Voluntary Disclosure Filing Service in the UAE

Our voluntary disclosure service handles the full journey from the moment you discover a tax error to the filed, paid, and documented correction. We start with a structured discovery review: pinning down what went wrong, which taxes and periods are affected, and dating the awareness that starts your 20-business-day clock under Article 10 of Federal Decree-Law No. 28 of 2022. From there we build the quantification — original versus corrected figures per period, reconciled to your books and bank records — and assemble the evidence file the FTA expects: the discovery memo, the reconciliation, source documents, and the control fix that prevents recurrence. We then prepare and file the voluntary disclosure in EmaraTax, verify every field before submission, and manage the payment so the 14% per annum late-payment accrual stops on filing day. After filing, we handle any FTA verification queries from the disclosure file and confirm the matter is closed with the reference documented. The service covers VAT, corporate tax, and excise disclosures, including multi-period sweeps, group corrections, and refund-direction cases where the error went in the FTA's favour. Contact us for a quote tailored to your business — the fee depends on the error's complexity and the periods involved, never on a guess made before we have seen your records.

We run every voluntary disclosure on the same disciplined timetable, because the 20-business-day window rewards preparation and punishes drift. Day one is the discovery memo: a dated paragraph recording what was found, how, and by whom — this is the document that proves when your clock started. Days one to ten are quantification: we rebuild the affected periods from your ledgers, bank statements, and source documents, producing a reconciliation a stranger could re-perform. Before filing, a second pair of eyes reviews the form entries against the reconciliation — the wrong taxable person, a transposed figure, or a missing period are the avoidable failures we check for. By day fifteen we file in EmaraTax with the complete evidence attached, and we arrange payment the same day so the late-payment penalties stop accruing. The final step is the file itself: discovery memo, workings, sources, submission reference, and payment proof, retained for five years under Article 3 of Cabinet Decision No. 74 of 2023, or seven years for corporate tax records under Article 56 of Federal Decree-Law No. 47 of 2022. Where the FTA raises verification queries, we answer from the file within days. The process is the same whether the error is a single misclassified invoice or a multi-year restatement — only the quantification scales.

You need a voluntary disclosure whenever you become aware that a filed tax return, assessment, or refund claim was wrong — that is the Article 10 duty, and it applies to every registrant. The typical triggers we see: VAT return errors (misapplied rates, missed zero-rating, input VAT claimed without valid invoices, output VAT underreported), corporate tax computations that drifted from the financial statements or missed deductions and reliefs, excise declarations with wrong classifications or rates, late registration discovered months after the threshold was crossed, and unreported income found in a bank reconciliation. Businesses also come to us after a new accountant's first review, after an internal audit, after a customer queries an invoice, or after the FTA's data matching prompts an uncomfortable question. If an audit notice has already arrived for the period, the voluntary route is closed for it — but errors in other periods can still be disclosed, and we will tell you honestly where the line falls. When in doubt, the discovery review is the right first step: a short, fixed-scope exercise that tells you whether there is anything to disclose at all.

The penalty arithmetic is the reason to disclose promptly. A timely voluntary disclosure — filed within 20 business days of awareness — means you pay the corrected tax plus the 1% monthly voluntary disclosure penalty from each period's original due date to the filing date, and the 14% per annum late-payment penalty only if the tax is unpaid 20 business days after filing. Miss the window and the 1% monthly voluntary disclosure penalty keeps running until you file; wait until the FTA notifies an audit and a fixed 15% of the tax difference is added on top (Cabinet Decision No. 40 of 2017 as amended; No. 75 of 2023 for corporate tax). The distinction that matters most: the voluntary disclosure clock is 20 business days from becoming aware of the error, while reconsideration — the remedy for challenging an FTA decision you disagree with — runs 40 business days from notification under Article 29. They are different remedies with different clocks, and confusing them is one of the costliest mistakes a business can make. Our penalty mitigation strategy is built into every filing: complete quantification (partial disclosures invite wider scrutiny), the cooperation narrative documented in the file (self-discovery, immediate action, control fix), and payment on filing day to stop the accrual. Contact us for a quote tailored to your business — the strategy session that maps your penalty position is part of the engagement.

You can file a simple voluntary disclosure yourself in EmaraTax, and for a single-period correction with clean workings that is often the right call. A tax agent earns the fee where the stakes or the complexity rise: multi-period sweeps where the error repeats across years, group corrections spanning entities, transfer pricing and related-party adjustments, refund-direction disclosures that face verification-level scrutiny, and any case where the correct treatment is genuinely uncertain. The agent's value is in the methodology — a quantification the FTA can re-perform without queries — and in the filing discipline: right entity, right periods, complete attachments, declaration reviewed before submission. As a registered tax agent practice, we also carry the professional responsibility for the filing's accuracy, which is why our files are built to survive verification, not just to submit. Perhaps most importantly, we tell you when there is nothing to disclose: a paid review that concludes your filed position was correct is a good outcome, and we would rather give it than file an unnecessary disclosure.

The 20-business-day clock starts when you become aware of the error — not when you decide what to do about it — so the right time to talk to us is now. Call us on +971 58 541 4616, message us on WhatsApp at wa.me/971585414616, email info@taxadvisors.ae, or send a message through our contact page and we will arrange a confidential discussion of your situation. Bring whatever you have: the return or computation you are worried about, the document or review that surfaced the concern, and your questions. We will tell you plainly whether a disclosure is needed, what it would involve, and what it would cost — contact us for a quote tailored to your business, because no honest fee can be set before we have seen the scope. If the matter is urgent — an audit notice received, a deadline days away — say so in your first message and we will prioritise accordingly. Every discussion is confidential, and the discovery review that follows is fixed in scope before it starts.