What is a tax group UAE? One taxpayer for related companies

For VAT, Article 1 of Federal Decree-Law No. 8 of 2017 defines a Tax Group as two or more persons registered with the FTA as a single taxable person. Article 14(1) requires each member to have a place of establishment or fixed establishment in the UAE, the members to be related parties, and one or more of them to control the others. Article 9 of the Executive Regulation includes a 50% voting interest test among the ways to show control.

For corporate tax, Article 40 of Federal Decree-Law No. 47 of 2022 requires the parent to hold at least 95% of the share capital of each subsidiary, directly or indirectly, along with 95% of voting rights and profit entitlement.

A VAT group removes VAT from supplies between members, which Article 12(1)(b) of the Executive Regulation says may be disregarded, and cuts several returns to one. The trade-off is in Article 12(2): every member is jointly liable for the group's VAT. A Dubai holding company with a Sharjah factory and an Abu Dhabi distributor saves admin but takes on its subsidiaries' VAT risk.

Group status also affects e-invoicing. Under Ministerial Decision No. 197 of 2026, dealings inside a VAT tax group stay outside the e-invoicing system for two years from 1 January 2027, while invoices to outside customers follow the normal phases. That makes a clean record of which entities are in the group more important, not less.

Multi-entity management on the Business plan keeps each company's books separate while reporting across the group. Intercompany transactions are tagged so they can be eliminated in group VAT figures and consolidated reports. The AI agent can answer 'what is the group's combined VAT this quarter?' and flags intercompany invoices coded with VAT. The representative member files the group return; HelloBooks prepares the numbers.

Concepts around groups.

• Representative member
• Related parties
• TRN
• Arm’s length principle