Records to keep after filing

The situation

Corporate Tax records must be kept for 7 years after the end of the tax period they relate to.

The law

• Art 56, Federal Decree-Law 47 of 2022: 7-year record keeping

What it means for you

Keep accounts, ledgers, invoices, contracts, bank statements and working papers. Example: records for 2026 must be kept until at least 31 December 2033. Failure to keep records carries a fixed penalty of AED 10,000 per violation, AED 20,000 if repeated within 24 months, under the revised penalty rules for VAT and excise; Corporate Tax has its own schedule.

What to do

1. Store records digitally with backups.
2. Index by year and type.
3. Keep the computation and FTA correspondence.
4. Do not destroy before 7 years pass.

Related

• Dividends received by a UAE company
• Interest expense limit
• Calculating Corporate Tax on a profit
• Deducting the owner's salary
• Using last year's tax loss
• Cash basis versus accrual accounts