 2026 calendar.
How do you choose a corporate tax filing provider?
Choose on standing and scope, not on the headline fee alone. The provider should be an FTA-registered tax agent, able to represent you before the FTA; the quote should be fixed and its scope written down; and the same firm should be able to handle the audit if you are a free zone company, so the numbers reconcile.
What separates a fair fee from a false economy
• A fee that excludes the computation — if the quote only covers data entry, you are still doing the hard part; the adjustments are where returns go wrong.
• No FTA-query support — queries arrive after filing; a fee that ends at submission leaves you to answer them alone.
• Hourly billing on compliance — it rewards the provider for the mess and penalises you for sending documents; a fixed fee for a defined scope is the better structure.
• Not an FTA-registered tax agent — without that standing, the firm cannot formally act for you before the FTA.
• No audit capability for a free zone company — splitting the audit and the return across two firms is where reconciliation errors and extra fees appear.
The cheapest quote and the lowest total cost are rarely the same thing. A slightly higher fixed fee that includes the computation, the elections, the submission and the follow-up almost always beats a bare-bones quote that bills every extra step.
Corporate tax cost glossary
| Term | What it means |
|---|---|
| Filing fee | The professional charge to prepare and submit the return; separate from any tax due to the FTA. |
| Tax payable | 9% of taxable income above AED 375,000, paid to the FTA. |
| SBR | Small Business Relief — the election zeroing taxable income where revenue is AED 3,000,000 or below. |
| QFZP | Qualifying Free Zone Person — the 0% status requiring an audit and a qualifying-income analysis. |
| De minimis | The non-qualifying revenue allowance for a QFZP: the lower of AED 5,000,000 or 5% of total revenue. |
| Voluntary disclosure | The correction filed when an error is found after submission, usually with interest. |
| EmaraTax | The FTA’s online portal for registration, returns and payment. |
| Tax group | Two or more UAE companies filing a single consolidated corporate tax return. |
Fastlane Tax Team
FTA-registered tax agents and MoE-approved auditors with 4,000+ corporate tax and VAT filings across the UAE mainland and 40+ free zones. Every guide is reviewed against current FTA regulations before publishing.
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