UAE corporate tax: what SMBs with a June year-end must file first

The first cohort of UAE CT returns is already filed and out of the way. If your financial year started on or after 1 June 2023 — and most SMBs default to a 1 July–30 June year — your first return was due by 31 March 2025. If you missed it, you are now in late-filing territory and you should stop reading this and call us.

If your year-end is December, your first return is due on 30 September 2025. We have filed 72 returns to date; here's the sequence we use for a clean file.

Step one: freeze the prior-year trial balance. The CT return starts from the statutory accounts. If those accounts haven't been signed off, don't file. Get the audit done, sign the accounts, then start the CT workings.

Step two: identify your related-party transactions. The UAE transfer-pricing rules bite above thresholds. If total related-party transactions in the year exceed AED 40M, or related-party loan balances exceed AED 4M, you need a local file. Most SMBs don't hit those thresholds but every SMB with a shareholder who has another business in the region should write a one-page memo documenting what they do.

Step three: reconcile to statutory accounts. Every CT workings pack we submit has a reconciliation from IFRS net profit to CT taxable income. Build it early; it's what the FTA will ask for if anything is queried.

Step four: file nine months after year-end. There's no extension. If the day falls on a weekend, file the Thursday before.

The ClearBooks standard is to file two weeks early so we have time to respond to any FTA queries raised at submission.