Corporate tax penalties UAE: what each violation costs in AED

These penalties apply whatever the tax payable:

• Not submitting a registration application within the FTA timeframe: AED 10,000.
• Failing to keep required records and information: AED 10,000 per violation, or AED 20,000 for a repeat within 24 months.
• Not providing data, records or documents in Arabic when the FTA asks: AED 5,000.
• Not telling the FTA about changes to the tax record: AED 1,000, or AED 5,000 for a repeat within 24 months.
• Late deregistration application: AED 1,000, plus AED 1,000 on the same date each month, capped at AED 10,000.
• Failing to facilitate a tax auditor: AED 20,000.

A registrant that files a return late pays AED 500 for each month or part of a month for the first twelve months, then AED 1,000 for each month from the thirteenth. Exempt persons filing a declaration late face the same scale. Tax not paid on time attracts a monthly penalty at 14% per year on the unpaid amount, for each month or part of a month.

Example: a Sharjah company files four months late and owes AED 80,000. The late filing penalty is 4 × AED 500 = AED 2,000. The late payment penalty runs at 14% per year, roughly 1.17% a month, which on AED 80,000 is about AED 933 for each month, so about AED 3,733 over the four months. Confirm the exact computation in EmaraTax, which applies the rule to your dates.

Submitting an incorrect return costs AED 500, unless you correct it before the return deadline. Errors found after the deadline are fixed by voluntary disclosure, which carries a monthly penalty of 1% of the tax difference for each month or part of a month until the disclosure is filed. If the FTA notifies you of an audit before you disclose, the penalty becomes a fixed 15% of the tax difference plus the monthly 1%.

The message is simple: correcting early is far cheaper than being found.

Most penalties trace back to records that were not ready. The HelloBooks AI agent keeps an audit trail on every entry, stores source documents with the transaction, and reads Arabic and English bills, so an FTA request for supporting documents does not start a scramble. It also reminds the team of return and payment dates for each company. Filing, disclosures and payments are still done by a person on EmaraTax. Firms wanting penalty-risk reports across clients can ask for that customisation at /book-a-demo.