VerasolDocs
العربية Open Verasol

Small Business Relief

See whether the year can use Small Business Relief, elect it or revoke it, and how it changes the year's corporate tax return. Verasol checks the revenue from your books.

For Verasol 2.12·5 min read

Small Business Relief lets a small business be treated as having no taxable income for a tax period, if it elects it. It is available for tax periods that end on or before 31 December 2029. In Verasol you elect it for a year on the Small Business Relief screen, and the year's return then shows no tax. Whether to elect is a decision for your company and its tax adviser: Verasol checks the conditions it can see in your books and keeps a record of your election.

Check the year#

On the corporate tax dashboard, click Small Business Relief under Quick Actions. The screen opens on the year being filed: the earliest year whose tax period has ended and whose return is not filed yet. When there is none, it opens on the financial year running today. The year is named in the title.

The Small Business Relief screen: the year's revenue against the threshold
  • 1 The year the screen works on, here FY 2026.
  • 2 Your Revenue: the income of the tax period in your books, with a bar up to the Threshold of AED 3,000,000.
  • 3 Eligible or Not Eligible. Below it, a note gives the reason when an earlier year's revenue was above the threshold, when the year ends after 31 December 2029, or when the company is a Qualifying Free Zone Person for the year (with a link to the QFZP Assessment).
  • 4 About SBR summarises the relief: the threshold, the tax periods it covers, who cannot use it, the benefit, that the election is made for each tax period, that a tax loss or net interest expenditure of a year with the relief is not carried forward, and the references: Article 21 of the Corporate Tax Law and Ministerial Decision No. 73 of 2023, as amended by Ministerial Decision No. 131 of 2026.
  • 5 Financial Year switches to another year, when there is more than one. The year being filed is marked "being filed".

In the picture, FY 2026 is Not Eligible: its revenue is above AED 3,000,000, and so was the revenue of FY 2025.

Verasol marks a year Eligible when all of these hold:

  • the revenue of the tax period is at most AED 3,000,000;
  • the tax period ends on or before 31 December 2029 (Ministerial Decision No. 73 of 2023, as amended by Ministerial Decision No. 131 of 2026);
  • the revenue of every earlier tax period was at most AED 3,000,000, in the books or on a filed or opening return;
  • the company is not a Qualifying Free Zone Person for the year: its QFZP assessment for the year does not qualify, or there is none.

A Qualifying Free Zone Person and a member of a multinational enterprise group cannot use the relief (Ministerial Decision No. 73 of 2023, Article 3). About SBR names both under Exclusions. Verasol checks the free zone status from the year's QFZP assessment. It cannot see in your books whether the company belongs to a multinational enterprise group: check that with your tax adviser before you elect.

For revenue, Verasol takes all income posted to your income accounts in the tax period. What counts as revenue for the relief is a question for your tax adviser.

The Small Business Relief box on the dashboard shows the same check for the financial year running today, with the revenue and the threshold.

Elect the relief#

  1. When the year is Eligible, click Elect Small Business Relief and confirm.
  2. Verasol shows SBR Elected, with the date of the election and the year's corporate tax of AED 0.
  3. If the year's return was Calculated or Reviewed, it goes back to Draft. Open it and click Calculate.

The button appears only while the year is Eligible, not yet elected, and its return is not filed. When the year's return has been filed, the screen says so: the relief changes the tax that was filed, so reopen the return first, then elect, calculate and file it again. See Correct a filed return.

Revoke the election#

Click Revoke Election and confirm. The year is taxed at the normal rates again. The same rules apply as for electing: a calculated return goes back to Draft, and a filed return has to be reopened first.

Election History lists the years for which the relief was elected, with the Election Date, the status Active or Revoked and the Revoked Date. A year that was never elected is not listed.

What the relief does to the return#

The Small Business Relief box on the year's return shows Elected - 0% Tax or Not Elected, with the revenue.

The Small Business Relief box on the return

With the relief elected:

  • the taxable income is AED 0, and so is the tax;
  • the return uses no losses of earlier years;
  • a loss of the year is not carried forward.