24 July 2026 · Article 56
The 7-Year Corporate-Tax Rule (Article 56)
Article 56 of Federal Decree-Law No. 47 of 2022 requires every taxable person, and every exempt person, to maintain all records and documents that support the information in their corporate-tax return for at least 7 years after the end of the relevant tax period. The purpose is to let the FTA readily verify taxable income, so the records must be complete, accurate and genuinely available throughout that period, not just theoretically stored somewhere. The duty survives filing the return, survives deregistration, and survives closing the company entirely, so discarding records early because a business has stopped trading is a common and costly mistake. Where records behind a return go missing, the consequence is not limited to the missing document itself: the deductions or positions it supported can be disallowed, penalties can be added, and the FTA can assess based on its own best judgement of the figures.
Exiloz Management & Tax Consultant · Dubai-based FTA-focused advisory · VAT, corporate tax & accounting
What Article 56 says
Article 56 is a clear, single duty: keep the records that support your corporate-tax return for at least seven years after the tax period ends, so the FTA can verify your taxable income without relying on your word alone. It applies to the full range of supporting documents, not just the return form itself, and it makes no distinction between a large group and a small owner-managed company on the basic obligation. Both file the same return, and both carry the same seven-year duty behind it.
- Keep all records and documents supporting the corporate-tax return, not just the return itself.
- The period runs for at least 7 years after the end of the relevant tax period.
- Applies to taxable persons and exempt persons on identical terms.
- Records must let the FTA readily verify taxable income, which means they must be genuinely retrievable.
- The obligation is set in law, not in FTA guidance, so it cannot be shortened by internal company policy.
What it means for you
The practical reading of Article 56 is that nothing gets discarded early, even where it feels safe to do so. Filing the return does not close the file; deregistering the business does not close the file; even winding the company up entirely does not close the file, because the seven-year clock keeps running against whoever is responsible for the old records. Businesses that treat filing as the finish line are the ones most likely to find a gap when an audit eventually reaches back into an earlier year.
- Retain records even after the return for that period has been filed and accepted.
- Retain records even after deregistration from corporate tax.
- Retain records even after the company itself has been dissolved or struck off.
- Keep the full supporting set together, not just the summary figures.
- Store records so they remain genuinely retrievable, not merely archived somewhere untested.
What happens when records are missing
Article 56 does not just create a paperwork duty; it shapes what happens if the FTA cannot verify a figure. A worked case makes the risk concrete: a company files its FY2024 return in September 2025, and under Article 56 every record behind that return needs to survive until at least the end of 2031. If an audit opens in 2030 and the 2024 purchase invoices are gone because an old accounting system was decommissioned, the deductions those invoices supported can be disallowed and penalties added on top, even though the underlying purchases genuinely happened. The absence of the record, not the transaction itself, becomes the problem the FTA acts on.
- A missing record can lead to a supported deduction or position being disallowed on assessment.
- Administrative penalties can apply in addition to any tax reassessed as a result.
- The FTA can assess based on its own best judgement where the records to verify a figure are not available.
- Losing records in a software migration is one of the most common ways this risk becomes real.
Related guides
Frequently Asked Questions
For businesses meeting the Article 56 duty, or checking whether an earlier tax period is still exposed.
What does Article 56 require?
Keeping all records and documents supporting your corporate-tax return for at least 7 years after the end of the relevant tax period, so the FTA can readily verify your taxable income at any point within that window.
Does it apply after I deregister?
Yes. The retention obligation survives deregistration and company closure. Whoever was responsible for the records at the time the business operated remains on the hook for keeping them through the full seven-year period.
Does it apply to exempt persons?
Yes. Exempt persons must keep records to show they meet the exemption conditions, on exactly the same seven-year basis as a taxable person, because the exemption itself is a status the FTA can ask you to prove.
What happens if records are missing during an audit?
The FTA can disallow the deduction or position the missing record was supposed to support, add penalties on top, and assess the period based on its own best judgement rather than your figures, so a gap can end up costing far more than the document was worth.
Is Article 56 the same law that governs VAT retention?
No. Article 56 sits in Federal Decree-Law No. 47 of 2022, the corporate-tax law. VAT and general tax-procedure retention, including the 5-year and 15-year periods, sit in a separate framework under the Tax Procedures Law and its Executive Regulation.
Does filing the return early shorten the seven years?
No. The clock runs from the end of the tax period the return covers, not from the date you actually filed, so filing early has no effect on when the retention obligation ends.
Why does Article 56 cover exempt persons at all if they pay no tax?
Because exemption is a status, not an automatic default. The FTA has to be able to check that a business genuinely meets the conditions for the exemption it is relying on, and the only way to do that after the fact is through the same records a taxable person would keep, so the law applies the duty to both equally.
Can Exiloz ensure compliance?
Yes. We keep your corporate-tax records for the full Article 56 period, including after deregistration or closure where the duty still applies, so an audit years later finds a complete file rather than a gap.
Meet the Article 56 duty
Exiloz keeps your corporate-tax records intact for the full seven-year Article 56 period, including after deregistration or closure, so a later audit never finds a gap where a supporting document should be.