Corporate tax records UAE: what to keep, how long, in what form

The law asks for all records and documents that support the information in the return, and the FTA said in its 2026 deadline notice that it relies on these to verify revenue, taxable income and small business relief eligibility. Exempt persons must also keep records showing they meet the exemption conditions. In practice that means:

• General ledger, trial balance and financial statements for each period.
• Sales invoices, purchase bills, credit notes and contracts.
• Bank statements and reconciliations.
• Fixed asset registers and depreciation workings.
• Corporate tax computations, elections and correspondence with the FTA.
• Related party agreements and transfer pricing support.

Seven years from the end of the tax period. For a 2025 calendar year, that runs to the end of 2032. Groups with long-lived assets or loss carry-forwards often keep supporting records longer, because a figure first claimed in 2025 may be relied on in a later return.

Records can be in English, but Cabinet Decision No. 75 of 2023 sets an AED 5,000 penalty for failing to provide data, records or documents in Arabic when the FTA requests them. Know who would translate on short notice.

E-invoices follow their own rule. Ministerial Decision No. 197 of 2026 requires e-invoices and related data to be retained for the period in the Tax Procedures Law and produced on request, and it removed the earlier requirement to store them inside the UAE. Keep both regimes in mind when you choose where documents live.

In HelloBooks every bill, receipt and statement is stored with the transaction it supports, and the audit log shows who posted or changed each entry. The AI agent reads bilingual Arabic and English documents when it captures them, so the original Arabic bill sits next to its English ledger entry. Ask "show me all documents behind the 2025 rent expense" and they appear in one list. A person still decides what to send the FTA. Partner firms can request custom retention folders or document naming rules at /book-a-demo.