UAE Tax Law Changes in 2026

We update it every month.

The deadlines to put in your calendar

E-invoicing

The largest operational change of the year.

Ministerial Decision No. 243 of 2025 sets up the system. Ministerial Decision No. 244 of 2025 sets the phases. Ministerial Decision No. 66 of 2026, issued 14 May 2026, moved the first appointment deadline from 31 July 2026 to 30 October 2026.

Downloadministerial-decision-244-2025-einvoicing-implementation.pdf

Downloadministerial-decision-66-2026-einvoicing-amendment.pdf

Ministerial Decision No. 64 of 2025 governs who may act as an accredited service provider. Ministerial Resolution No. 56 of 2026, issued 10 May 2026, added an experience requirement. The provider's product must have been in operation for at least 2 years.

Downloadministerial-decision-64-2025-asp-accreditation.pdf

The UAE Electronic Invoicing Guidelines version 1.1 were published on 1 June 2026, with the mandatory fields document in February.

Downloaduae-einvoicing-guidelines-v1-1.pdf

Downloaduae-einvoice-mandatory-fields-v1-0.pdf

What it means for your business. E-invoicing applies to any person conducting business in the UAE, whether or not you are VAT registered. Business to consumer transactions are outside it for now. Your identifier is your TIN, which is the first 10 digits of your TRN.

One warning. The guidelines table still shows 31 July 2026 as the first appointment deadline. That date is superseded. The correct date is 30 October 2026.

Corporate Tax

The R&D Tax Credit

Cabinet Decision No. 215 of 2025 and Ministerial Decision No. 24 of 2026, both published 18 March 2026, create an R&D tax credit for tax periods beginning on or after 1 January 2026.

Downloadcabinet-decision-215-2025-rd-tax-credit.pdf

Downloadministerial-decision-24-2026-rd-tax-credit.pdf

Pre-approval from the Council is mandatory before you claim. Unused credit can be carried forward. There is a clawback if you stop meeting the conditions, and group members are jointly and severally liable for the amount clawed back.

What it means for your business. If you develop products, software or processes in the UAE, this is the first real Corporate Tax incentive available to you. The pre-approval requirement means you cannot claim it retrospectively. Apply before you spend, not after.

Registration and deregistration timelines

FTA Decision No. 12 of 2026, issued 16 July 2026.

Downloadfta-decision-12-2026-registration-deregistration-timelines.pdf

Sets the Top-up Tax registration window at 7 months from the end of the first in-scope fiscal year, with a fixed date of 30 November 2026 for fiscal years that ended before 30 April 2026.

The consolidated Corporate Tax Law

Federal Decree-Law No. 47 of 2022 and its amendments were republished on 13 January 2026.

Downloadfederal-decree-law-47-2022-consolidated.pdf

What it means for your business. Work from the consolidated text. The original 2022 version no longer reflects the law.

Public clarifications

Four Corporate Tax public clarifications matter this year.

CTP012 on Additional Tier 1 instruments issued by banks, 30 July 2026. CTP010 on who counts as a director or an officer, 29 April 2026. CTP009 on the valuation method under the transitional rules.
CTP008 on family wealth management structures.

Downloadctp012-additional-tier-1-instruments.pdf

Downloadctp010-director-and-officer.pdf

Downloadctp009-transitional-rules-valuation.pdf

Downloadctp008-family-wealth-structures.pdf

The FTA also published a consolidated summary of the positions it has taken in private clarifications up to May 2026, on 9 July 2026.

Downloadct-private-clarifications-summary-may-2026.pdf

What it means for your business. CTP010 is the one most businesses should read. Director and officer status affects related party treatment and remuneration.

Family foundations

CTGFF1, the FTA guide on the taxation of family foundations, 10 June 2026.

Downloadctgff1-family-foundations.pdf

Free zones

FTA Decision No. 6 of 2026, issued 2 June 2026, effective for tax periods starting on or after 1 January 2026.

Downloadfta-decision-6-2026-qfzp-distribution.pdf

A Qualifying Free Zone Person that relies on distributing goods or materials in or from a Designated Zone must now meet additional compliance procedures.

Ministerial Decision No. 229 of 2025 sets the qualifying and excluded activities and repealed Ministerial Decision No. 265 of 2023. Ministerial Decision No. 84 of 2025 sets the audited financial statements requirement for a QFZP.

Downloadministerial-decision-229-2025-qualifying-activities.pdf

Downloadministerial-decision-84-2025-audited-financials.pdf

What it means for your business. If you are a free zone distributor, your compliance burden went up this year. Free zone status is no longer a matter of where you are licensed. It has to be evidenced annually.

Top-up Tax

Ministerial Decision No. 96 of 2026, issued 22 June 2026, adopts the OECD consolidated commentary and administrative guidance.

