The UAE Federal Tax Authority (FTA) has published its 2025 annual report. Combined VAT and excise revenues rose 15% to AED 46 billion, versus AED 41 billion a year earlier. During the first full year of the 9% corporate tax, FTA processed more than 245,000 registration applications, while the number of audits jumped 46%.
What happened
In mid-June 2026 the FTA released its 2025 annual report. The headline figure is AED 46 billion in combined VAT and excise revenues, up from AED 41 billion in 2024 — a 15% year-on-year increase, or roughly $12.53 billion.
Tax rates did not move: VAT remains 5% and excise rates on tobacco, energy drinks and sweetened beverages are unchanged. The growth came from a wider tax base and stronger enforcement. As Mohamed bin Hadi Al Hussaini, UAE Minister of State for Financial Affairs, put it: «The growth in tax revenues reflects the strength of the UAE's fiscal approach and its ability to maintain stable government resources that support economic and development priorities».
Corporate tax: the first full year
2025 was the first full year of the 9% corporate tax that took effect on 1 January 2025. In that period FTA processed more than 245,000 corporate tax registration applications. Separately, it handled 98,000 VAT registrations and 206 excise registrations. Total Tax Registration Department transactions reached 1.7 million — up 20% on 2024.
The message to founders: onboarding is no longer the bottleneck; the procedure is standardised inside EmaraTax. The real risk sits further along — defining the taxable base and Qualifying Free Zone Person status correctly. A deeper walk-through of who exactly pays and on which slice of profit is in the companion piece «9% UAE corporate tax: who pays and on what profit».
Audits step up: +46%
The most consequential shift in 2025 was on the enforcement side, not the collection side. The number of tax audits performed rose 46% versus 2024. On FTA's own estimate, tougher audit added more than $1 billion to the budget. Alongside this, the authority carried out 175,500 field inspection visits.
The signal to business is clear: the FTA is shifting from «register everyone» to «check everyone who is registered». The authority is leaning on AI and data analytics to pick audit targets — matching VAT and corporate tax filings against EmaraTax activity and customs flows. Audits arrive on the back of concrete discrepancies, not at random.
EmaraTax as the primary channel
The EmaraTax digital platform is now the main interaction channel. Over the year FTA sent more than 65 million SMS and email notifications through it, logged 625,000 support-channel transactions (+12% YoY) and recorded 21,000+ visits to service centres (+10% YoY). The FTA website drew 2.6 million unique visitors. User satisfaction climbed to 93%, up 1.5 percentage points on 2024.
Refunds are a distinct workstream: 1.7 million tourist VAT refund requests and more than 7,000 new-home VAT refund claims were processed — a mechanism that matters equally to private real-estate investors and developers.
Excise enforcement: 29.5 million packs seized
For the first time the report puts detailed numbers on the anti-contraband effort. During 2025, FTA seized 29.5 million packs of non-compliant tobacco and 7.6 million units of other non-compliant excise goods. These are FTA's own figures from joint field inspections with customs. For compliant manufacturers and importers this is effectively a market clean-up against illegal competition; for anyone entering the Emirates with an excise-sensitive category, it signals that the control loop is working.
Next steps: e-invoicing and AI-driven audit
The FTA points to two vectors for 2026–2027. First, scaling e-invoicing — the pilot is already running, with mandatory adoption for larger businesses scheduled for 2027. Second, deeper AI analytics for risk-based audit selection. Together these mean the UAE tax stack is moving toward «transparent real-time flows plus targeted audit on signals». The practical prep step for a business is to migrate accounting to e-invoicing-compatible formats — see «E-invoicing in the UAE: timeline, formats and how to prepare».
What this means for business
Three practical takeaways for companies operating in or entering the UAE:
1. Registration is an entry point, not a barrier. 245,000 new corporate tax registrations in one year show the procedure is standardised inside EmaraTax. It costs less time and effort than many founders assume.
2. Primary bookkeeping becomes a compliance asset. With audits up 46%, the quality of contracts, invoices, bank records and the Qualifying vs Taxable income split becomes decisive. Companies that under-invested in accounting will face uncomfortable audits in 2026–2027.
3. The unified digital channel is now the norm. A 93% satisfaction score and 65 million EmaraTax notifications mean every touchpoint with FTA runs through the portal. Businesses without a systematic EmaraTax workflow — from filings to responding to queries — lose time and risk missing notices.
In short: 2025 cemented the UAE tax system as mature and digital, while 2026 is shaping up as the year of enforcement — with e-invoicing and AI-driven audit at the centre.
