Small Business Relief in UAE Corporate Tax: Who Qualifies in 2026

All of the following, per Ministerial Decision No. 73 of 2023 under Federal Decree-Law No. 47 of 2022:

Resident person — UAE-incorporated entities and resident natural persons conducting business. Non-residents are excluded.

Revenue at or below AED 3 million in the current tax period and every prior tax period. Cross the threshold once and SBR is gone for that period and all later ones, even if revenue falls again.

Not a Qualifying Free Zone Person. A QFZP claiming the 0% free zone rate cannot also claim SBR /tax/guides/free-zone-corporate-tax-qualifying-income →.

Not a member of a multinational enterprise group with consolidated global revenue above AED 3.15 billion.

Tax period ends on or before 31 December 2026. The relief is transitional; absent an extension, periods ending after that date get no SBR.

Check your position in 60 seconds /tax/tools/small-business-relief-checker →.

For an electing period, the business is treated as having no taxable income: no 9% tax, and simplified compliance including relief from full transfer pricing documentation. Revenue — not profit — is the test. A business with AED 2.8 million revenue and AED 1 million profit qualifies; a business with AED 3.2 million revenue and AED 100,000 profit does not.

It does not remove registration /tax/trn-registration →, does not remove the filing obligation (the return is where you elect), and it suspends the use and accrual of certain benefits — tax losses and net interest expenditure from an SBR period cannot be carried forward.

That trade-off matters: a loss-making startup expecting profits later may be better off not electing, filing the loss, and carrying it forward against up to 75% of future taxable income.

The election is made inside the corporate tax return on EmaraTax for each period. It is not automatic and not retroactive — forget the election and the standard rules apply to that period. This is the single most common first-return mistake we see.