Downloadministerial-decision-96-2026-oecd-commentary.pdf

Two FTA guides followed on 26 August 2026. TTGREG1 on scope and registration, and TTGEIE1 on excluded entities and investment entities.

Downloadttgreg1-top-up-tax-scope-registration.pdf

Downloadttgeie1-excluded-entities.pdf

What it means for your business. In scope if your group's consolidated revenue reached EUR 750 million in at least two of the four preceding financial years. Register by 30 November 2026. Below that threshold, none of it applies.

VAT

The five Directives on Tax Transactions

A new instrument. The FTA began issuing these in July 2026.

No. 1, judicial expert services, 10 July.
No. 2, adjustments after leaving a tax group, 10 July.
No. 3, converting digital currency into dirhams, 17 July.
No. 4, fees inside life insurance contracts, 17 July.
No. 5, valuing deemed supplies of services, 20 July.

Downloaddirective-1-2026-judicial-expert-services.pdf

Downloaddirective-2-2026-tax-group-exit-adjustments.pdf

Downloaddirective-3-2026-digital-currency-conversion.pdf

Downloaddirective-4-2026-life-insurance-fees.pdf

Downloaddirective-5-2026-deemed-supplies-value.pdf

What it means for your business. Each Directive is narrow. Directive No. 3 is the one with the widest reach. If you take payment in digital currency you must now pick three exchange platforms from the FTA's published list and use the same three for the whole calendar year.

Verifying your suppliers

FTA Decision No. 13 of 2026, issued 22 July 2026, effective 1 October 2026.

Downloadfta-decision-13-2026-verification-of-supplies.pdf

What it means for your business. This is the enforcement side of the January 2026 VAT amendment allowing the FTA to deny input tax where a supply is part of a tax evasion arrangement. From October you are expected to have checked your suppliers. Put the check in your purchase ledger process now.

Public clarifications and guides

VATP045 on concerned goods, 26 August 2026. It applies only to goods imported on or before 31 December 2025, because the self invoicing requirement was removed from 1 January 2026.

VATGED1 on the education sector, 29 June 2026.
VATGRH1 on VAT refunds for UAE nationals building a new home, 10 April 2026. VATGPM1 on the profit margin scheme, 5 January 2026.

Downloadvatp045-concerned-goods.pdf

Downloadvatged1-education-sector.pdf

Downloadvatgrh1-new-residences-refund.pdf

Downloadvatgpm1-profit-margin-scheme.pdf

Excise

Cabinet Decision No. 137 of 2026, 24 July 2026, sets new excise prices for tobacco products and for liquids used in electronic smoking devices.

Downloadcabinet-decision-137-2026-excise-price-tobacco.pdf

The excise taxable person guides ETGTP1 and ETGTP2 were reissued in January and February 2026. EXTP014 and EXTP011 on natural losses and shortages in excise goods were issued on 16 March 2026. EXTP012 covers the move to a tiered volumetric model for sweetened drinks.

Downloadetgtp1-excise-taxable-person.pdf

Downloadetgtp2-excise-goods.pdf

Downloadextp012-sweetened-drinks-volumetric.pdf

What it means for your business. If you deal in tobacco, vaping products or sweetened drinks, both your price base and your calculation method changed this year.

Procedures and records

FTA Decision No. 4 of 2026, 2 June 2026, on the rules for maintaining records. FTA Decision No. 7 of 2026, 11 June 2026, on disposal of seized and abandoned goods.
TPGPC1, 15 July 2026, the guide to private clarifications.
FTA Decision No. 5 of 2021 as amended, 23 February 2026, setting out how the FTA issues clarifications and directives.
Cabinet Decision No. 74 of 2023 as amended, republished 1 April 2026.

Downloadfta-decision-4-2026-record-keeping.pdf

Downloadtpgpc1-private-clarifications-guide.pdf

Downloadcabinet-decision-74-2023-consolidated.pdf

What it means for your business. FTA Decision No. 5 of 2021 as amended is worth ten minutes of anyone's time. It tells you which FTA publications bind you and which are guidance you cannot rely on.

The pattern for 2026

Three things stand out across the year.

1. The FTA moved from writing rules to policing them. Supplier verification, the QFZP distribution procedures and the record keeping decision all put work on the taxpayer to prove a position rather than assert it.
2. Free zone status now has to be evidenced every year. It is no longer settled by your licence.
3. E-invoicing turns invoicing into a reporting channel. From January 2027 the FTA sees the tax data as the invoice moves.

What we do with this

We track every FTA and Ministry release, hold the official text, and tell clients which ones reach them. If you would rather not read 46 documents a year, send us your TRN and we will tell you which of them apply to you.