UAE Corporate Tax penalties: what late registration, filing and payment actually cost
AED 10,000 for late registration, a filing meter that runs monthly, and 14% a year on unpaid tax — the Corporate Tax penalty schedule in plain numbers.
The three penalties that matter
- Late registration: a fixed AED 10,000 for failing to submit the registration application within the FTA's deadline for your licence
- Late filing: AED 500 for each month (or part of one) the return is late during the first twelve months, rising to AED 1,000 per month from the thirteenth month onward
- Late payment: 14% per annum on the unpaid tax, applied monthly from the day after the payment deadline
What that looks like in dirhams
A company that files its return nine months late owes AED 4,500 in filing penalties before any tax is counted. If it also owes AED 100,000 of tax for those nine months, the late-payment charge adds roughly AED 10,500 more — about AED 15,000 of pure penalty on a position that a calendar reminder would have avoided entirely.
The filing penalty runs even when no tax is due: a loss-making company that ignores its return obligation accumulates the same monthly charges as a profitable one.
The ones people forget
- Failing to keep the required records and information carries its own fixed penalties, repeated on re-offence
- An incorrect return can be penalised — voluntary disclosure before the FTA notices is what keeps corrections cheap
- Registered but dormant? The filing obligation doesn't sleep: nil-activity companies file too
How Orbit applies this
Orbit's deadline watchdog tracks each entity's registration and filing calendar, escalates well before the nine-month line, and drafts the return from the ledger as the year runs — so the penalty schedule above stays a reference page, not a bill.
General information for Gulf businesses, not tax advice. Regulations move — verify against the official FTA/ZATCA text or your advisor before acting.